As the 2023 general elections in Nigeria draws closer, women have been urged to support and vote in only candidates of Political parties that have well thought-out development plans for the female folks, especially those at the grassroots.

Woman Leader of Bonny Kingdom took this position on behalf of the Bonny Women Forum during a town-hall meeting with the Senatorial and other Candidates of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) who had come to consult the women for their support in the forthcoming elections, days ago in Bonny.

“I have said it before, vote your conscience, you know it when people tell lies, you have a discerning spirit that help you know that this or the other persons that have come before us are liars. Your conscience should tell you the truth, so that you will not come back and say “Nwoyientiaka” because you got the wrong people into power.

“Vote your conscience, this time around it’s beyond party politics, it’s about individuals and manifestos. It should be Bonny first. See that individual as an entity, what is his or her character? What is their antecedents? How can you justify the millions you have placed before us? How did you get it? Yesterday, you were poor, you couldn’t afford two square meals but because you have occupied a position, you start carrying your shoulders high, everybody is now down.”

The rights activist, further challenged the Congress of indigenous women drawn from the 35 Chieftaincy Houses of Bonny Kingdom to step into the election without fear, but with determination to knock out candidates who are not pro-women, warning that there are physical and extra-mundane Implications for either of their choices for or against women.

“I challenge you, every woman that is on the Island, no time for laxity, the time is now and the time has come, vote your conscience, nothing more, nothing less. Your conscience will prick you and you will give account on the judgement day that I did the right thing to get the right people in power. if they are not good, knock them out, if they are the people, send them in”

Earlier, the Senatorial Candidate of the SDP, Warisenibo Dagogo Green, promised to be subject himself to unparalleled accessibility, create a template for attending to local needs that may not necessarily require Red or Green Chamber attention and deploy creative strategies to be different from what has been the case over the years for the separate and collaborative good of the eight local government areas under the Rivers West Senatorial District.

“I will take full responsibility of all the challenges and calls or whatever concerns that comes. Our plan is to set up liaison offices. This time around it’s not going to be the usual way of setting up liaison offices; we are going to put up liaison offices with people who have capacity, people who can respond to certain basic need before they get to our level in the red and green chambers.”

“So our response is going to be spontaneous, our strategy is going to meet the needs of the people and even when we are not there because sometimes it happens, there will be someone in the office that will attend to your response pending when to get the attention you are looking for, but I can assure you it’s not business as usual.”

The Senatorial hopeful further aligned with the thoughts of the Bonny Woman Leader that politics cannot thrive without the protection of the interests of women, assuring of well mapped out strategies to ensure women are significantly impacted.

“No woman, no politics, no woman, no election, that is our slogan in our party and that is what we stand for. I’m someone that loves women, I love my mum so much so that if you want to know whether I’m wicked or bad, just talk to her rudely in my presence, I can harm you. Another reason I love women is because, if I have 10 friends over time, 9 of them were women and I can confide in them.”

He added that women are strong with keeping to their words and their sensibility cannot be undermined underscoring why they came for the consultation in the first instance. He claimed that the problems of Bonny are enormous and resolving them cannot be attained without the active participation of women.

“l believe that when a woman tells you go my brother, this thing I go do am for you, you can go and sleep (sic).”

“We are not leaving women behind; we will not try such at all. There is no way we can run this race without women which is why we are here.”

 “You and I know there’s a whole lot going on in this our community, we can’t start talking about the things we face in Bonny Island, but we know the issues and we cannot get those things resolved without carrying women along. So women are integral part of this administration and that’s why our principal chose a woman as his running mate, so women are covered with our programs”.

For his part, the House of Representatives Candidate of the SDP for Degema/Bonny Federal Constituency, Ibifubara Willie-Pepple, added that the Deputy Governorship Candidate in their party was a woman, calling on them to collaborate with the Party in talking the issues ahead as he had accepted to be in charge of pioneering and proffering solutions to the concerns of women”.

“I just want to add one thing, in SDP, our Deputy Governorship Candidate is a woman, and me wey don accept say I go be the complainant general of women, all this women questions supposed to dey come to me, I want to handle, sit with the women, my own is that as we win that day, as they swear us in, I don come back, call a meeting of our candidate, let us sit down and start tackling these issues (sic). it’s about the heart that will deliver the thing, we are the men that will do this work for the women. God will help us”.

Adding his voice to the campaign, Bonny State Assembly Candidate of the SDP, Howells Brown, pleaded for the support of Bonny women, stressing that he had served them in various capacities in the past, and would do more if given the opportunity.

“I want to plead with our mothers as I have said before, let us look at the antecedents, you cannot do something you have not done before. You can only build on something you have done before.”

“I have done it as a CLO, I have done it as Acting Leader of Bonny Students Union, I have done it as Director of Bonny Youth Federation, I have done it as Secretary General, Bonny Graduates Forum. So it is not strange to me representing my people.”

“It is an opportunity for me to build on the legacy I have already laid down and I will plead with my mothers, please and please, give us the opportunity to showcase our talent and that which we know how to do it best.”