Executive Director, Dispute Resolution and Development Initiative, Dr. Mustapha Muhammad Yahaya, has stated the commitment of the initiative to sensitise the society on the indispensable nature of the women in partisan politics.
Speaking at a one day sensitization workshop on post election stakeholders’ dialogue at the Tahir Guests Palace, Friday in Kano, Muhammad said the workshop was primarily convened to review the outcome of the 2019 general elections in relation to women participation and engagement in politics.
According to him, a lot of water has passed under the bridge as far as mobilising the women to assert their influence and indispensability in partisan politics was concerned.
He said getting defeated in any competitive electoral contest does not preclude women activists from forging ahead with the struggle to try their luck in subsequent contests.
Yahaya disclosed that series of mobilisation initiatives at the behest of the initiative and in conjunction with the National Democratic Institute (NDI) had made considerable impact in convincing the public that the women had a stake in making the democratic system in the country formidable, stressing that failing to succeed at the polls does not imply that they have totally lost out.
Sharing her experience as a contestant during the general elections, a female politician in Kano, Hajiya Zainab S. Umar, attributed the dismal performance of women to the firmly entrenched syndrome of God fatherism and lack of the financial wherewithal.
She maintained that with the issue of finance and God fatherism taking the centre stage the road for effective participation of women in politics would always remain bumpy.
Hajiya Zainab noted that the influence and monopoly of the major political parties in the country had greatly impeded aspirants on the platform of smaller political parties from making sustainable impact.
In the same vein, a renowned Islamic Scholar, Dr. Abdulmutallab Ahamad Muhammad, said there was compelling need to mobilise Imams across 44 Local government areas in the state to embark on effective sensitisation for the public to understand the Islamic perspective of women’s role in politics.
