Nigerian Women under the auspices of Women in Politics Forum (WIPF) have said it is no longer uhuru for political parties who work against women, threatening that they would henceforth not condone marginalisation and disrespect from those who refuse them a level playing ground to contest for, or occupy strategic positions.
National president of the WIPF, Ebere Ifendu, gave the warning while briefing Journalists in Abuja, lamenting that political parties most times do not respect their constitution.
Ifendu expressed disappointment that there was no form of sanction on these parties either from the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) or by members of the party boycotting activities of the party.
She said, “Political parties must obey legal documents that sets them up as an organization. We have taken it upon ourselves to ensure that we test every infringement of constitution legally because there should be sanctions.
“It is on record that in most political parties, they have affirmative action in the constitution, manifestoes and other policy documents many without affirmative action is already making efforts to amend their constitutions to ensure that it is enshrined in their constitutions.
“We have parties like the People’s Democratic Party PDP that already have affirmative action enshrined in their Constitution and the African Democratic Congress ADC, that recently amended its constitution to adopt affirmative action, yet women are marginalised,” she said.
According to Ifendu, PDP women paid for their form and are ready to contest but unfortunately a consensus list was compiled which is not part of a democracy in party politics, noting that women have conquered lack of solidarity and finance but patriarchy remained a major bottleneck.
“PDP women came out en mass to buy form for a candidate to contest for them and this means women are saying no to injustice, but lack of laws is strong impediments to women’s political participation and growth and we can’t continue to wait on INEC.
“PDP is telling us that women don’t matter but we would teach them a lesson to tell them we matter. It is either the work with women especially those in their party, or they face Nigerian women and test our strength,” she warned.
The National President therefore called on the PDP to do the needful by honouring the constitution and other policy documents binding them.
“We also want INEC to ensure, through the ongoing constitution amendment, to include flagrant violation of a party constitution as one of the reasons to de register any political party.
In her remarks, topmost Gender equality advocate Ene Ede, tasked the PDP and other political parties on humanity, saying it parties can rotate presidency across geopolitical zones, they should consider the two human beings and persons with disabilities involved.
“This refusal to include women is deliberate and as a matter of fact, a historic and cumulative marginalisation despite loyalty over the years,” she decried.
