Ms. Tinubu-Ojo explained that market women worked hard to get Muhammadu Buhari and other APC members elected to office, but have been sidelined since the president was inaugurated last May.
Folasade Tinubu-Ojo, daughter of All Progressives Congress leader Bola Tinubu, led a protest with traders at the APC headquarters on Thursday, citing the party leadership’s marginalization and exclusion of market women from public affairs as the reason behind the demonstration.
Ms. Tinubu-Ojo explained that market women worked hard to get Muhammadu Buhari and other APC members elected to office, but have been sidelined since the president was inaugurated last May.
She expressed disappointment that market women have not been included in the activities of First Lady Aisha Buhari. Furthermore, a new market association was founded in Abuja, but the majority of its members belong to the Peoples Democratic Party.
“We even heard that another FCT woman leader is organizing another market association and named it the Association of Organized Market People in Abuja. Most of these people are PDP and were nowhere to be found when we were working for the party day and night,” Ms. Tinubu-Ojo said.
“Now our people are not happy because they need to benefit from where they believe they have the right to and all we need, all we are crying for is for the government to give them a sense of belonging.”
Ms. Tinubu-Ojo said that her father’s role in the APC is irrelevant to the protest.
“I won’t fold my hands and keep quiet because my father is a national leader. It is wrong.”
She emphasized, however, that the protest is not a mobilization against the APC.
“I am not mobilizing 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.”