Niger election: woman leader expresses concern over low turnout by women

Hajiya Zainab Tari, woman leader of Nigerien women in Nigeria has expressed concern over the low turnout of women at the ongoing election in Kano centre.

Tari made the observation in an interview in Kano on Sunday.She said that despite the public enlightenment campaign carried out by the women leaders, the turnout of women at the election centre was discouraging.


“We took time to enlighten our women in Kano, but they refuse to come out. This is very disturbing considering the importance of this election,’’ she said.
According to her, the association had despatched about 10 vehicles to various local government areas of the state with a view to conveying the women to the election venues.

“We are also making effort to contact them through their mobile phones as part of effort to ensure that they come and cast their votes.

“We also paid registration fees for over 1, 700 of our members, all in an effort to ensure that women participate in the election process,’’ she said.
According to her, the reduction in the number of days for the registration of voters has also contributed to this problem.

“The registration period was reduced to four days instead of 10 days and this had affected the registration of women,”she said.

Also speaking, Hajiya Marysm Mussa-Illela, Woman Leader in Nasarawa Local Government, attributed the low turnout of women to lack of information and education.
She said no fewer than 800 women registered in the area but very few were able to come out as at the time of filling this report around 12:50pm.

It was observed that most of the voters were males as only few women were seen at the election centre.

Credit: NAN