Various women vying for elections across political parties have been trained on campaign strategies and roadmap to prepare them for the 2023 general elections in country.
Mrs Ngozi Osohor, National General Secretary, League of Women Voters (NILOWV), said in Abuja that the training became necessary to help the women candidates vying for various political posts to emerge victorious.
She said the program was targeted at women seeking to be voted for in the 2023 general elections, adding that the league had a couple of women it had been following up to help shore up their campaign strategies.
She said since the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) opened up the space for electioneering campaign, the group had to identify women who wanted to run for election.
“We have trained them at various stages to make sure they finally get their party tickets and now they have gotten the tickets, so the training is for those who have tickets to run.”
She said the group was concentrating on helping the women to build capacity, especially with the stereotypes which is generally against women, particularly Nigerian women in politics.
Osohor said this was the reason that Nigerian women in politics who were already candidates of their various political parties would not become a push-over.
NILOWV is an organization interested in getting women empowered, get confidence to run for elections, vote and be voted for.
According to Osohor, for a couple of months now “we have been working on the voters themselves; how do we get voters to participate, particularly to vote their choice and not be influenced.
“ActionAid is our lead support, so we believe that after this training they are going to face the election with a different kind of zeal, they know what to expect, they know what to do, they know how to go about it.
“With what we have done, we have seen that women can run this election, they are though, even though, Nigerian political terrain is difficult, they have been prepared for the race.
She further urged the government at all levels to provide the needed enabling environment for women candidates to thrive.
Mr Faeren Ortese, the Development Facilitator, said the training was necessary to guide the women candidates in their electioneering campaigns.
He said the training would give them a roadmap on how to develop the skill needed in their campaigns for the 2023 elections.
According to him, the goal is to have women participation in politics more than the current level. A lot more can be done to engage the women in politics.
