Rep member charges Buhari to appoint more women to offices

President Muhammadu Buhari has been charged to appoint more women into political offices as he settles in for his second term in office.

The call was made by Omowumi Ogunlola (APC, Ogun)‎ who said more women should be appointed into offices to compensate for the gender imbalance in the National Assembly and the recently released ministerial list.

The call by Omowumi Ogunlola was the outcome of a motion mooted by her when she said the noticeable shortfall of women in political office holders in Nigeria could be corrected if Buhari appointed more women as heads of Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).

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The lawmaker who argued that Nigeria is blessed with women of high academic stature said; “Out of the 469 members of the National Assembly, only 19 are women with 12 of them in the House of Representatives while 7 are in the Senate, which is just 4.1 per cent, and far from international best practices.”

According to her, the development does not only abide with the Resolution at the 1995 Beijing Women Conference, where it was decided that women should be recognized and given at least 35 per cent responsible positions in governments.

The call comes after Women in Politics (WIP) kicked against the low representation of women in the recently released ministerial nominees list by Buhari noting that it is not happy with the list, though the few listed were women of character and integrity.

Speaking in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja, Ebere Ifendu, the President, Women in Politics said the number “is low and very poor’’.

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