Senate President, Bukola Saraki on Wednesday promised to support women and ensure that a greater number of them are given the opportunity to vie and occupy elective offices during the 2019 general elections. According to a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Sanni Onogu, in Abuja,Saraki made the pledge when the Conference of Nigeria Female Parliamentarians paid him a courtesy visit at the National Assembly.
He lamented that the present statistics of women in governance in the country was not encouraging and said that going into the 2019 elections, something must be done to change the tide. Saraki said: "Anybody in this country today will agree that from the statistics you have given out here today, it is clear that definitely, we are not doing enough in the inclusion of women in politics and governance.
"We must change and turn the tide in this direction. We cannot continue with this low level of participation.“What I want to assure you is that you have my full support and the full support of the National Assembly to see what we can do to ensure that as we go into 2019, it will be a year that we will change the level of participation of women in politics in this country.
"The challenge we have is that such an action is something that must be done collectively. We will champion it but it is something that requires all of us to work very hard for it to happen.“I believe that what we will do is to make it clear that it must happen. It has to happen and it is in the interest of this country for it to happen.
"We want to reassure those that have fears about it that there is noting to worry about. It will only strengthen our democracy and make our country better.“I am convinced that your visit is timely that in this 2019, we must make a difference. We must see a real change in this area,” he said.
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