Minister Canvasses Equal Opportunity For Women In Politics

Lack of internal democracy and cultural beliefs have been identified as major factors responsible for lower participation of women in Nigerian politics.
Minister of Women Affairs, Hajia Jummai Alhassan made the disclosure at the public presentation of key findings of the collation of data on participation of women in politics from 1999-2015.

The six weeks project conducted by the National Council for Women Development, had stakeholders drawn from across the six geo-political zones of the country, with a reference to provide impartial and comparable basis for evaluating progress and evidence based planning to improve the situation of women participation in politics.

The minister, who was represented at the presentation by the Director of Women and Gender Affairs of the ministry, Mrs. Esther Ehobamien-Mshelia, lamented the current political structure which does not provide a level playing field for all Nigerians, as a huge barrier against women’s fundamental right to participate in the nation’ politics. She argued that contrary to widely held view that women are not interested in politics, the minister challenged political parties and the Independent National Electoral Commission to give women equal opportunities as their men counterparts and significant number of women will come out to seek electoral posts. She also urged policy makers to fashion national policies that will make women an integral part of political parties’ ideology rather than relegating them to the background.
The minister strongly noted that political parties in Nigeria were poorly structured and therefore do not give adequate concessions to the diverse interest groups in the society as it is obtainable in advanced democracies, a situation she said will slow down the strengthening process of Nigerian democracy.

In his address, the acting Director General of the NCWD, Mallam Sadeeq Omar, expressed the council’s commitment to continuing the campaign for active women participation in governance in line with the 35 per cent affirmative action.
He also noted that to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls in line with the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), there is need for adequate data to provide impartial and comparable basis for evaluating progress towards the goals agreed upon at various world conferences in order to improve the situation of women.