Buhari says women’s group threatening him over female appointments

President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday said the National Council for Women Societies (NCWS) came to threaten him over female appointments in his cabinet.

The president spoke during an audience with the leadership of the NCWS at the presidential villa, Abuja.

He said his administration would address the deficit in appointments by appointing more women into his cabinet.

The president said: “I have appreciated the subtle and timely threat you have made; I said timely because you waited until campaigns are about to start, you mobilised yourselves to come and threaten.

“I hope you are being very fair to me; I will leave you to the public to judge. You said I haven’t replaced the casualties from my council about the ladies. I’m sure you are following up (finance and women affairs).

“One applied to leave because I think she wants to be the governor of the state and one failed to meet the government requirement of declaring NYSC certificate.

“I replaced them with other ladies; so, I don’t know where I went wrong there?

“This deficit in women appointments I will look at it and the road is clear; election is coming perhaps I will get a few more advisers, ministers from the women. I thank you most sincerely for coming to see me.”

On the rate of sexual violence and abuse in the society, particularly at the internally displaced persons’ camps (IDPs), the president said he had already directed the security agencies to immediately address the problem.

“I have taken note of the observations you made on the abuse of women in the IDPs camps,” he said.

“I’m encouraging the police to be much more efficient and I think something is being done about it.’’

The president also pledged to ensure that women farmers benefit from the federal government’s agricultural loans and other programmes to boost food production in the country.

He, therefore, advised the women to form themselves into cooperative societies to enable them benefit from such loans.