Hafsat Abiola-Costello, daughter of the late MKO Abiola, is the director-general of the Yahaya Bello presidential campaign organisation.
Bello, a presidential aspirant of the All Progressives Congress (APC), formally declared his intention to run for president on Saturday at Eagle Square, Abuja.
Addressing the audience at the event, Abiola-Costello said her appointment as the campaign DG is a historic achievement and a turning point for Nigerian women in politics.
Describing herself as the first female DG of a presidential campaign organisation, she said women will no longer be cooks and singers during election campaigns.
“Today, we start our march to our destiny. We have been sidelined for decades. Since Nigeria’s independence, we have been struggling to put the Nigerian people at the centre of our government. Nigerians are poor but Nigeria is not poor. Nigeria’s money has been stolen, the people are coming under attack on a daily basis,” she said.
“It is with all sense of humility and due sense of history that we say to all Nigerians today that the train to our destiny is about to take off. We are all on the march to Nigeria’s true destiny as the greatest black nation in the world.
“I congratulate all the women here. Nigerian women have been made into cooks and singers. Today, I am the first woman director-general of a presidential campaign organisation.”
We are not just cooking, we are not just singing. We are going to build this country.
“Today, we signal to all the vested interests in Nigeria that the takeover by Nigerian women, by Nigeria’s young people has begun. Nothing is going to stop our march to Aso Rock in 2023.”
Abiola said she will lead the campaign across the country to canvass support for the Kogi state governor, adding that Bello is the “leader that is coming”.
Senator Jonathan Silas Zwingina is the national coordinator and chairman of the presidential campaign while Femi Fani-Kayode, former minister of aviation, is the deputy national coordinator and deputy chairman.
