By Suleiman Adamu, Sokoto
Women in Politics Forum( WIPF) has attributed women poor participation in politics and political process in Nigeria to the taking over of the space by the men politicians, urging the media to support its course towards changing the narratives.
It also blamed the challenges of internal party politics , provision of free forms to women and god-fatherism as some of the issues responsible for the poor participation of women as expected.
The Forum which agenda is to strengthen unity and fight against the marginalisation of women in politics, said statistical surveys had shown that women representation in elective positions was discouraging and needed to be reversed.
” Our appeal is to the media to partner with us to drive our mission and vision for the country through inclusive participation.
The National President of the Forum, Barrister Ebere Ifendu said at a press conference on Friday in Sokoto where she raised concerns over the dominance of the space by their male counterparts.
” It is no longer news that at the end of 2019 general elections , women made up of a total of 4.71% of the elected officials , showing a decline from the 2015 period when women made up of 5.6% of the elected officials.”
Also, while makig reference to current statistical recorded of women representation for the 2023 contest from the list of presidential and national assembly candidates released by INEC, Barrister Ifendu said of the 18 political parties that fielded presidential candidates and their running mates, only one female presidential candidate of the APM.
” For the Senate, women has only 8.35% with HoRs having just 9.2%”
According to her” we are worried by the abysmal percentage of women in both elective and appointive positions in governance, despite incessant advocacies and proposals by CSOs, policies and legislations by government and relevant stakeholders.”
However, Barrister Ifendu who disclosed that WIPF had conducted a thorough survey on the prevailing causes of women poor participation in politics in order to gauge the effectiveness or otherwise of existing interventions.
Accordingly, WIPF which expressed appreciation for the enactment and passage of the Electoral Act 2022 and the technological innovations of the INEC in ensuring that election were free and fair for every vote to count, further sought the Judiciary, Executive, Legislature , Media,Security Agencies, Political parties, Religious , traditional and Community leaders to effectively promote working synergy to strengthen the political space to allow inclusive participation towards the realisation of a Nigerian democratic institution’s that reflects better representation of women .
The Forum’s President further called on women , He4Shes as well electorates to be part of the WIPF mission for inclusive participation in governance and leadership of the country by women,youths and PWDs .
Also, Sokoto state WIPF Public Relations Officer, Fatima Khalid has appealed for level play ground by political parties for women to show case their prowess in elective and appointive positions.
She described as unfortunate that some state assemblies committees on women affairs were headed by male legislators, a practice which further denied women of their rightful place and participation.
