Women
THE Inter-Agency Advisory Committee (IAAC) on the implementation of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) gender policy says participation of women in politics in the country has increased.
The committee said that the just concluded general elections in the country showed a clear proof of increase in the number of women fielded for elective positions by political parties.
The agency explains this in a document made available to News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Thursday during after its committee meeting.
The document noted that six political parties fielded female presidential candidates, 59 fielded female senatorial candidates while 75 fielded for house of representative candidates.
It noted that 40 political fielded female for governorship while 79 field for female governorship and 40 for state houses of assembly respectively.
It said that the eventual outcome of general elections showed that representation of women in politics and especially at the state and national levels experienced a downward progression to the 2015 elections as only 62 women were elected.
The report highlighted that seven women were elected to the Senate, 11 to the House of Representatives, four elected as deputy governors and 40 into the state houses of assembly.
The report stated that the decline or failure to win the positions for which women were nominated could be attributed to a number of reasons, most of which were not exclusively related to the electoral process.
Mrs Rose Oriaran-Anthony, Secretary to INEC, told NAN that while the commission endeavoured to promote gender equality and inclusively there was a limit to which it could go to protect women especially on marginalisation.
Oriaran-Anthony said there were need to deeply examine other vertical relations in society that promote exclusionary processes, practices and systems such as patriarchy, culture and socialisation amongst others.
She also noted that even though most political parties make provision for the inclusion of women in their party constitutions and manifestos, it remains a mirage as the executives do not reflect an appreciable percentage of women when compared to men.
“Of the 91 political parties before the general elections, only 21 parties had female national chairman, national secretary and national organising secretary.
She stressed that all the political stakeholders must put hands on deck to contribute strategically to improve women inclusion in elective positions.
-NAN
BE
JULY 25, 2019 16:20 GMT
Tags: Inter-Agency Advisory Committee says women participation in politics increases
