2023: Gambian ex-VP charges Nigerian women to be active

A former Vice President of The Gambia, Fatoumata Tambajang, has urged Nigerian women to be active participants in the forthcoming 2023 General Elections in Nigeria.

She said this on Thursday in Abuja at a high-level policy dialogue organised by the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD), with the theme, ‘Wither Democracy in West Africa?”

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According to her, the participation of women in the African continent’s democracy and governance is in the interest of the people of the continent, especially that men mostly fight for power at the detriment of good governance and development.

The event also witnessed the remembrance and dedication of a building to late Dr Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem, who was the general secretary of the CDD, among other civic and humanitarian activism across Africa.

Tajudeen, known for his popular quote of ‘organise, don’t agonise’ was born in Funtua, Katsina State, and died in a road accident on May 25, 2009 in Nairobi, Kenya, while on his way to the airport to catch a flight to Rwanda where he was scheduled to meet with the President of Rwanda, Paul Kagame.

Tambajang expressed disappointment on the recent rejection of gender bill by the National Assembly.

Also speaking, Chairman of the Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF) and Ekiti State Governor, Dr Kayode Fayemi, urged Nigerians, especially the youths, to shun apathy and be active in the nation’s democracy and governance.

He told youths not to see the social media as a political space, but come to the grassroots and the nation’s public political space and effect the change they want.

On her part, the CDD Director, Idayat Hassan, said that in the last decade, in almost all the countries, election had become the norm and no longer an exception.

“We have seen alternation of powers. We have seen incumbents voted out of office both in Nigeria and Ghana. We have seen parties also changed batons in Sierra Leone, Liberia, aside from other positive developments in Francophone Africa, like Burkina Faso, even Niger,” she said.