The Women Initiative for Family Economy, WIFE, an advocacy group seeking financial and political inclusion for women, is organizing national prayers for peaceful and successful general elections in 2023.
The National President of WIFE, Amb. Aisha Abdulkadir disclosed this in a pre-event news briefing on Monday in Abuja.
According to her, the interfaith national prayers will hold on Thursday, September 1, 2022 at the Shehu Musa Yar’Adua Centre, Abuja, she said.
Mrs Abdulkadir said the event is part of the WIFE’s series of civic engagements in ensuring peaceful and transparent 2023 general elections.
She said prominent Muslim and Christian clerics, interfaith advocates, peace activists, and some presidential candidates and their running mates have been scheduled to attend the event.
She said WIFE, registered with Corporate Affairs Commission, CAC, in 2018, has been at the forefront of advancing and enhancing the financial fortunes of women in Nigeria through macro-economic empowerment schemes, skills acquisition initiatives, socio-economic counselling, among others.
The WIFE convener said the NGO has been engaging and sensitizing women across the country in the last couple of months on the importance of collecting their permanent voter cards, PVCs, ahead of the 2023 general elections.
“The role of women in politics can’t be overemphasized. It is on record that during the 2019 general election, women accounted for 47.14 percent (39.6 million) of the 84 million registered voters nationwide,” she said.
She said the official data from the just concluded INEC fresh registration indicate that of the total 10,139,247 new voters, women accounted for 5,116,855, with 1,190,017 of them housewives.
“We have spent over four years empowering women financially, and it is only good if the same women are politically empowered by encouraging them to fully exercise their civic responsibilities by getting their PVCs and voting for credible leaders in the forthcoming elections,” she said.
The WIFE president, however, said all this is impossible without peace and stability.
“That is why we are convening this national interfaith prayer session to seek God Almighty to protect our country and our leaders from both internal and external detractors,” she said.
Mrs Abdulkadir noted that over the years and through her financial inclusion advocacy in the 19 northern states and Abuja, women and their children account for the largest demographic group of victims resulting from any form of conflict- be it religious, communal, or even political.
“That is why we are bringing our famous religious leaders from the two prominent faiths to pray for the country and for a peaceful transition programme,” she said.
