Igbaugba Ehigimetor
Mrs Maryann Shaibu, wife of the Deputy Governor of Edo, has called on women not to vote for any member of the current National Assembly (NASS) seeking re-election in 2023 for rejecting pro-women bills.
Shaibu made the call on Tuesday in Benin while speaking at an event to mark this year’s International Women’s Day (IWD).
She expressed regrets that members of the NASS rejected bills that were meant to enhance women participation in politics.
She noted that with the rejection, women progression in political activities has been taking back by 20 years.
The wife of Edo Deputy Governor stressed that it was particularly painful at a time when other nations were encouraging more women participation in politics and enacting laws to encourage them.
“If our senators could say no to five bills concerning women and we are the ones voting for them, it is a shame.
“I call on women not to vote for any sitting senator unless they turn around and work on those bills. We will say no on election day except they do the needful.
“Please don’t mind the gift they will bring to you, we must stand firm together and say no, don’t vote for them.
“We can’t continue to sit and watch them do what they like to us, it is not about talking, it is about action,” she admonished.
Shaibu called on Edo women to set the pace in the upcoming election and prepare to run for seats in the House of Assembly which, she said, was currently dominated by men.
She called on women groups in the state to start preparing to deploy what she described as “our best hands and to rally round them for assembly seats“.
“We can no longer have a male dominated House of Assembly. Let us leave petty grievances behind, let us begin to build capacity from the grassroots as ladders to help one another to climb to the top.
“Let us stop bringing ourselves down. Let us begin to see one woman get there, irrespective of her ethnicity. This way we will not only right the wrongs but we will show to our girls that the future of their dreams is in their collective choices,” she said. (NAN)
