ABUJA – The House of Representatives Committees on Women In Parliament and Women Affairs, have demanded for 50% of elective positions for women in the country and vowed to draw up an action plan so as to ensure effective participation of women in politics in Nigeria.
The United Nations affirmative action document, seeks at least 35% political representation for women, but the Committees at a Summit in Abuja, entitled: “Women Week Roundtable”, organised by the Committee on Women In Parliament, headed by Hon. Taiwo Oluga, PLAC and the European Union, said 50%, should be the minimum in the next general election, in line with the 1999 Constitution.
In her address, Hon. Taiwo Oluga, regretted that women were facing extremely strenuous hurdles to representing their communities in Parliament, as she urged for radical reforms.
The lawmaker and other keynote speakers at the conference said that contrary to the general held belief that women do not and should not participate in politics, there is an increasing need for more women involvement in politics at all levels.
They noted that the women of the defunct Kanem Borno, Zazzau and Zaria empires of the pre-independence period in Nigeria had many many women political activists who were very successful in their own rights.
She said that the conference is aimed at finding out the issues militating against participation of women in politics at federal, state and local government areas in Nigeria, as she also called for a special quota for women in politics.
Hon. Wunmi Onanuga, In her presentation, stressed that instead of the 30% Affirmative action plan, which is yet to be attained, the country should scale it up in the next 2023 polls, in line with the constitutional requirement of “equality among genders”.
Earlier in her speech, Mrs. Oluga who acknowledged the quality representation of Deputy Whip of the House, Hon. Nkeiruka Onyejeocha, who was also at the event, urged political parties and the government to do more for the female gender.
“From the theme of this Roundtable Discussion, it is important that there is need to improve women’s participation in politics and governance in Nigeria. The Theme is in itself is an admission of low level of women participation in politics”, she said.
According to her, ” the whole essence is to create awareness on the need to improve women participation in politics in Nigeria at all |eve|s of governance, identify factors militating against women participation in politics in Nigeria and come up with an achievable action plan on how to improve women’s participation in politics in Nigeria”.
She regretted that “Despite Nigeria‘s Gender Policy and its Commitment to the Global Affirmative Action, the National Average of Women Participation in Politics has never exceeded 6.7% of both elective and appointive positions in the country”, adding that “this is far below the global average of 22.3%, the West African Regional Average of 15% and the African Regional Average of 23.4%”.
They further called on President Muhammadu Buhari to give special quota to women at the Federal Executive Council and urged him to appoint more women into his current cabinet.
