President Muhammadu Buhari has provided insights into how the ruling All Progressives Party (APC) can continue its winning streak in 2023.
Buhari said the party must take advantage of the women population and spread campaigns to the most remotest parts of the country.
He spoke at the inauguration of the Tinubu-Shettima Women Presidential Campaign Team, held at the Old Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
The President, who was represented by his Chief of Staff, Professor Ibrahim Gambari, also tasked the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, and the Minister of Women Affairs to work with the Office of the First Lady to come up with sets of legislations that can be put before the National Assembly to make laws to ensure women receive just recognition for their contributions in society.
Speaking on how the APC could win the presidential and other elections next year, Buhari called the attention of the audience, including the National Chairman, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, and other leaders of the party, to the potentials of the women voters, highlighting the sheer number of votes they contributed in the last two elections, charging the party to court the support of the female voters.
“Considering the strategic role women have played in APC victories, we call on you once again to begin organizing and mobilizing vigorously the electorate at all levels for APC victory at the 2023 polls through the committee in an inclusive and cooperative manner.
“The inauguration of APC Women Presidential Campaign Committee today is the most crucial component of the 2023 campaign. To this end, I call on all members of this committee to take up this great responsibility as a testament of your selfless service to the APC.
“I strongly believe that this committee will take the APC to greater heights by developing and implementing a collective and inclusive party’s strategy to ensure APC victory in the 2023 election because there is no alternative to our victory.
“In the 2015 general elections, about 3.6 million housewives voted in the presidential election. And this figure ranks third next to about 4.4 million students in the 2019 general elections. Women accounted for 47 percent, almost 40 million of the 84 million registered voters throughout the nation.
“We must continuously co-opt and make significant in-road into these demographic and voting segments.
“The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) recently made a projection that Nigeria’s voting population could be as much as 95 million for the 2023 general elections. For statisticians in the room, you can imagine what that means in terms of potential votes that women could bring to the table.
“Counting today, we are left with approximately 137 days before the Presidential and National Assembly elections, which is scheduled for the 25th of February, 2023. Out of the 36 states of the federation, 30 states will be holding their gubernatorial elections on the 11th of March. The mission that lays ahead of the committee is very clear and time is not on your side,” he said.
The President went further to remind the campaign council and other party functionaries to also work hard to reach the inner recesses of the country in canvassing for votes, warning that the real work in getting votes is not in Abuja, but in the over 8,000 wards across the country.
“As this launch is being hosted in Abuja, we must remember that the real war lies in far flung places away from Abuja. The task ahead lies in over 8000 wards and 774 local governments across the country, where party faithful will have to make a case before fellow citizens on our party’s candidate articulating the vision and the programme for the country.
“The campaign, therefore, should resist the temptation for it to be turned into an Abuja centric activity but establish the connection between the voting public and our presidential candidate, and for other candidates for offices throughout Nigeria, that should be the ultimate objective”, he said.
Buhari noted that women had been the most supportive groups to his administration and throughout his political journey, calling on women of the party to extend same commitment they had shown him all along to the flag bearer of the party and his team.
The Nation
