By Emeka Nze Abuja
National Chairman, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Senator Ahmed Makarfi , said the party will support enactment of a law for gender parity in politics and participation in governance. Speaking yesterday in Abuja when the Minister for Woman Aff airs and Social Development, Senator Aisha Alhassan, led women leaders in an advocacy visit to the leadership of the PDP, Makarfi told the women to seek for nominations as party candidates instead of clamouring for free forms.
“If it is in compliance with the law, everybody will comply, but if you leave it fl exible, it is an escapist route. Forget about free forms, pay and get the ticket. Let us do the right thing,” he said. He also made a case for consideration of the women’s move to secure a legislation backing the 35 per cent affi rmative action on women participation in politics and government in the ongoing constitutional amendment process. While praising the minster for her productiveness, Makarfi said: ” I am not very surprised that you are doing well because you were trained and brought up by the PDP, at the end of the day everybody has to come back home”.
Th e minister had asked the leadership of political parties in Nigeria to adopt a policy of voluntary electoral party gender quota system as a means of guaranteeing more participation of the womenfolk in politics and governance. She described the initiative as a deliberate strategy of earmarking constituencies solely for women candidates during an election. “Although the Nigerian constitution guarantees equality for everyone in all spheres, women have not enjoyed this constitutional right. As a result, we have been overtaken by countries like Rwanda with 66 per cent women’s representation in Parliament, South Africa with 40 per cent, Seychelles over 50 per cent, Ghana, 35 per cent and a large chunk of the other African countries with over 25 per cent”.
