Women
DAME Pauline Tallen, the Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development, has called for collective efforts toward promoting women’s advancement and their participation in governance.
Tallen, represented by Mrs Victoria Lar, the Permanent Secretary of the ministry, made the call at the of the Review meeting of 2019 General Elections from a Gender Perspective, held in Abuja on Friday.
The event was organised by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in collaboration with the European Centre for Electoral Support (ECES).
Tallen said that priority should be given to ensuring that Nigerian women were positioned to contribute to meeting the provisions of global frameworks and other relevant protocols.
According to her, these include the Africa Agenda 2063, Planet 50:50 by 2030 and the global campaign for promoting women’s participation in governance and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 2030 targets.
“I wish to enjoin us to build a strong solidarity for women as this is the tested way of overcoming the numerous challenges and barriers to women’s full development and participation.’’
Tallen said that the low level of political participation of women was becoming alarming and disturbing, especially in the just concluded 2019 general elections.
She attributed factor responsible for the poor performance to high level of illiteracy among women in some regions, money politics and lack of financial political party arrangements, electoral violence and wrong misconceptions about women’s leadership capabilities.
“In addition, the absence of supportive policies, mechanisms and incentives including affirmative action policies continue to be a challenge.
Tallen said that notwithstanding the challenges, government through the ministry had made deliberate efforts toward achieving the full participation of women in political space.
She said that these were done through legislative and policy frameworks, advocacy and sensitisation of political parties, political and traditional leaders across all the geo-political zones in the country.
“The ministry has also build partnership and synergy amongst partners, MDAS and stakeholders who are actively involved with women’s political participation in the country.’’
Mrs Adewunmi Onanuga, the Chairperson, House Committee on Women Affairs and Social Development, House of Representatives, urged INEC to do more in areas of gender incentives.
Onanuga said that while INEC should be commended more needed to be done to check the impact of factors noticeable factors militating against women political interest and gender balance in governance.
The factors, according to her include poor political awareness and gender advocacy programmes, lack of funding in the face of highly monetised politics.
Also indentified were masculine/men inclined pre-election policies of political parties; less/low social protection for female political aspirants.
Other factors according to her are cultural, traditional and religious biases against women emancipation; and social status, sexual harassments and marital prejudices.
Onanuga stressed the need for all stakeholders including state actors, international community, donor agencies and CSOs to take up the challenge for an equal space, equal right and equal political opportunity for all
She said that the House of Representatives and indeed the Committee on Social Development remained committed to the universal protocol on gender issues.
“For us in the National Assembly, the legislature is ever ready and willing to partner proactive ideas and actionable programmes towards a more credible 2023 elections.’’
Mr Manji Wilson, the Coordination Advisor and Electoral Administration Expert, ECES Nigeria, said the interaction was targeted at improving women participation in future electoral and political processes.
“This is therefore a welcome development, especially being a part of the commission’s robust review exercises which commenced in June 2019.
“ECES is proud to support this meeting, and hopes that exchange of ideas on how to improve the participation of women in the next electoral cycle will be facilitated,’’ Wilson said.(NAN)
– Sept. 27, 2019 @ 17:15 GMT |
Tags: Minister calls for collective efforts to promote women’s advancement
