First Lady of Nigeria, Mrs Aisha
Buhari, on Thursday said it was high time women stopped talking and moved into
action to curb women disparity in politics.
Buhari who was represented by Mrs
Pauline Tallen, Former Deputy Governor, of Plateau, made the call at a two-day
National Conference on Women’s political Participation in Nigeria: Post-2019
General Elections.
She commended women who made an
attempt to contest in the last elections although most of them were denied
against the wishes of the electorate.
“It is a sad situation, it is
heart breaking, but we must learn to do thing differently; its high time we
reduced the talking and moved into action.
“It is time for action and we are
calling with a big and loud voice to all our political parties and INEC
chairman to do what their counterparts are doing in other countries by
promoting women.
“We have very capably women that
can contest any position in Nigeria; we are in a man’s world we can only
succeed if we have the support of the men.”
Buhari said that on her part, she
was persisting on the president to do something different by giving women a
quota system just like in other climes.
She said that was how other women
were succeeding in other countries adding that an amendment of the electoral
law would also give women an edge.
She said that statistics on women
participation in politics in Nigeria was heartbreaking adding that “we must
rethink and do everything possible that will earn us the name of being the
giant of Africa.”
Earlier, Mrs Ebere Ifendu,
President, Women in Politics said that a record of 2,970 women contested
elections into different positions in the 2019 general elections but only 67
got elected across the nation.
Ifendu said that a breakdown of
the elected members show that no women was elected as president, vice president
or governor while only seven were elected to the senate.
She said that 12 were elected to
the House of Representatives and 44 to the State Assemblies with about 11
states without a female member.
She said that Nigerian women went
to the elections with high expectations but the overall level of representation
of women in politics remained a cause for concern as the number elected
continued to dwindle.
Ms Comfort Lamptey, UN Women
Representative to Nigeria and ECOWAS said the conference was aimed at examining
the 2019 elections in terms of women’s participation.
Lamptey said the conference would
also look at the lessons learnt from the 2019 elections, approaches adopted by
stakeholders to support women and outline an action plan for a robust
engagement ahead of 2023.
She said that UNwomen would
continue to support Nigeria to expand the political space for women because it
was necessary to ensure attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG)
and build inclusive and lasting democracy.
Dr Hadiza Balarabe, Deputy
Governor Kaduna state, urged women not to give up but support each other by
being their ‘sisters’ keeper to win elections.
Balarabe also urged them to build
their capacity in politics and all other walks of life because it would help
them greatly as in other smaller countries women were doing well.
Said she: “Nigeria must do it;
other smaller countries should learn from us and us from them.”
The conference was organised with
support from UNwomen, the European Centre for Electoral Support (ECES) Centre
for Democracy and Development (CDD), Nigeria Women’s Trust Fund and Women in
Politics.
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