The United Nations Women, an agency of the world body, has lamented that only 10 per cent of government contracts are executed by women.
The UN Women’s Country Representative to Nigeria and ECOWAS, Mrs Beatrice Eyong, disclosed this in Ilọrin, Kwara State, while decorating Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq as a global “HeforShe Champion” for his supportive policies on women.
The women’s team was in Kwara partly to inform the governor about the UN Women’s advocacies on issues and programmes affecting the gender and the launching of the biogas programme in the state next month.
Mrs Eyong, therefore, called on the governor to use his position as the Chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) to rally his colleagues to adopt gender inclusion in the country.
She requested AbdulRazaq to consider another legislation that gave women more access to the public sector contracting process as a form of economic empowerment.
She said, “We request you to further speak with your colleagues at the NGF to equally adopt the 35 per cent Affirmative Action on gender inclusion to stimulate the federal government to adopt the policy.
“Kwara State is a very important state to women, and one of the reasons the state is important to us is because of what you have done in the state.
“We learnt that in your first term in office we had a female majority cabinet, and now a 50/50 cabinet with majority of the appointments given to women and youths. You have created a favourable environment for gender equality and women empowerment by passing affirmative action into law. These are parts of the reasons we chose Kwara.”
Responding, Gov AbdulRazaq thanked the UN Women for the honour, which he said would encourage him and others to do more.
He said he had no regrets appointing women to key positions because “they have done so well.
“When we came in 2019, there was no single elected female official in Kwara State. By the time we crossed over to 2023, we had five members in the House of Assembly. It was a deliberate advocacy, and we hope to make more progress in the next elections.
“By and large, we are crushing the stereotype that ‘women can’t do this, women can’t do that, no one should vote for women’. I think we are getting to a stage where what matters is the performance and what you do for the people; not your gender.”
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