Senator representing the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Abuja under the auspices of the Labour Party, LP, Ireti Kingibe, has lamented that it is hard to be a woman in the National Assembly, Edum News reports.
She stated this while speaking at the 8th and 2024 edition of Voice of Women, VOW, conference and awards which was held in Abuja.
She noted that lobbying to get things done has become a major preoccupation for her.
Ireti, who stated this while responding to the claim of rural women in the FCT accusing her of abandonment and ingratitude after voting for her in the last election, stated that it has not been easy for her as the only female in the National Assembly.
The woman who spoke on the condition of anonymity, stated that the women are disappointed as not even an iota of appreciation in terms of trainings and empowerments have reached the women since after the election.
Kingibe however, lamented the fact that the women were not acknowledging all she has been doing in the FCT since she came into power.
She added that she has done so much within one and half years in office.
She stated, “For the record, I am the only woman elected in the FCT. Now, there’s this misconception as to what everybody defines what governance is. To me, it is bringing the most to the people. I have been a senator for a year and half, I am primarily a legislator. I have bills waiting to be passed, creating the nursing and midwifery school In Gwagwalada, I have a maternal free healthcare for women. I have a few of such bills still pending. But notwithstanding, since I have been a senator, I have empowered and I have everything on record. I have empowered 10,000 people. Now, it is not possible, FCT has 4 to 5 million people and for me to personally see everybody that voted for me. I am also building a 50-bed hospital, I am putting an ICT center in Gwagwalada and Nyanya, I paid with my personal money 2,000 JAMB forms for free.
“So, at the end of the day, governance means to me, bringing things for the general good and not for the individual. The truth is that being a woman in the National Assembly is very, very, very hard. So, I have to lobby for everything. When I leave here, I will go to the National Assembly, sign in and then go from ministry to ministry so that all those things that doesn’t get attention by the executive, I can slip them into the budget from lobbying different ministers to put it in their budget.I have also renovated with my personal money and allowance the ante-natal center in Gwagwalada teaching hospital. Any of you can go and verify all these things. So, I’m sorry, yes women complain, I haven’t come to them one by one; it is not possible. It is either I do that and then you don’t get anything else. So that is my frustration and I want women to understand that you are voting for other women so that our general lives will improve not because she is going to come and meet you personally.”
Written by Hope James
