An aspirant for the Kogi Central Senatorial Districts, of Kogi State , on the platform of the All Progressive Congress,(APC), Ramatu Shehu Atta, has said she joined the race in order to give quality representation to the people of the district and further promote women participation in politics.
Atta said the district has not experienced the desired level of prosperity expected by the people leading to widespread impoverishment and moral decadence.
She added that successive lawmakers that have represented the district at the upper chamber have failed them.
She made this known on friday in Abuja while speaking on the state of the nation and her quest to represent her people.
The aspirant said her experiences in both private and public sector has made her eminently qualified to be the true voice of the people.
According to her, “My ambition is coming at a time when I think I am ready for it, because I have always believed that to go into politics you need to have had enough experience whether in government service or private sector to prepare you to give society all the experiences you have gathered over the years. So it is coming at a time, that I think I am ready for it.
”In my own little way as far back as 2008 or there about, I have always tried to give here and there, even when I didn’t have enough. I started very little and with time it has kept growing and it is not even bad as when I started to give. When you go home, you see that hunger and poverty on the faces of people.
“You see children roaming the street when we were growing up it wasn’t this bad.
“In the past, it was a shameful thing to find an Ebira woman begging on the street but now it is a common sight. In my street where I live, there was a time when I came out and I see women hanging, begging on the street. Begging for money. Some will tell you they need as little as 100 naira to go back to where they are coming from and others will tell you that their children have not eaten.
Atta also disclosed that her sojourn in the NGO field brought her first hand with the plight of the people she intends to serve if given the opportunity.
“In the course of doing my NGO work we conducted the NEED assessment and discovered that the level of poverty in Ebira land is so bad because I traversed the whole of the five local governments, from Ogori to Ajaokuta back to Okene and Okehi and everywhere the story is the same.
“People are suffering, parents can no longer send their children to school. In fact, you find some families living in very bad state. In a particular village I visited, I saw most of the people experiencing eye defects apparently related to water diseases.
Speaking further on the involvement of women in politics in her home state and Senatorial constituency, she said despite the contributions of women to the emergence of the male folk they have not been adequately rewarded in the scheme of things, hence the need for women to rise up, which is a fundamental part of her motivation.
“The situation of women inclusion in Kogi state, particularly in Kogi central is bad. As far as my memory permit me, the first and only time, we had someone there, was Anna Ojegba and since then I have not heard of any woman that is actually involved in politics and ironically women are more when it comes to voting. So why can’t women actively participate.
“If they can come out to give support to the men and my understanding is that a woman will always understand the problems of a woman better than a man.
“So in a situation when a man will start making policies on issues that concerns women, I don’t know how that is going to work. It will only take somebody who wears the shoe to know where it pinches. So I think it is fair to give more infomercial opinions on women issues”. She said.