Political parties urged to give more elective positions to women

The Inter Party Women Network (IPWN), Kaduna chapter has called on political parties to create avenues for women in politics to have access into elective positions rather that appointment.

The call was made in Kaduna after a one-day synergy meeting between media practitiones and women in politics organized by Legal Awareness for Nigerian Women (LAWN), in collaboration with National Democratic Institute (NDI).

While commending the Kaduna State government for appointing women into key position in his cabinet, a member of the group, Hon. Aisha Mohammed, called on political parties to create  gender sensitive  bills that will allow women stand for elective positions into political and party offices.

She said that at party level, the position of women leaders should be scraped to allow women via into key positions in political parties emphasising this will enable women venture into more tasking roles in politics rather that limiting their chances to being women heads.

She said, “In Kaduna, a woman is the deputy governor and out of the 14 ministries in the state, women occupied six, these ministries are sensitive offices. We are very happy with this development and we believe this strategy will invite more women into politics.

“Also, we want more women seeking for elective position because a woman is a mother and when given the opportunity, she performs perfectly well, as you can see all the sensitive seats of the commissioners.

“I want to call on party faithful and stakeholders that when next party convention hold, women should be allowed to occupy more position. For instance, a woman can be a party chairman, secretary, pro or youth leader, so elective posts should not be restricted to women leader alone.

“During elections, women come out to vote more than men and governor El-Rufai has confirmed this when he said women are the back bone to his election into office.”

Coordinator, LAWN, Hannatu Ahuwan said, “Women are one of the most disadvantage groups in politics.”

She urged the media to serve as a means through which women can be elected into political office.

She identified factors like fear and societal perception of women as home keeper as hindrance them of competing with men and stressed on the need for journalist to use the media to create awareness and encourage more women to participate in politics.