Nigeria Content Online

Hajiya Maryam Babangida, a housewife, on Thursday, announced that
she will contest for a seat in the Adamawa State House of Assembly in
the 2011 elections.

Mrs Babangida told the News Agency of Nigeria, in Mubi, Adamawa,
that she would be proactive as a lawmaker, if elected. The aspirant,
who wants to represent Mubi-North State Constituency on the PDP
platform, promised to give special attention to the problems of
maternal mortality and youth unemployment through legislation.
“It
is time to effectively address the nagging problems of family health
and unemployment among the youth through legislation,” she said.

Mrs Babangida also pledged to collaborate with like-minded
colleagues in the House to enact gender-sensitive laws as part of the
process of improving the socio-economic status of women. She said such
laws would go a long way in addressing the problems of domestic
violence, juvenile delinquency, street begging and other forms of
violation against women and children.

“We need to develop a mechanism to ensure proper implementation of
poverty eradication among the youth and women,” she said. “I will
initiate economic empowerment programmes at the grass roots to uplift
the standard of living of women and youths.”

She also urged women to join politics and vie for elective positions
so as to ensure quality and proactive representation at all levels of
government. “It is desirable to evolve mechanisms to deal with issues
militating against effective women’s participation in politics,” she
said. “Nigeria is blessed with abundant talented women, but our
greatest setback is the lack of wisdom to support them and recognise
their contribution to national development.”