Efficient women in governance will address Nigeria’s poor leadership problem – Prof

Iyabode Nwabueze, a professor of English Language at the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN), says getting effective and efficient women into governance may just be what is needed to solve Nigeria’s persistent problem of poor leadership.

Nwabueze stated this on Thursday, while delivering the varsity’s 27th Inaugural Lecture, entitled, “The Woman is First Human: The Linguistic Exploration of Her Personhood.”

She advised female politicians to work hard at bonding among themselves.

“Women must support one another by providing training, mentoring, and possible financial support.

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“As noted in Daniel (2015), women already have the population and power to organize to get themselves good leaders who can deliver based on ability,” she said.

She explained that it should not be merely based on that the person is a woman but because such a person is the best candidate for the job, with a proven track record and integrity.

“We will be ready to be part of helping more women get into political and decision-making levels in Nigeria. We believe that a collaboration spearheaded by NOUN will play a big role in getting this done,” she said.

She maintained that the Nigerian government has a beautiful gender policy that is not being vigorously applied.

“Indeed, discrimination is still rampant. The Legislature has refused to implement the Convention on the Elimination of

Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) resolution fully.

“Underaged girls are still being married off for economic advantage to the father, in most cases. Religious dogmatism is another problem that promotes underage marriage. Young women are still being sexually harassed in the workplace. All these and more remain serious challenges for women that require government intervention,” she said.

While noting that Nigeria needs to be deliberate by ensuring that harassment from either sexual party is duly punished, she said, “Gender-based violence infractions must face the full wrath of the law. More importantly, Nigerian citizens must encourage women’s particıpation in governance through deliberate actions and psychological maturity of seeing all.”

Earlier, the Vice-Chancellor of NOUN, Professor Olufemi Peters, represented by the Deputy Vice Chancellor (Technology Innovation & Research), Prof. Godwin Akper, emphasized the importance of creating an equal opportunity for women, where they can compete and succeed on the same terms as their peers.