NGO to groom women on how to win elections

Emerge Women (EW), a non governmental organisation, will be giving current and prospective female political candidates a one-day training on skills needed to run for and win elections into political offices in Nigeria.

In a statement, Mary Ikoku, founder, EW, said the training, second of its kind, will hold in Abuja on October 18.

The first held in Lagos on September 5 and September 6.

Ikoku said the training is part of EW’s advocacy project: “The Million Campaign”, that will provide a platform to encourage the participation of more women in politics by teaching them how to run a campaign, fund-raise, talk to the media, and reply to difficult questions from potential constituents.

The campaign, she said, will also encourage women to nominate capable female leaders who should consider running for offices in Nigeria.

“Emerge Women is a non-profit, non-partisan political organisation formed with the mission to increase the number of Nigerian women leaders in elective and appointive offices. Emerge is recruiting, training and providing a formidable network for women who want to run for elective offices as well as engage Government and political parties to ensure the national gender policy is implemented across board,” the statement read.

“The training will focus on how to Develop a Campaign Plan, strategy, fundraising and Messaging. Emerge will provide resources, capacity building and networking community that meets women in their path to elected leadership

“We will follow all our aspirants throughout their political journey and continue to provide relevant support to overcome road blocks that can prevent them from contesting election to win.”

“Emerge will demystify the myths surrounding gender politics. With a presence in Abia, Lagos, and now Abuja, Emerge Women will add six states spread across the six geo-political zones in the first year and by the 2019 election, it should have affiliates in at least about 27 states before 2019 election saying that the long term plan is to have presence in all 36 states of the federation plus FCT by 2022.”