2023: Female presidential aspirant emerges in PDP as Adesanya-Davies declares to contest -By Constance Ogban

Presidential candidate of Mass Action Joint Alliance (MAJA) in the 2019 election, Prof. Funmilayo Adesanya-Davies (PMA) has declared her interest to contest during the 2023 general election for the President of Nigeria on December 8, 2021, on the platform of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP). In a statement on Wednesday, she also urged women to participate actively in the political process at all levels. Adesanya-Davies said, “I will contest! I have a dream, that one day, a woman will emerge as the President of Nigeria, and the dream is now!!!

“We, women shall try our best in 2023 at all levels and this we promise. From now onwards, every woman should endeavour to speak to at least fifty women to vote for a ‘woman President,’ in Nigeria. Tell five women daily from now till 2023 elections. Remember, Martin Luther King Jr. said, ‘Your happiness starts from you and not from someone else.’ So should all the Nigerian youth and all the ‘he for she’ and all the men campaign and vote for the first female president in Nigeria in 2023. This could and would be the only functional approach.”

Adesanya-Davies is the current Country President and International Director of United Nations Positive Livelihood Award Centre (UN-POLAC) International Peace Advocates. She stated that when intelligent, dedicated and women of excellence are empowered and put in top political positions, corruption, lack of development and all forms of vices and violence in their entirety can completely be exhumed from Nigeria.”

“As such, towards 2023 elections, we need all hands to be on deck to mobilise all women in the country from the state level to the grassroots, educated, illiterate, northerners and southerners, Christians and Muslims to vote for ‘a women president,’ and also vote for women at all levels. Though the educated women who realise this are fewer they should drive their non-educated women in the larger community in the grassroots to achieve this goal and vision.

According to the statement, she said women have pledged to support female candidates in 2023. She stated that on November 27, 2021; women rose from a 2-day conference in Abuja with a resolution to support female candidates vying for political offices and stop waiting for men to help them get elected.

Adesanya-Davies, “The women, drawn from the academia, political, civil society, media and security sectors, agreed to support fellow women even as they called on women across the country to register to vote in the 2023 general election. They also encouraged women to contribute money to support female candidates and stop depending on men to fund their campaign.”

“The women said that until more women are put in decision-making positions, issues affecting them will continue to be on the back burners. While welcoming participants to the conference, the Country Director, ActionAid Nigeria, Ene Obi said the conference with the theme: ‘Women, peace and society,’ was an opportunity for a “deeper reflection on gender perspective of the rising insecurity which threatens, not just our national unity, but our individual and collective peace.

“We continue to see conflicts fought on women’s bodies. We have seen women used as weapons and targets of violence. The disproportionate impact of insecurity on women and girls – children cannot be ignored. We therefore must act as fast as possible to stop this expanding insecurity in Nigeria. Acting requires Nigeria to operationalise, in all regions of the country, the provisions of the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325, which enjoins all states to facilitate women’s participation and leadership in peace and security, and which Nigeria committed herself to.

“Acting requires Nigeria, not to be doing this in piecemeal, but to be holistic in her response. This implies ensuring that all states are prepared to domesticate and implement the action plans. “Therefore, the time to act is now. There is no better time than now to enthrone peace. And without women and girls sitting on the table and being part of the peace processes, there will be no advancement in peace and security in the nation.”

The statement also quoted the Acting High Commissioner of Canada in Nigeria, Kevin Tokar, in his contribution, as having argued that gender inequality and lack of respect for women’s rights accounted for growing levels of violence, conflict and instability in Nigeria.

He said: “I am sure all of you here today would agree that finding solutions to these problems will depend on Nigeria’s ability to involve more women in decision-making processes, whether in national or state assemblies, in the policing and justice systems, in community-level peacebuilding and governance, and in the highest levels of the business world.

It could be recalled that the Emir of Keffi, Alhaji Shehu Yamusa III, on 16th. September 2021, called on Nigerian women to show interest in the Presidency, to succeed the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), in 2023.

The Emir was quoted to have said that it would not be impossible for a Nigerian woman to succeed Buhari. He said, “Nigerians, regardless of their ethnicity or political affiliations, must separate cultural sentiments from politics for the best leaders to emerge in the country.”

The monarch, who is also the Chancellor of Nasarawa State University, was reportedly to have made this statement when members of the National Democratic Institute International Working Group for Supporting the Advancement of Gender Equality programme, visited him in his palace. Among the team was the first female President of the Republic of Kosovo and leader of NDI’s SAGE delegation, Ms. Atifete Jahjaga.

The Emir further said, “Most importantly, I will like to draw the attention of the entire nation to the fact that culture and politics are two different things. We often mistake the two for each other, and that is why most women can’t come out to contest for elective positions. But they are part of us, and we must carry them along. Going by their performances in our various houses, I think we should give them a chance in the next general elections.”

“If women can manage families, they can manage the country.” He, therefore, stressed the need for all political actors to respect the role of women in the struggle for power as ‘we all have something of value to offer’. The traditional ruler further stated that women could provide the kind of leadership that Nigeria needs by supporting each other to win elections in 2023, and ensuring proper management and equitable distribution of the country’s resources.”