Reported by: Ijeoma G | Edited by: Oravbiere Osayomore Promise.
Hundreds of women affiliated with the All Progressives Congress (APC) took to the streets in Abuja on the morning of May 20, 2026, staging a noisy and determined protest against what they described as a demeaning ₦1,000 payment offered to female party members for participating in the recently concluded primary elections. The protesters, who gathered as early as 8 a.m. at the APC National Secretariat on Blantyre Street, Wuse 2, accused party leaders of using token cash handouts to manipulate the electoral process while systematically excluding women from genuine contestation and decision-making roles. Chanting solidarity songs and carrying placards with inscriptions such as “Our Votes Are Not For Sale,” “₦1,000 Is An Insult, Not A Wage,” and “We Demand 35% Affirmative Action Now,” the demonstrators rejected the payment and called on the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) to immediately address the marginalisation of female aspirants in the party's internal democracy.
The protest, which remained largely peaceful but drew a heavy police presence, was triggered by disclosures that during the APC primaries held across various states earlier in May 2026, women who turned out to vote in the exercises were handed ₦1,000 each as a “transportation and participation allowance” by some state chapters of the party. According to protest leaders who addressed the crowd, the practice was not uniform across all states but was reported in several locations, including Kano, Kaduna, Katsina, Niger, and the Federal Capital Territory. The women argued that the gesture, far from being a harmless incentive, was intended to reduce female members to mere vote-buying instruments while denying them the opportunity to contest for elective positions on equal footing with men. “We are not beggars. We are card-carrying members of this party who have worked tirelessly for its successes,” said Hajiya Aisha Bello, a former women’s leader from Niger State who spoke on behalf of the protesters. “To be given ₦1,000 as if we are being bought for a primary election is the height of disrespect. We reject it completely.”
The protest also highlighted deeper grievances regarding the nomination process for the 2027 general elections. The women accused the APC leadership of failing to enforce the party’s own affirmative action policy, which stipulates that at least 35 percent of elective and appointive positions should be zoned to women. “Look at the list of candidates that have emerged from the primaries so far. Where are the women?” asked Mrs. Nkechi Okoro, an aspirant for a House of Representatives seat in Abia State who lost her bid after what she described as manipulated delegate voting. “We have the numbers, we have the qualifications, but the party machinery is still dominated by men who decide everything in smoky backrooms. The ₦1,000 is just a symbol of how little they think of us.” Several women alleged that in some polling units, party agents had openly distributed cash to female voters while male voters were not offered similar inducements, suggesting a deliberate attempt to secure cheap loyalty from a demographic perceived as easily swayed.
The APC National Secretariat initially declined to issue an immediate response, but a senior party official who spoke on condition of anonymity told reporters that the NWC had taken note of the protest and would investigate the allegations of token payments. “The party did not authorise any payment of ₦1,000 to any category of voters during the primaries. If any state chapter did that, it was done without the approval of the national leadership,” the official said. However, the protest leaders dismissed that explanation as an attempt to distance the national body from practices that they said were well-known and tolerated. “The same national leadership that pretends not to know also appoints the state party chairmen and supervises the primaries. They cannot claim ignorance,” said Barrister Fatima Bamidele, a legal practitioner and APC member from Kwara State.
The protest took an unexpected turn when a delegation of five women was allowed into the secretariat to present a formal letter of grievances to the National Chairman. The letter, which was later read to the waiting crowd, demanded an immediate halt to any further distribution of cash to women in ongoing supplementary primaries, a public apology from the party, a binding commitment to enforce the 35 percent affirmative action in all future party and government appointments, and the prosecution of any state party officials found to have misused party funds for vote-buying. The women also demanded that the party publish the full financial records of the primaries to account for how funds allocated for the exercise were spent.
While the delegation was inside, the crowd outside grew larger and more restive, prompting police officers to deploy additional personnel and close off Blantyre Street to traffic. By midday, the delegation emerged and announced that the National Chairman had received their letter and promised to convene an emergency meeting of the NWC to address the issues. However, the protesters refused to disperse until they received a signed commitment. After another hour of tense waiting, the party released a short statement through its Publicity Secretary, expressing regret over “any perceived marginalisation” and pledging to review the complaints. The statement did not explicitly reject the ₦1,000 payments nor commit to the 35 percent demand, leading many protesters to brand the response as “evasive and insulting.”
The protest finally wound down around 2 p.m., with the women vowing to return if concrete steps were not taken within two weeks. “We are not going away. The APC cannot win elections without women, and we will no longer be treated as second-class citizens in a party we helped to build,” Hajiya Aisha Bello declared. Political analysts have noted that the protest reflects a wider crisis within the APC as it prepares for the 2027 general elections, with internal disaffection among women threatening to erode a crucial voting bloc. “The APC has historically relied on women’s turnout to offset deficits in other demographics,” said Dr. Funmilayo Adebayo, a political scientist at the University of Abuja. “If women feel alienated or treated with contempt, that could have significant electoral consequences, especially in swing states.”
As the women marched away from the secretariat, one protester, clutching a placard that had become slightly torn during the scuffle, summed up the mood: “₦1,000 is less than what we spend on transportation to come and vote. We are not for sale. Our daughters are watching, and we will not let them inherit a party that sees us as cheap.” The APC leadership has yet to announce any concrete action beyond the promised review, but the images of angry women chanting outside the party’s headquarters are likely to linger, a reminder that in politics, even a seemingly small amount of money can become a powerful symbol of much larger failures.
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