Nigerian women are demanding that a 50% affirmative action be reflected in Ministerial appointments, Board Chairmen, Heads of Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDA’s) including the 9th National Assembly in the incoming administration.
The call was made Wednesday in Abuja during a world press conference organised by different women groups, under the auspicies of the coalition for the inclusion of women in governace, stressing that they played a great role in the reelection of President Mohammadu Buhari.
It would be recalled that President Buhari during a “thank you” dinner organised for women who worked towards his reelection promised to appoint more women into his cabinet.
Co-convener of the conference and President of the Women in Politics Forum (WIPF) Ebere Ifendu, while addressing the conference said women are coming forward this time to make the demands, noting that in the just concluded elections the representation of women at all levels has further reduced.
“The elections show how men dominate politics in Nigeria. Although 47% of registered voters are women, according to the electoral commission, their political representation is limited.
“The country has never elected a woman president or state governor and women only make up 6% of the 469 national parliament members. This is a sad number compared to what we had in the past,” she stressed.
“Nigerian women are unhappy about the extremely low number of women representation and the reduction of the number of women coming to the 9th assembly. We have suffered gross neglect, discrimination and exclusion arising from socio cultural/ideological constructions of gender,” she added.
Ifendu further expressed displeasure that the ongoing lobby for positions at the National Assembly has only been based on the zoning structure, saying gender, experience and capability to hold such offices which can bring in women were not put into consideration.
“The few women in National Asembly particularly those who have cognate experience should be given principal positons. Hon. Khadija Abba and Hon. Nkeiru Onyejiocha are women who have proven their worth in the National Assembly and should be recognised for leadership of principal positions in the 9th Assembly.
“In thesame vain we demand that women currently serving in the executive, like Sharon Ikeazor and other women for appointive positions, as we want Nigeria to be amongst the league of developed nations that are gender compliant around the world,” she stressed.
In her remarks the National Coordinator of the Change Managers International (CMI) Felicia Onibon regretted that patriarchy has continued to be the bane of women’s growth, stressing that allowing it to continue means Nigeria will remain under-developed.
Blueprint reports that the women are suspicious of being sidelined as most of them are not visible in the ongoing strategy for appointments for various positions.
