By Dare Akogun
Ahead of 2023 general elections, a Non Governmental Organization Brain Builder Youth Development Initiative (BBYDI), has called on voters in Kwara State to prioritize electing female candidates across party lines.
This appeal was contained in a statement signed by the Executive Director, BBYDI, Abideen Olasupo and a copy made available to Sobi FM.
The group, in the data tagged “Is your Political Party giving Her a Space?”, stated that women constituted approximately 15 per cent which represents 60 out of 409 total candidates contesting in 2023 elections across party line in the state.
According to the data “Our investigation showed that 60 out of 409 candidates which is 15% are female with 349 male candidates.
“Allied Peoples Movement (APM) and Zenith Labour Party (ZLP) have the highest number of female candidates which is 10, followed by Action Alliance (AA), Labour Party (LP), Action Democratic Party (ADP); 7 candidates each, All Progressives Congress (APC) (4), African Democracy Congress (ADC) (3), New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) (2), Accord (2), All Peoples Party (2) while People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Social Democratic Party (SDP), National Rescue Movement (NRM) and Young Progressives Party (YPP) have the lowest with one candidate each.
The statement noted that the organisation’s ‘Space For Her Fellowship’ organized earlier 2022 changed the trends of women participation in politics drastically in the state, demanding that women should given all the support they need to participate and win elections.
“BBYDI has reshaped the trends of women participation in politics drastically in Kwara State through the flagship of her “Space For Her Fellowship” organized earlier this year.
“A breakdown of INEC’s report also showed that about 71 per cent of the newly registered voters across the country are youths. Of the 12.2 million newly registered voters, about 8.7 million are between the ages of 18 and 34 while about 2.4 million are between ages 35 and 49. Those between ages 50 and 69 are about 856, 017 while about 127, 541 are over 70.
“The statistics also showed that more women registered during the latest CVR than men. While 6,224,866 are women, 6,074,078 are men. Therefore, female candidates should be rally round and supported come 2023 to foster inclusiveness.
“Lastly, as the campaign progresses, we expect a violence-free campaign devoid of hate speech and call on the actors to respect the unity of the state and make the campaigns issue biased.”- He further said.
