2023: As Nigerian Women Settle for Yahaya Bello …
By Nafisat Bello
“In politics, if you want anything said, ask a man. If you want anything done, ask a woman”
– Margaret Thatcher
One interesting thing about the polling unit is that it is a leveller. It’s one of the few places where a pauper equals a billionaire and any woman equals any man.
The list of complex challenges the country is facing require that we go for a vibrant, young leader with a brave heart. A tried and tested public servant who is ready to confront those issues that have held the country back for years. A leader who matches words with action and understands the needs of his people.
Looking back at how Kogi state was before Bello ascended the throne and how the state is today, one would agree that a lot of concerted efforts have been made to move the state forward. For the governor to be able to turn things around in a once-moribund state speaks volumes about his capacity and his style of governance, which I believe should be replicated at the federal level.
This is why not only the men are allowed to support and vote in leaders, women’s voices need to be heard as well, as they also have equal rights just as the saying goes, ‘WOMEN ARE THE MOTHERS OF THE NATION.’ When women sneeze, the world shivers…. Organized women groups are now rallying support for a Yahaya Bello presidency.
This was witnessed recently when women across different sectors gathered at the Department of Arts and Culture Exhibition Pavilion in Abuja, displaying different placards in support of Bello’s Presidential bid.
The groups which include CSOs, professional actors, market women, as well as entrepreneurs, coming from different parts of the country, praised and pledged their support for Bello.
The women, under the umbrella of Women United for Yahaya Bello (WUYABEL), described the governor as the solution to Nigeria’s challenges.
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The former National President of the National Association of Women Journalists, Ifeyinwa Omowole, argued that the coming general elections will be determined by women. She said they will moblise other women to drum up support for Bello to run for the presidency and win. She also assured the governor that the Nigerian women would give him at least 25 million votes.
The South-west leader of Nigerian market women, Nike Akinboye, and her team, were also there to support the Bello crusade.
Also, the National Association of Women Entrepreneurs’ president, Vera Ndanusa, said the diversity of the women marching for Bello is a testimony to his popularity among them and evidence to the fact that “empower a woman, and reap the benefits many times over.”
Prior to this, governor Yahaya Bello has always had the interest of the women and children at heart. His gender-friendly policies are unprecedented in the political history of Nigeria. He set out a standard for a race on how best to run an administration of inclusion that not only recognizes the role of women in politics beyond just being mobilizers of voters for male politicians, but also offering them high-visibility offices, such that they could play an active role in shaping and implementing policies for a balanced and solid development of the state.
It is also in his policy that women should not be neglected, rather he always advocated for equity as far as their remuneration and welfare package are concerned.
Due to Bello’s advocacy and insistence, a lot of women emerged as vice-chairmen across all the 21 LGAs of Kogi in the last local government elections. Some women were also elected as councillors in each of the state’s LGAs.
By giving such opportunity and rights to the women, the youths were not left out as there were plans for them as well. He went ahead to encourage, support and strengthen girl-child education in the state. Empowering the girl-child and catching them young, is one policy he believes is of outmost importance.
“It would be unwise and unprogressive, not to give the womenfolk a generous and clearly spelt out roles in the noble task of sculpting a fairly-balanced, male-female chemistry in the art of redefining the place of gender in the politics of inclusion and nation building,” the governor said in one of his landmark speeches.
Based on what he says and does, one can only imagine the extent President Yahaya Bello would go to elevate the status and standard of women in the country, if that dream comes to pass.
