Abure faction of LP pledges more opportunities for women in 2027 elections 

By Perpetua Onuegbu

The Julius Abure faction of Labour Party has promised to give women more opportunities to participate in the 2027 general elections.

Leader of the faction, Julius Abure, made the pledge in Abuja on Thursday at a news conference by Aju Morgan Elumelu Foundation (AMEF) on women representation and empowerment.

Abure identified leadership as a major challenge confronting the country, urging women to, therefore, collaborate to take over leadership positions in the country.

According to him, Labour Party has taken the lead in appointing women in political leadership positions by  deliberately creating opportunities for them to participate.

He said that their participation was not just in the affairs of the party, but in running for offices, stressing that the 2027 general elections would not be different.

“I want to assure you that by 2027, God sparing our lives, under our leadership, we’ll provide more opportunities for women. We appreciate the fact that culturally, economically, financially, there are several inhibitions against women’s participation.

“I want to assure you that Labour Party is ready and determined to break those challenges that will encourage women to participate,” he said.

Also speaking, the Chief Executive Officer of AMEF, Aju Elumelu, decried low women representation in leadership positions in the country.

Elumelu appealed to President Bola Tinubu and other stakeholders to ensure 35 per cent women’s representation in leadership positions as well as empowerment.

“The goal here is to have women in leadership, elective and appointed positions, not just in politics but across board.

“We’re not here to get mad or agitated but I’m asking you, President Bola Tinubu, to help us.

“We don’t have gloves to fight. We’re just asking you guys to think about us; everyone needs to be involved because we only have a measly percentage,” she said.

The National Women Leader of Labour Party, Dudu Manuga, noted that space for women in leadership, governance and politics had been shrinking over the years.

Manuga called for passage of the bill for special seats for women to enhance their involvement in leadership positions.

“I have never seen this kind of efforts, coming together to see that we have more women in the legislature.

“So I think if we can have that bill passed and we continue with the aggressive advocacy and mobilisation, we’ll get it right this time around,” she said.

Manuga, however, called for collaboration of women at all levels of government to ensure passage of the bill.

“What we now need to do is to encourage women in every state to meet their legislators and discuss with them.

“Let us lobby for this thing so that we get everybody to be on the same page and have it passed but for now, the political parties have a long way to go,” she stated.(NAN)(www.nannews.ng)