TheCable

‎Oluremi Tinubu, a senator representing Lagos central and wife of Bola Tinubu, national leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), says the current administration merely “used” Nigerian women during the 2015 general election but has failed to fulfill its promises to them.

Making her contribution to the debate on the 2016 budget on the floor of the senate on Tuesday, Tinubu lamented that APC promised to run an inclusive government with the women well represented, the budget does not reflect the promise.

Wondering why the ministry of women affairs, which carries out several responsibilities, got the least allocation in the budget, she asked the upper chamber of the national assembly to look into the issue in order to avoid the wrath of women.

“In its manifesto, the APC mentioned the need for empowerment programmes for Nigerian women,” she said.

“Such comprehensive empowerment requires fund which should be included in the budget for implementation. Going through the budget for the federal ministry of women affairs, I discovered that the total allocation to the women ministry is so meager and I think it would be the least allocation allotted to a ministry.

“And when we look at the functions of this ministry – the ministry is divided into two divisions: human resources and capacity building, economic services and women cooperative – but when we look at the first division, which is human resources and capacity building, they are supposed to promote education, development of women in the civil, political, socio-cultural and economic sectors.

“All these that I have also mentioned require capital. Looking at this budget of less than N4bn, they have capital with almost N3bn. So, when you look at it, what is left?

“I am just laying this case on behalf of the Nigerian women. This is not going well… It’s as if we were used during the campaign, and we said this is a government of change. The change mantra is supposed to change things across board.

“What they have allotted to the Nigerian women is not encouraging. When we talk about change, it doesn’t mean we are going to dodge and support what is not working.

“This is the best way to start. So that the women would not just be used for campaign and several promises made to them. On behalf of the Nigerian woman, I am making their case today that this budget is not telling anything and not making any promises, so when it gets to the committee level, they should have a way of trying to amend this budget so that it would meet all the needs that the Nigerian women and they would not incur the wrath of the Nigerian woman.”