Meet candidate who wants to be first female Councillor of Abuja ward

Abiodun Essiet

Born in Oyo town on January 3, 1986, Abiodun Essiet is a nurse, gender activist and community development worker.

Although her parents hail from Remo North Local Government of Ogun State, Mrs Essiet grew up in Ibadan where she completed her secondary school education at United Missionary Comprehensive Girls college, Molete in 2002.

She later moved to Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso in Osun State where she bagged a degree in Nursing Science and became a registered nurse, midwife and a public health nurse in 2009.

During her community posting at a primary health centre in Osogbo, Osun State, Mrs Essiet said she observed a high prevalence of teenage pregnancy in some of the rural communities of the state and decided to help in addressing the issue.

Convinced an effective approach is to educate young girls on dangers of teenage pregnancy, the young Abiodun approached the then governor of the state, Olagunsoye Oyinlola, to introduce sex education in the curriculum of secondary schools. She played a major role in developing the subject.

Two years after graduation, she married her heartthrob, Victor Essiet, and the union is blessed with a boy and a girl.

Mrs Essiet later bagged a Master’s degree in Public Health at the College of Medicine, University of Ibadan in 2016.

That same year, she travelled to Canada for a certificate course in community leadership development by women at Coady International Institute. The following year, she received a scholarship from the same school for a diploma in leadership development and other certificate courses related to development studies.

Having acquired much knowledge, skills and field experience in community development, Mrs Essiet said she decided to run for political office due to the gap she saw between government and people in rural communities in Nigeria.

With political power, she felt she would be able to better express her passion. On Saturday, she declared her interest to run for Councillorship in Orozo Ward of Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC) in the 2019 general election.

If she wins, Mrs Essiet will be the first woman to be elected a Councillor in the ward. She is running on the platform of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).