INEC decries low participation of women in politics
The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC has decried low participation of women in political processes.
The Commission said despite the fact that women constitute 48 percent of the population, only 5.8 percent of them hold political offices.
The Commission also revealed that since the commencement of CVR in 2017, only 1,362,293 women have registered compared to men who have 1,560,823 registration.
This was disclosed in Abuja yesterday at the North Central zonal workshop on enhancing women’s participation in the Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) and Collection of Permanent Voters Cards (PVC).
Giving details of women participation, INEC National Commissioner, Prof. Antonia Okoosi-Simbine said: “Despite the fact that women constitute 48 percent of Nigeria voting population, they occupy only 5.8percent of the political offices in the country.
“In 2015, eight female senators and 20 House of Representatives members were elected and six female Deputy governors who had joint ticket with male gubernatorial candidates were elected.
“Similarly, only one female contested for the office of President while four presidential candidates had females as their vice.”
Read Also: 563, 051 PVCs collected in Ekiti, says INEC
She further said: “Contenders for the upcoming Ekiti State governorship election shows that ten of the 35 political parties fielding candidates have females as Deputy governorship candidates while none of the parties put a female forward as governorship candidates.
“Globally too, statistics for gender parity indicate that 2015, out of 188 countries, Nigeria was 152 in the Human Development Index in Gender inequality and 118 out of 192 countries in 2017.
“Going by this statistics therefore, a lot still needs to be done by all stakeholders to ensure that the situation improves during the 2019 general elections.”
On factors responsible for the low participation, Prof Okoosi-Simbine said: “Be it politics, education and other sector; women generally lag. Some of them are affected by domestic duties, some are affected by poverty, while some are concerned about taking care of their children, health issues and others.”
Also speaking, the Project Director of European Centre for Electoral Support (ECES), David Le Notre said Civil Society Organisations need to do more to improve the level of participation.
Le Notre who was represented by Cathy Latiwa said: “Women constitute about half of the population and an important segment that must be carried along in every facet of development.
“Women participation enriches democracy and makes it more responsive to the aspirations of the people. It is however unfortunate that women participation in the political process has been limited.
“Fewer women than men have been voted into political offices despite the fact that majority of voters are women.
“Nigerian women have the lowest representation of 5.9 percent in the National Assembly when compared to most other African Countries like Uganda with 34.6percent, South Africa 43.2 percent, Ethiopia 27.7percent and Cameroon 20.1 percent.”
Le Notre while encouraging women to be more active said the ongoing CVR provides women with the opportunity to participate actively in the political process.
Speaking on the importance of getting the PVC, the Commission’s Deputy Director in charge of Gender, Mrs. Blessing Obidegwu said report available to Commission shows that since the commencement of the CVR in April 2017, men have registered more than women.
She said: “The last three quarters of 2017 indicates that women are trailing behind their male counterparts with only marginal improvement.
“Gender distribution for 2017 CVR was 57 percent for men and 43 for women in the first quarter of 2018, women improved marginally by 4.6 percent to attain a ratio of 46.6 percent against men’s 53.4 percent.”
0 Comments