As Nigeria joined women all over the world, to celebrate International Women’s Day (IWD), the National Women Commission of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has vowed to teach members of the National Assembly that voted against Affirmative Action for women a bitter lesson of their lives.
Already, the NLC women have told their members and their households that do not have Permanent Voters Card (PVC) to make sure that they get it, saying that the 2023 would not be business as usual.
Speaking during the International Women’s Day rally in Abuja, the Chairperson, NLC Women Political Commission, Comrade Salamatu Aliyu, said that what the Nigerian women were asking for was inclusiveness.
She said, “We are going to the street to tell the world that we are not happy (with some members of the National Assembly). Wherever they are, we will sort them out and that is when they will know that khaki is not leather.
“There is the difference between Khaki and leader. Because of the constipation they have caused us, we are going to draw a map for them. The congress has a plan and our demands. He who fits into our demands is the person we are going to vote for.
“So, if you do not have a voter’s card, if there is any member of your family that doesn’t have voter’s card, please make sure they get it because I believe each and every one of us here can cast ten votes in the family, a minimum of ten votes.
“It’s uncalled for that a country that belongs to us is being bastardized right under our nose. It is the woman that loses her husband, her son, her children and grandchildren to the insurgency. What moves have they made to cushion the effects of the insurgency?
“They don’t know insurgency is a problem in Nigeria because their children, their families are abroad. These are the people who want to perpetuate themselves in government. It then means in the next dispensation, Nigeria will be wiped out.
“My position is if there are no followers, will there be leaders? Do you know the worst poverty that can bedevil a human being is the poverty of the brain?If one has the poverty of the brain, the person will not progress, the person will never think out of the box because there is nothing upstairs.
“What we are asking for is inclusiveness but they are scared because they know that God has endowed the women with so many skills; that’s their fear! The fear of taking over! I cannot explain how somebody will throw away the baby with the bad water.
“If your child says he needs five million naira, if it is two hundred naira you have, you give it to pacify him. If you tell him you don’t have, he will go searching for how he will make his money. That is what the National Assembly has done to the women.
“They (women) have requested something, and they (National Assembly members) said that nothing should be given to them. I wish them well. It is a wake-up call for the women; it is a wake-up call for us who stay on the line to vote from morning till night to act.
“Anambra women did it, why can’t we do it also? Without a woman, there will be no nation. It’s uncalled for that a country that belongs to all of us is being bastardized right under our nose.”
Also speaking, the immediate past Chairperson of the National Women Commission of the NLC and Director, Physically Challenged and Impaired Youths in Abia State, Comrade Mercy Okezie, said, “We will continue to fight until our issues are addressed.”
The NLC women leaders marched to the Federal Secretariat from Labour House with placards with different inscriptions.