Leadtots seeks more women participation in politics
A group says until women participation is encouraged, Nigeria may not actualise the much desired progress.
Speaking on Tuesday in an interview with Journalists, shortly after a roundtable on women political participation in Gombe State, Senior Programme Officer of Leadtots Development Initiative Seun Onarinde urged more women to seek political offices.
According to him, women have tendency of making better leaders, adding that they should not wait to be handed over roles, while urging them to devise proactive means of becoming relevant politically.
Onarinde said, “We know that the politics in Nigeria has not been so inclusive with women occupying just about 5.65 percent of all elected officials in Nigeria just after 2019 election. That figure is too low and very poor for an productive and meaningful democracy to take place. It is important to bring together hands to begin to strategise and create momentum at the grassroots level.”
Commenting further Onarinde lamented the cultural and religious set backs which he described as challenges facing Gombe women in Politics.
“From dialogue and research we realised that the concept of tradition and religion are clearly misunderstood. The idea is to pull down some of the gender stereotypes that limits women. We realised that women needs to be pushed that is why women support groups are rising all over to breach systemic marginalisation of younger women,” Onarinde said.
Also speaking, A development worker, Zariyatu Hasidu who presented on changing the narrative of marginalisation revealed that it evident in politics, adding that alot needed to be done.
Hasidu said there are alot of women who are qualified, calling on leaders to appoint such persons.
She said, “Because women are not on the cooking table, men don’t see it from our perspective. The patriarchal setting of our society, as well as some ethnic norms which affects women participation. The representation is sometimes not very meaningful.”
On his part, Mohorret Bigun, Public Affairs Officer Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC); whose paper bothered on engaging the electoral law to position women, youth as candidate urged them to be conversant with provisions of the Act.
Bigun “It will increase credibility in our electoral process, there is no more room for sharing ballot papers that will discourage over voting. The extended time will give women time to sell their candidacy, from one woman in the Gombe State House of Assembly to more women. Women must believe in themselves, they should strive to know the electoral framework because if they don’t know about the provisions they will be missing out.”
