Ahead of the 2027 general elections, a total of 40 female aspirants from different political parties in Kwara State have been trained and equipped to stand as contestants in the polls.
At a three-day training in Ilorin, the state capital between Monday and yesterday, the participants were tasked on the need to be cognisant of the process, organisation and structure of political parties before they throw their hats into the ring.
The training was conducted by the Women Environment and Youth Development Initiative (WOYODEV), a non-governmental organisation supported by UN Women and funded by the European Union.
It was themed “From Foot Soldiers to Front Runners.”
On the sidelines of the training, the executive director of WOYODEV, Tosin Apiriola-Ajayi, said the project holding in three states in the country including Kwara was targeted at women to make them politically savvy and participate actively as contestants.
She disclosed that female political aspirants from local communities were also incorporated into the training, thus preparing them for the future political contest.
She added that the objective of the training was to equip the participants with the practical skills to build and run an election campaign and position themselves as viable flag bearers of political parties.
“In total, we are training 120 selected across the three states. So, for each state, we are training 40. In Kwara, we have 40 women for the training . We had about six political parties in attendance and had participants from Baruten, Kaiama, Patigi, Edu, Ekiti and the whole of Kwara,” Apiriola-Ajayi said.
She noted that the essence of the training was to transform the female political aspirants to candidates of political parties and emerge winners in the 2027 electoral contest.
“So, the overall goal of this gathering is to transform female political parties’ aspirants from passive foot soldiers into empowered, strategic and confident contestants in Nigeria’s 2027 general elections.
“This project started March this year. We are going to run the project for the next two years till after general elections. It is a process. We want to work with women from now till after the general elections and the project is being done in three states; Enugu, Lagos and Kwara.
“For this quarter, we are training female political members that will stand to contest between now and 2027 general elections, not those that will be foot soldiers,” she said.
The state commissioner for Women Affairs, Mrs Afolashade Opeyemi, in her remarks, said the initiative transcends economic independence for women, saying that it was about empowering them to increase their political participation in the country.
She applauded WOYODEV for organising the event, which focused on empowering women and girls through practical skills, knowledge and leadership development.
The deputy chairman of the Inter-party Advisory Council (IPAC) in the state, Mr Lukman Ajisafe, who led participants through a session, challenged them to be circumspect about the processes required to stand as political party candidates.
