A pro-All Progressives Congress (APC) women group, under the aegis of Aunty Zee 774, has decried the spate of insecurity in the country, saying Nigeria is at a crossroad.
Speaking during an advocacy and awareness campaign at the APC national secretariat, Wednesday in Abuja, the coordinator of the group, Ms. Ann Agom-Eze, said women across the country strongly believed that the problems facing the nation could be reasonably checked if sacrifices and adjustments are made to the style of selection of leaders at all levels of government to include women.
She said: “Our great nation is at a crossroad. We are confronted and bedeviled by the hydra-headed monsters of banditry, terrorism, kidnapping, alongside unprovoked, gruesome and wanton killings across the country, especially in the northern regions.”
“With gender inclusion comes economic empowerment. There is no gainsaying the fact that Nigeria is greatly wasting a precious resource in the gross under-utilisation and poor representation of women in governance and politics i.e. playing with a half team, when we have the capacity of playing a star studded full team.
“As the 2023 elections approach, Nigeria must therefore address the sizable gender gaps that undermine women’s inclusion in governance. There is sufficient and ever-increasing evidence that women’s inclusiveness in governance and political decision-making processes help nation-building.”
Agom-Eze said current statistics has it that a paltry 11.2 per cent of female membership in both chambers of the Ninth National Assembly -seven females in the Senate and eleven in the House of Representatives, insisting this was very poor juxtaposing it with the 479 members of the federal parliament.
She said the participation of women in governance leads to higher responsiveness to the yearnings of citizens.
