Female political leaders in the Southeast have kicked against the
continuous relegation of women to the background in elective and appointive
political positions.
They have demanded the enactment of a legal framework that would define
modalities for equal balancing of political positions.
The group, which operates under the aegis of ‘South East Female Political
Leaders’, gave this hint as part of the resolution reached after their
three-day workshop with the theme, ‘Sustaining political spaces for continuity
as leaders through active participation and constituency projects involvement’,
held in Enugu, organized by Alliances for Africa.
They advocated for a legal framework that would see more Nigerian women
involved in partisan politics, either through elective or appointive positions.
The women group lamented that through party politics, it had remained ‘all
men affair’ in most of the elections, adding that the high cost of the forms
was another factor strategically used by the dominant political parties, the
PDP and the APC to scare women away from the context.
They pointed out that Abia State was the worst hit as it had no elected
female member of the House of Assembly.
The women resolved that the affirmative action bill will be revisited and
strengthened to achieve improved results in 2023.
Women participation in politics in Nigeria is only four percent, while in
many African countries like Rwanda, South Africa etc, the ratio has gone up to
36 percent.
