A women group, the Grassroots Women 4 Atiku/Obi GW4AO, has called on Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to ensure adequate women representation in his government, if elected in February.
The group made the call in a communiqué signed by its National Coordinator, Mrs Amina Jambo, in Abuja on Wednesday, saying that Atiku and his running mate, Mr Peter Obi should sustain the 35 per cent affirmative action for women which PDP was known for.
It decried the representation ratio given to women under the current All Progressives Congress (APC) Federal Governnent and described it as counter-productive towards alleviating plights of women across the country in almost four years now.
“We call on the PDP presidential candidate Waziri Atiku Abubakar not to relegate the place of women to the background when he is finally elected into office.
“It is a known fact that PDP has an age-long tradition of empowering women through key appointments in line with its 35% affirmative action for women since 1999.
“Today, it is very unfortunate that there are not up to five women in the cabinet of President Mohammadu Buhari.
“Also, we cannot count up to 25 women out of 469 members in the current 8th National Assembly.
“We hope this trend will change in the next dispensation and Nigerian women will once again find their voices through PDP government to be led by Atiku Abubakar.
The group also identified women, youths and children as the worst hit category of the Nigerian masses under the present government, calling on the electorate to vote massively for the PDP candidate.
“In all of this, it is the women, youth and children who are worst hit by the effects of APC’s poor governance.
“The sheer numbers of women registered in the IDP camps spread across the country as a result of violence, terrorism and insecurity only goes to show the callous negligence of their responsibility to protect life and property.
“We the Grassroots women and youth of the country have thus decided to make our voices heard in the fight to kick out hunger, killings and violence; the hallmarks of the abysmal APC’s administration.
“We hereby throw our support and weight behind the Atiku/Obi candidacy and urge all Nigerian women and youth to rise up and put an end to the reign of poverty, violence and division as witnessed in this rudderless APC Government,’’ it said.
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