Women are agents for change, says el-Rufai

Nasir El-Rufai

The All Progressives Congress governorship candidate in Kaduna State, Malam Nasir el-Rufai, has said that women are the change agents the country needs for positive change.

El-Rufai, a former minister of the FCT while speaking at a one-day women summit organised by the APC Campaign Council in Kaduna on Wednesday, said as a catalyst for change, women in the state should vote for all the APC candidates in Saturday’s elections.

The summit has as its theme, ‘The role of women in elections.’

He told the   women that attended the summit held at the Arewa House that they should vote on Saturday like they did during the March 28 presidential election won by the APC’s presidential candidate, Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd.).

El-Rufai also advised the women to ensure that peace reigns before, during and after the governorship and state House of Assembly elections in the state.

The APC candidate said the essence of the summit was for women to tell the APC their needs so that they could be addressed should the party form the next government.

The former minister, who said he was delighted to be at the gathering, appealed to the women to come out en masse with “food and their husbands” to vote for APC on Saturday.

Earlier, the convener of the summit and wife of the APC governorship candidate, Asia, had called on women to participate in governance.

“For us to be able to take advantage of the wind of change, we must unite as women, put aside our differences so that we can focus on nation building,” she said.

She noted that any political party that underestimated the power of women, only did that at its own peril.

She said, “It is important to realise that we, women, are very powerful. Without us, no society will progress. We should sit together so that the society can progress.

“Mallam has mandated me to meet with you, women in Kaduna, to consult with you and know what your pressing needs are, so that it will be addressed when we win the election.”

Also, the Director, Women Mobilisation of the APC, Ruth Alkali, urged the women to vote the APC governorship candidate in the Saturday’s polls, saying the former minister had all it takes to govern the state.

She said el-Rufai as governor would lead the state to greatness.

Also, another APC women leader in the state, Mrs. Shola Seriki, told the women that el-Rufai as governor would provide education that would liberate them and their children from poverty and ignorance

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She also appealed to the women to vote el-Rufai as the next governor of the state.

Seriki assured the women that the state would be peaceful and the economy would prosper while youths would be employed when the APC became the ruling party in the state.

Another APC woman leader, Hajiya Amina Salihu, said women had huge population and no politician worth its salt could afford to ignore them.

She, however, lamented that women were not using their numerical strength to their own advantage.