APC D/Woman Leader wants ‘twinning’ formula to enhance women participation in politics

By Jude Opara, Abuja

As the nation continues to struggle with low women participation in politics, the All Progressives Congress (APC), Deputy National Woman Leader, Zainab Ibrahim, has advocated for the adoption of the twinning formula to enhance women inclusion in politics.

Ibrahim said the twinning formula has become a policy generally adopted by political parties in many countries where the vice presidents, deputy governors and vice chairmen positions are exclusively reserved for women.

The Deputy National Leader who spoke during an interactive session with journalists in Abuja over the weekend, stated that if the ruling APC had adopted the formula, there would have been 24 female deputy governors in the those states controlled by the party.

“Apart from the special seat advocacy that we are undertaking, we are also strongly advocating for twinning. The twinning does not even require any National Assembly (legislation). It does not require anything. It’s just a policy by a political party.

“Let me tell you where I got that from. It was in New York in 2016. I was at a conference and I met the Vice President of the Gambia who was a woman and I asked her, Gambia is an Islamic country how come you became the Vice President? She told me all their governors, have deputy governors as women because the ruling party adopted the twinning formula.

“So you see, it is just a policy pronouncement by the party and then it becomes. Now, if my party, APC should adopt the twinning formula, we have 24 states APC controls, we would have had 24 deputy governors.

“So to me, the lowest hanging fruit to women inclusion in politics is the twinning formula and we are working strongly on it. You know, the special seats bill will have some legislative backing at the end of the day but when a party formulates a formula, it is subject to changes and that is why we are paying more attention to that of the special seats bill.

“But we are also doing a very high level advocacy for the twinning formula because countries that have attained up to 50% and more like Namibia, Rwanda adopted the twinning formula….by the grace of God, it can even be achieved faster than the special seats bill.

“Now, we have some states who have already adopted that like when Yahaya Bello was governor in Kogi, all the local government chairmen, the vice chairmen were women. That is what we call twinning formula. So we are now waiting to see such become a policy especially of the leading political parties in Nigeria who have a large number of states they control,” Ibrahim said.

According to her, if achieved, in subsequent elections, the twinning formula is going be a criteria for who women will support.

“Every governor that tells us, number one, his deputy is going to be a woman, every local government vice chairman is going to be a woman. What else do we want from any governor, rather than to give him our 100% support?

“I believe that Mr President, sooner or later, is going to adopt that for us and you will see how every Nigerian woman will support Mr President, by the grace of God”.

The APC national woman said, she also champions women interest beyond the confines of APC by the virtue of her position as the deputy national secretary of the Inter-party Advisory Council (IPAC), the body of all registered political parties in Nigeria.