2023: APC Women Intensify Lobby For 108 Reps Seats

Barely 24 hours after it demanded gender parity in party administration and control, women in the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) have intensified lobby to get at least 108 members in the House of Representatives ahead of the 2023 general election.
There are, at present, 11 women in the 360-member House of Representatives, but the women representative in the party’s Caretaker Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC), Stella Okotete, said the women are working towards having a platform that would produce at least three women federal representatives in each state in 2023.
Consequently, the APC women wing has inaugurated a lobby group to parley with party leaders and male politicians across the country.
Some of the female politicians, who attended the strategic meeting held, yesterday at the APC National Secretariat in Abuja, included a former Senator, Khairat Abdulrasak Gwadabe, Chairman, House Committee on INEC, Hon. Aisha Dukku, Hon. Iquo Inyang and the Iyaloja of Abuja, Chief Mrs Toyin Badmus, among others.
On Wednesday, the women had demanded the adoption of Option A4 in picking flag bearers of the party in various elections, saying it was the only way to ensure gender mainstreaming in Nigeria’s political space.
The Minister of Women Affairs, Dame Pauline Tallen, who made the demand shortly after presenting a shopping list to the Prof. Tahir Mamman, Constitution Review Committee of the party, also demanded a 50 per cent representation for women across all elective positions in the party, saying it is not fair to have only one woman among administrators of the party.
However, speaking after yesterday’s meeting, Okotete said; “In some countries, a certain percentage of the capital budget is allocated to women-owned enterprises, women-owned business promoters. If this is adopted as the ruling party, in government, I can assure you that what we are planning for 2023, the 108 positions minimum in the House of Representatives will be achieved.”