The wife of the
President, Mrs Aisha Buhari, on Wednesday stressed the need for more
women to show interest and participate in partisan politics.....
Buhari made this assertion at a 2-day
Nigeria Women Political Stakeholders Summit in Abuja with the theme:
“Increasing the Participation of Women in Governance process in
Nigeria,” organised by the National Council of Women Societies ( NCWS ).
The wife of the president noted that the
decline in participation of women in governance has led to poor
national development in the country.
According to her, in spite of the good
intention of this administration to actively engage women in governance,
there has been an alarming decline of women participation.
Mrs Buhari, who was represented by the
former deputy governor of Plateau State, Dame Tallen, lamented the
alarming decline in the statistics of women participation in governance,
saying it would not augur well for national development.
“Since 1999 there has been an alarming
decline in the statistics of women in governance, something has gone
terribly wrong, and we women need to speak out and do something about
it.
“We make up 50 per cent of this
country’s population and we cannot continue to be sidelined in the
decision making process of this country”.
Earlier, Gloria Shoda, President of
NCWS, said that insensitivity of the government was responsible for most
problems confronting women.
She opined that the recurring issues of
women are not limited to poverty, unemployment, lack of access, lack of
any social support system, inequality and the abysmal levels of women
participation and representation in decision making in the political
parties structures an in government.
Shoda added that the society has decided
to fight for the thirty five percent affirmative action to help change
the narratives of Nigeria’s politics.
She said that going forward the society
would, henceforth, negotiate with and partner with any political party
that would implement the 35 per cent affirmative action in filling it’s
political party leadership positions.
“We will partner with parties that will
respect the 35 per cent affirmative action in selection of candidates
for the 2019 general elections, prioritise women issues in its
manifestos, and implement the 35 per cent action in its appointments
when it wins the elections”.
The chairman House of Representative on
Women Affairs and Social Development, Mrs Stella Ugwu representing the
Speaker of the House of representative, noted that the representation
of women in the house was quite low.
According to her, in the house of representatives there are only 22 women out of the 360 members, which is not too impressive.
NAN
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