Ahead of the 2019 General Elections, a non-governmental organisation based in Lagos, South-West Nigeria, Emerge Women (EW) ,will be giving current and prospective women political candidates an intensive one-day training on skills they need to run for political office and win.

Announcing the offer billed to take place in Abuja on October 18, Founder of the NGO, Mary Ikoku, said that the training is part of its advocacy project, THE MILLION WOMEN CAMPAIGN, that will provide a platform to encourage more women participation in politics by teaching them how to run a campaign, fundraise, talk to the media, and reply to difficult questions from potential constituents. The campaign will also encourage women to nominate capable female leaders who should consider running for office in Nigeria.

Emerge Women is a non-profit, non-partisan political organisation formed with the mission to increase the number of Nigerian women leaders in elective and appointive offices. Emerge is recruiting, training and providing a formidable network for women who want to run for elective offices as well as engage Government and political parties to ensure the national gender policy is implemented across board.

According to her, the Abuja edition of the training is the second, after the one held in Lagos on September 5 and 6, 2018.

The training will focus on how to Develop a Campaign Plan, strategy, fundraising and Messaging, noting that women are grossly under-represented at all levels in elected offices across the nation.

She said that Emerge will provide resources, capacity building and networking community that meets women in their path to elected leadership adding that. “We will follow all our aspirants throughout their political journey and continue to provide relevant support to overcome road blocks that can prevent them from contesting election to win.”

She explained that Emerge will demystify the myths surrounding gender politics disclosing that with a presence in Abia, Lagos, and now Abuja, Emerge Women will add six states spread across the six geo-political zones in the first year and by the 2019 election, it should have affiliates in at least about 27 states before 2019 election saying that the long term plan is to have presence in all 36 states of the federation plus FCT by 2022.

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