How to raise women’s participation in politics — NCWD

The Director General, National Centre for Women Development (NCWD), Mary Ekpere-Eta, has charged Nigerian women to challenge non-political participation by coming out for elective positions whenever the need arises.

Speaking yesterday at an event to mark the 2021 International Women’s Day (IWD) with theme ‘Women in Leadership: Achieving an Equal Future in COVID-19 World, with the campaign theme, Choose To Challenge‘, she said the theme provides a good opportunity to call out gender bias and inequality, seek out and accelerate women’s achievements and advocate for women’s increased participation in development and decision making.

She said regrettably in Nigeria, representation of women at both elective and appointive positions has continued to deteriorate, blaming it on political violence and insurgency among others.

Ekpere-Eta, who challenged women to come out to be voted for and vote also, urged them to use their civil rights effectively.

“We, therefore, choose to challenge women’s nonparticipation. What went wrong? How can we use our civic rights and responsibility to the best of our advantage in Nigeria like the just concluded 2020 presidential elections in the United States of

America, where women came out in large numbers to campaign and vote in support of their choice candidates to change legislations that are not gender sensitive.

“In the past, it is believed that more women turn out to vote than men. However, available statistics have shown that in 2019 the total number of registered voters by gender was 84,004,084, out of which 53% (44.4m) were male and 47% (39.6m) were female.

“Of the total number, only 26,348,429 were accredited for voting - that is about 32% of the total registered voters - and of this number only 11,897,180 women voted, negating the claims that more women voted than men in the 2019 general elections,” she said.