The Nigerian Women Trust Fund has called political parties to take responsible for the poor representation of women in the country’s political space and ensure a level playing ground for both genders.
The Chief Executive Officer of the Fund, Ms. Mufuliat Fijabi, stated this in Abuja during a technical workshop for political parties on gender responsive policy making.
She decried the low number of women elected representative in the recent 2023 general election, and urged political parties to restructure their policies through gender inclusion.
“This election has shown us that we have a long way to go when it comes to the inclusion of women and when it comes to women emerging as elected representatives. we know if there is an enabled level playing ground within political parties more women will emerge not only as candidates for political parties but as elected representatives. So, we are holding all political parties in Nigeria accountable for why we have low representation of women in the political space,” she said
The Nigeria’s Resident Program Director, International Republican Institute (IRI), Mr Santiago Stocker stressed the need for more strategies to ensure gender responsive policy making especially at the party level.
The National Women Leader, Labour Party (LP), Ms. Dudu Manuga said the party was building the capacity of more women to take up major leadership roles within the its structure and beyond.
She further said that inadequate funding, male patriarchy, culture and traditions, godfatherism, poor mentorship and capacity building, as we as poor media visibility, were factors affecting women political participation.
Reporting by Azizatu Sani; Editing by Annabel Nwachukwu