Islanders Magazine

Market women are not happy with Buhari’s Government – Tinubu

The Iyaloja General of Nigeria, Chief Folasade Tinubu-Ojo, on Thursday, led market women to protest the non-inclusion of market women in the President Muhammadu Buhari-led All Progressives Congress administration.
Tinubu-Ojo, who is also the daughter of the National Leader of the APC, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, led several women who converged on the party’s (APC) national secretariat in Abuja.

According to her, it was the opinion of market women of Nigeria that the present administration is not carrying them along even after they worked tirelessly to ensure the party emerged victorious during the 2015 election.

She lamented that ‘after the inauguration, most of us were not carried along’.

Tinubu-Ojo said, “I am here this afternoon to represent the market women and market men of Nigeria. There have been agitations. The people believed that the government of the day is not carrying them along as it should be; that they worked round the clock for the party during the electioneering, but after the inauguration, most of us were not carried along.

“We only hear on the news that the First Lady is doing programme this and that and we just see it on the news and they (market women) wouldn’t allow me be. All the complaints come to my table – morning and night, and I say okay, enough is enough.

“We even heard that another FCT woman leader is organising another market association and named it Association of Organised Market People in Abuja and most of these people are PDP. They were nowhere to be found when we were working for the party day and night.
“Now, our people are not happy because they need to benefit from where they believe they have the right to. All we need, all we are crying for is for the government to give them a sense of belonging and carry them along properly.”
When asked whether her father knew about the agitation, she said, “Because I am the daughter of the National Leader of the APC doesn’t mean that I must not represent my people well. I have to represent my people’s opinion, I am a leader, and as a leader my people are crying foul and I won’t fold my hands and keep quite because my father is a national leader, it is wrong.

“I am not mobilising against the party, no. I am solidly behind the party. I have worked for the party before and I will still work for the party tomorrow, but that does not stop me from saying the truth.”