Female politicians don’t use thugs for campaigns like men, says minister

Pauline Tallen, minister of women affairs, says female politicians in Nigeria will never engage in using thugs for their campaigns like men.

Tallen said this on Thursday while speaking at the 59th edition of the ministerial briefing organised by the presidential communications team in Abuja.

She said Nigeria has qualified and diligent female politicians, adding that it is heartbreaking that the Nigerian society is not encouraging women in politics.

“As far as the poor women’s participation in politics is concerned, it is heartbreaking. It is not that we don’t have qualified women, we have very qualified and resilient Nigerian women in politics,” she said

“Society is yet to support and encourage women. Women you know, there is a lot of violence in politics but women can never engage in thuggery because we are mothers, women will never, all the elections I went to. That’s true.

“Women will never engage in using youths as thuggery for their campaigns. We are mothers, we will not give drugs to youths to misbehave or snatch ballot boxes, it is men that are doing that. It’s true, these are facts, we know it.”

Speaking on the decline in the number of female national assembly candidates, she said the ministry in collaboration with other organisations is working towards improving the figure, adding that the stakeholders engaged have promised to reconsider the five rejected gender bills.

“About the number of national assembly candidates that is dropping, you will agree with me that myself and the first lady and the wife of the vice-president, we led a very powerful delegation to the national assembly on the five bills,” she added.

“We led an advocacy visit to the president of the senate, speaker of the senate, the deputy speaker of the senate and the deputy senate president and we decorated them as HeForShe to support issues affecting women in the national assembly.

“We are yet to get there and that is why Nigerian women, and civil society organisations, mounted pressure at the front of the national assembly for two weeks but all hope is not lost. We are still lobbying and we have been assured, they have told us that they will reconsider the remaining bills.”