Women decry ‘wrongs’ done to them in South-East, and Nigerian politics

A group of women, under the aegis of South-East Female Political Leaders, has decried the perceived ‘wrongs’ women allegedly suffer in the region and in Nigeria.

The group claimed that the menfolk have continued to relegate Nigerian women to the background in elective and appointive political positions.

The women group stated this after a three-day workshop with the theme, ‘Sustaining political spaces for continuity as leaders through active participation and constituency projects involvement’, held in Enugu and organised by Alliances for Africa.

The women at the workshop resolved among other things, to push for the enactment of a legal framework that would define modalities for equal balancing of political positions, as well as see more Nigerian women involved in partisan politics, either through elective or appointive positions.

They said party politics had remained ‘all men affair’ in most of the elections, alleging that the high cost of forms to contest for political offices were strategically designed by the men dominant political parties, the PDP and the APC, to scare women away.

The communiqué released at the end of the workshop and read out by Blessing Nwagba, a former two-term Abia State legislator read:

“The South Eastern states have only 3, 3 and 2 out of 27, 19 and 17 slots for female commissioners in Abia, Ebonyi and Imo states, respectively.

“Abia State has no female lawmaker to represent them in the House of Assembly, while Imo has 2 out of 27 lawmakers in the state. Women need to be in a position to represent and deliver societal needs through governance.

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“We are going to formulate actions. We will continue to put pressure, create awareness on the need for women to be more involved in politics for result-oriented governance.

“Women participation in politics in Nigeria is only four per cent, while in many African countries like Rwanda, South Africa etc, the ratio has gone up to 36 per cent. We must continue to seek ways of addressing the wrongs done to women in Nigeria.”

According to the women, the affirmative action bill will be revisited and strengthened to achieve improved results in 2023 elections.

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