This is even as the women leaders of the APC and their deputies from 19 northern states warned against playing down the 21 million votes of Arewa female voters, especially from Kano, Katsina and Kaduna.
Speaking at the APC northern female stakeholders’ strategy session in Abuja, Zainab, who is also the assistant national youth spokesman for Tinubu-Shettima Presidential Campaign Council, explained that the North was historically behind the curve in voting pattern as the region has more women voters based on population.
She stated that recent statistics from the Independent National Electoral Commission show that the North has over 21 million female voters putting us ahead of the South with over two million voters.
“According to INEC, there are a total of 93,469,008 eligible voters in its register, 44,414,846 of them are women, which represents 47.5 per cent. Out of the female voters, 13,600,939 of them are housewives.
“The North carries the largest number of female voters with the first three states being Kano with just over two and a half million women voters, Kaduna with just over two million female voters and Katsina with just over one and a half million female voters.
“Through painstaking calculation, I found out that in the North we have approximately 21,021,189 female voters putting us ahead of the South with over two million voters.
“There is therefore a need to come up with a clear and systematic template to get out the vote of northern women that can be replicated across the 19 northern states to give Tinubu victory,” she said.
Sharing her view, the APC Deputy National Women Leader, Hajia Zainab Ibrahim, noted that women are an emerging force in the political arena.
Ibrahim disclosed that their impacts, especially in politics and governance, are gradually being recognised in the North which used to be conservative.
The member of the APC National Working Committee charged the party women leaders at Monday’s session, saying with less than two weeks to the presidential election, this is the best time to intensify their efforts in their door-to-door campaign in the 19 northern states.
She said, “In every state, redouble your efforts in mobilising votes for our party. I can proudly mention that these women that are seated here today are the greatest battalion of foot soldiers that will make the Presidency of Asiwaju realisable and achievable.
“In a deliberate attempt to get every stakeholder involved in the campaign for APC and its candidates, we have had to tour states of northern Nigeria by road, air and even crossing rivers by canoe on different occasions to meet with our elected women leaders, interfacing with critical stakeholders, conducting market arena campaigns and every state distributing wrappers, hijabs, promotional stickers, customised aprons and pamphlets of our party.”
