A child rights group, the Movement for the Eradication of Child Abandonment (MECA), has in no uncertain terms rejected the candidature of the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), General Muhammadu Buhari ahead of the Saturday, March 28, 2015 presidential election.
Speaking via a statement issued by its National Coordinator, Eugene Afonja and its Secretary, Obi Erumaka, MECA said its warning became pertinent following certain statements attributed to General Buhari’s wife, Aisha, in which she inferred that Edo women are prostitutes.
The statement read: “We are perplexed, flummoxed, and aghast beyond comprehension on the most insensitive, careless, callous and barbaric utterances by the wife of Major General Muhammadu Buhari on the women of Edo State, Nigeria.
“It is disheartening to listen to a woman who should confront the challenges that characterize the state of these helpless children and provide succor and encouragement to them rather comes out openly to group the entire women of Edo as prostitutes, what a shame! She was given out in child marriage at an unbelievable age to a man who was old enough to be her grandfather, we expected this woman to be a strong advocate of anything that degrades the dignity of women.
“We at MECA have come to an irresistible and sad conclusion that the man who aspires to govern our country on the platform of APC, is a true oppressor of women who is so inhuman to pay the bride price for an underaged girl.
“In our 10 years of existence we have tried to the best of our ability not to be partisan, however, we at MECA will never stop, we will never rest, we will never sleep until the war against child abandonment, child molestation and child abuse is won. Accordingly, we are for the very first time calling on our members in the 36 states and the FCT, every mother and every person who has passed through childhood to reject Buhari for this very reasons brought forward.”
