UN Wants Women Participation In Nigerian Government
Olorunfemi Ojo
Deputy Country Representative of the United Nations Women, Ms Adjaratou Ndiaye, has appealed to the Federal Government to match words with action in the involvement of women in governance.
Ms Ndiaye, who spoke at a meeting in Abuja, said that Government must continue to play a key role in women’s participation and representation through legal reforms.
She also revealed that only 5% of women are in the nation’s decision making positions, while 6.8% of women are in both Houses of the National Assembly and 5% in the state
Houses of Assembly.
“This leaves a lot of room for improvement when compared to regional average for Africa of 18.2%.
“In view of the foregoing, UN Women with support from the Democratic Governance for Development, DGD, has decided not to relent on our efforts”, she said.
Other gender experts at the meeting also decried the low number of women in the nation’s decision making process.
A Gender Expert, Professor Olabisi Aina, noted that the future of Nigeria was in the hands of the women owing to their role in breeding good children; “children that are trainable, dependable and that Nigeria can be proud of.
“To do that, we are saying women must be at the table of development for men to understand what it feels like to be a mother, what it feels like to carry a pregnancy, to train a child and what we need to be able to do those God-given roles.
“Beyond that is that, the answer to that may lie in the social construction of gender.”
