2019: Coalition for Nigeria Movement Has Registered 3 Million Members –Obasanjo
Former president Chief Olusegun Obasanjo on Thursday revealed that the
Coalition for Nigeria Movement (CNM) has so far registered three
million members across the country.
Obasanjo stated this while delivering a lecture at the 14th Annual
Lecture of Women in Management, Business, and Public Service (WIMBIZ),
a non-governmental organisation, in Lagos.
He pointed out that women in the country were not doing enough for
themselves, saying they must be accorded a place of honour in the
coming political dispensation that would take off in 2019.
The WIMBIZ annual Lecture series is a public forum that attracts over
500 women, is designed to discuss topical issues that affect women,
their role in nation building and their personal, business or
organisational development.
The former president, who spoke on “Press for Progress: Women,
Politics and Nation Building” said, “Human beings are the same, men
and women. We need fair treatment of women. Gender inequality has cost
Africa so much.
“Negotiate as 2019 election is coming, but the table is turned against
you. In 2019 election, women must have a place of honour.
“You should all say enough is enough. Women, as the majority, must be
reckoned with in the overiding interest of the general good of our
people.
“The society must correct the impression that it is only women who
have nothing to do or have been failing other endeavours that go into
politics.
“A way to do this is to ensure that successful women who occupy top
cadres in the society should join politics so as to give stiffer
competition to the male counterpart.
‘We must discriminate positively in favour of women, and women
themselves must know how to use other women for their good in
politics.
“The reason for the positive discrimination is not because women are
inferior, but while they have what it takes to succeed in politics,
the men folk have continued to hold them back.
“And so, the positive discrimination will solve such problem.”
The ex-president encouraged women who desire to go into politics to be strong.
Obasanjo emphasised that Nigeria had intelligent women that could
transform the nation, adding that such women must be sought and
encouraged to get involved.
He said that the perception that women in politics were of easy virtue
was wrong.
Obasanjo said ,“Some people say when a woman goes into politics, she
becomes a woman of easy virtue. Doing politics does not make you a
woman of easy virtue. We have to do something about this perception.”
Harping on the Coalition for Nigeria Movement (CNM), Obasanjo said it
was one of the things he was paying attention to, saying he would
cease to be member the moment the movement metamorphosed into a
political party.
“I am giving them encouragement; I have registered and I believe that
as at today, we have registered more than three million people.
“My belief is that we need a grassroots movement that can bring the
change that this country needs.
“We need the platform and we need the system,” he said.
In her remarks, Mrs Olubunmi Talabi, the Executive Council Chairperson
of WIMBIZ, said that the government must implement the affirmative
action on women inclusion in nation-building.
Talabi, who noted the Nigerian women are intelligent, said Nigeria
will be better with a minimum of 30 per cent women inclusion in both
elective and appointive positions.
