By George Ozalla

Dr Juliet Hasana-Moneme, the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) senatorial candidate for the Federal Capital Territory, has said money alone cannot win an election, insisting that voters, particularly women, want candidates whose credibility, record and plans can withstand scrutiny.

Moneme made the submission during an interactive media engagement organised by the League of Anambra Journalists in Abuja (LAJA), where she spoke about her senatorial ambition, women participation in politics, empowerment and what she described as a more sustainable approach to constituency development.

She said women should not be expected to vote for a candidate simply because the candidate is a woman, stressing that female voters also consider the credibility and capacity of the person seeking their support.

“Women believe in credibility,” she said.

Moneme explained that she had been engaging women organisations and community groups to present her plans, hear their concerns and allow them to make their own assessment of her candidacy.

She acknowledged that money plays a role in Nigerian elections, particularly in meeting the cost of campaign materials, publicity, transportation and the welfare of polling unit agents.

But she said financial resources should not be confused with voter acceptance.

“Money is needed in politics. But money is not everything,” she said.

She said her record of community interventions and empowerment initiatives would give voters something concrete to consider beyond campaign promises.

A major part of Moneme’s presentation was her proposed approach to women empowerment, which she said would focus on skills acquisition, economic empowerment and access to credit facilities and grants.

“Every woman in the FCT should hold me accountable for women skills acquisition, for women empowerment, and for women access to credit facilities or grants that are available in the city,” she said.

She said her approach would be built around identifying residents and understanding their needs rather than distributing empowerment packages indiscriminately.

To achieve this, she proposed a structured database covering the FCT’s six area councils, wards and communities.

According to her, the database would provide useful information on residents and their needs, making it easier to connect people with opportunities in education, skills development, credit and other support programmes.

Moneme said she did not believe constituency empowerment should end with the distribution of cash or items to beneficiaries.

She illustrated her position with the story of a woman who, according to her, was struggling with family debts and earning a living from selling plastic goods when she sought her assistance.

Instead of simply handing her money, Moneme said she encouraged the woman to consider food preparation and helped her begin a small business selling akara, fried yam and other food.

She said she provided some of the basic items required to start the business and personally helped to promote it in order to attract customers.

The woman, Moneme said, gradually built up the business, improved her savings and eventually expanded into a restaurant.

She added that the woman later began supplying food to visitors at a local government secretariat, turning what started as a modest intervention into a growing business.

For Moneme, the experience demonstrates why empowerment should be designed around helping people develop sustainable sources of income.

She said start-up support should be accompanied by mentoring, supervision, savings and access to markets so that beneficiaries are not left on their own after receiving assistance.

It was this experience, she said, that informed her preference for a revolving-fund model.

Under the arrangement, beneficiaries would receive funds to invest in businesses and repay into the pool, allowing other people to access the same resources.

“We need to make sure that the money you give to your people for investment is not free. It is going to be a revolving fund,” she said.

Moneme said she had used a similar approach in community programmes and in a women’s organisation she led in Abuja, where the revolving fund remained active after she handed over.

She said the model could make constituency empowerment more effective by allowing the same pool of resources to support successive groups of beneficiaries instead of being exhausted after one distribution.

The senatorial candidate said her intention was to link people’s abilities with the resources and opportunities needed to turn those abilities into sustainable livelihoods.

She also said her empowerment plans would not be restricted to women, noting that her wider objective was to improve the economic prospects of residents of the FCT.

Moneme said she expected both male and female voters to consider her candidacy on its merits, rather than viewing it solely through the lens of gender.

She maintained that voters should judge candidates by their records, plans and willingness to be held accountable.

For her, the real test of political empowerment is not how much money is handed out during a campaign, but whether the support given to people enables them to build something that can continue after the politician has left.