Misrule worse than Boko Haram, says PDP

• Faults Senate’s Rejection Of Women Empowerment Bill

The Yobe State chapter of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) said yesterday that the destruction caused by what it called misrule in the state in the last 17 years was worse than the harm caused by the Boko Haram terrorist group.

Former Minister of Police Affairs, Adamu Maina Waziri, who led a delegation of PDP leaders on a courtesy visit on the party’s national chairman, Ali Modu Sheriff, in Abuja claimed said, “We have two insurgency in Yobe; we have the Boko Haram insurgency, which is criminal, but we have political insurgency of misrule of Gov. Ibrahim Geidam of APC. “If Nigerians are blaming PDP for 16 years of misrule, we PDP of Yobe are blaming ANPP/APC for 16 years of misrule. If there is change, we will start the change from Yobe.”

He pointed out that the party was on a journey to redeem itself so that it can reclaim its lost glory. “If we do the right thing just as we have started, I assure you that the seat we won 1999, we can still win it back,” he said.

Speaking earlier, Ali Modu Sheriff gave assurance that he would be in Yobe to make sure all aggrieved members of the party are appeased and they return to the party.

Also yesterday, the PDP condemned the outright rejection of the Women Empowerment Bill by the Senate.

A statement issued by the party’s national women leader, Mrs. Kema Chikwe, made it clear that the Senate had ‎no excuse for dismissing the ‘Gender And Equal Opportunities Bill.’

She said: “On behalf of the entire PDP women, I join members of the civil society to express profound disappointment and displeasure over the dismissal of the Nigerian Gender and Equal Opportunities bill by the Nigerian Senate, on Tuesday, March, 2016.”

According to Chikwe, “This regressive action ironically occurred at a critical time when the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) conference is currently holding in New York, USA. The implication of throwing out the Gender and Equal Opportunities bill is that the incidences of rape, domestic violence, maternal mortality, poverty etc which have been ravaging our country will continue unchallenged. The dismissal of that bill essentially undermine the contributions Nigerian women are making towards our national development.” she added.

Chikwe explained, “The bill is not just about women. It is centred on the survival of the family system in Nigeria. If that bill were passed, the greatest beneficiaries would have been the menfolk, who are undoubtedly the heads of families. Nigerian women have partnered with them in building stable homes and the society at large. Nigerian women have proved capacity to lead and capacity to follow in national development.”