By Friday Obande
Former Chairperson of Abuja Municipal Area Council, AMAC, and aspirant for the Federal Capital Territory, FCT Senate, under the platform of African Democratic Congress, Ambassador Esther John Audu, has called for more female participation in nigeria’s politics in the 2019 elections.
Amb. Audu, who has also won elections to the AMAC House of Representatives, representing the FCT/Bwari constituency under the defunct United Nigerian Congress Party, UNC, told Daybreak that women play the most responsible roles within the society, as they are more dedicated to the building of institutions than their male counterparts.
She outlined some of her achievements as AMAC Chairperson, to include: being the first National Coordinator of Association of Local Governments of Nigeria, ALGON, amongst other infrastructural projects like, the construction of roads and bridges, hospitals, provision of portable water, as well as building/renovation of schools and classrooms around the FCT, which she said earned her trophies as the best Area Council Chairman in the country’s capital territory.
The aspirant however lamented the place of women participation in Nigeria’s politics, as well as the plight of the FCT indegenes, whom she said are being denied several constitutional rights as owners of the territory which she slated as preoccupation for her aspiration to the Senate from her wealth of knowledge with the grassroots.
“Women should be confident in their participation in politics and not see themselves as second fiddles. We must take the bull by the horns this time which the ADC stands for which I promise to carry the women along in my capacity through sponsorship of constitutional bills to encourage them to participate more in politics.
“I would have had that opportunity when elected to the House to represent FCT/Bwari constituency under the defunct UNCP but we weren’t even inaugurated into office back then and I intend to push bills for the emancipation of both the land ownership of FCT indegenes who have been denied dividends of democracy as hosts, as well as other residents of the territory.
“As Chairperson of AMAC, I was opportuned to lias with the grassroots through a door-door campaign from where I got the wealth of their experiences and I was able to execute some number of projects during my term in office.
“I was able to locate a refuse collation centre around Oroso, to enable waste management projects, construct roads in some interior parts of the FCT, built an L.E.A school in Takushara, as well as equipping hospitals with facilities and personnel, which earned me five awards as the best performing Counil Chairman in Abuja.
” Before those achievements, I had been the pioneer National Coordinator of ALGON, who drafted its constitution with the help of Dr. Hannatu Fika, which is still effective till date, so my aspirations are to encourage women to take more active part in the politics of our country rather than live in self pity because they nominated me as leader right from the 90s and to also see to the betterment of the rights of the indegenes of the FCT which I’m one of them, she said.
