Council queries high cost of nomination forms for women

The National Council for Women Societies (NCWS) has queried the high cost of nomination forms for women political aspirants.

The council, therefore, urged women to vote for political parties that cared for them.

Speaking at a press briefing yesterday, President of NCWS, Mrs. Gloria Laraba Shoda, said women had been sidelined by “big” political parties that collected exorbitant fees and used violence to push women aside in the build-up to their primaries.

Mrs. Shoda said the women were worried about how the whole political scheming was turning against them.

She said, “We had two political summits, the first one in 2017, and the last one in collaboration with the Office of the Wife of the President, Aisha Buhari, where we assembled all female aspirants and invited all party leaders to attend. President Muhammadu Buhari was also in attendance.

“At the summit they all promised to carry women along, and fortunately, the APC Chairman, Adams Oshiomhole, was there. They promised they would carry women along and give them soft landing, but it is unfortunate they are not delivering on their promises,” she said.

“Women were asked to pay exorbitant prices. For the presidential form, APC is N45m, PDP N12m. Governorship: APC N22.5m and PDPN6m. APC charged N7m for Senate forms and PDP N3.5m, and so on.

“Women are not money bags; we don’t have much, we struggle a lot, and during the struggle, the family is what we are thinking of. We had that PDP has some concession for women because they asked women to pay only for expression of interest forms for certain positions,” she said.