TheCable

President Muhammadu Buhari on Friday told some female lawmakers who visited him at the presidential villa in Abuja that that they were a threat to Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo.

The president said this while reacting to a request by the women who asked for the slot of vice- president in subsequent elections in the country.

The women under the auspices of the Nigerian Female Parliamentarians made the request on Friday.

Elizabeth Ativie, chairperson of organisation, who spoke on behalf the delegation, lamented that Nigerian women were being marginalised by their male counterparts in the nation’s body politics.

Ativie is a member of the Edo state house of assembly.

“Since 1999, we only have one principal officer each in the senate and the house of representatives.
And in the state houses of assembly, we have only just five per cent.

“Women are five percent of the total population of elected members of the state houses of assembly and we feel that this is not good enough for all the efforts we women had put in the development of this country particularly in politics.

“We feel the trend now needs to be reversed and we feel you are the only one who can do it now.

“The implementation strategy is simple. Any statement you make today is a policy statement and is a law.

“Many African countries have imbibed that culture of twinning and is working – in Rwanda, in South Africa is working and we believe it will work in Nigeria. Where a man is a president we expect that the vice president should be a woman; where a man is speaker, we expect that the deputy speaker should be a woman and vice versa.”

Responding, Buhari noted the efforts of women in ensuring political stability in the country and for the support given to him during the 2015 presidential election.

“It’s a pity the vice-president is not here. But I believe the secretary to the government of the federation will tell him that his position is threatened,’’ he jokingly told the visiting female parliamentarians.