2019: Women Less Corrupt, Not for Other Rooms Only, Says Obasanjo

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo on Friday in Ibadan called for greater participation of women in the politics of Nigeria, saying their incorruptible tendencies unlike their male counterpart had made them suitable for higher political offices in the land.

Obasanjo who was a keynote speaker at the programme organised by the Initiative for Information, Arts and Culture Development in Nigeria in conjunction with the American Corner, Ibadan with the theme: "My Understanding of Women's Aspirations in Politics, Business and Nation Building" said going by his experience in politics, women were more trustworthy in politics than men.

Against the backdrop of recent statement by President Muhammadu Buhari that his wife, Aisha was meant for the other room, Obasanjo declared, "No nation will become great when half of her population ends up only in the kitchen and the other room or get disproportionately discriminated against in the higher echelon of corporate management and in governance".

As the 2019 general elections are fast approaching, the former president urged women across the country to get themselves more involved in the political activities rather than leaving it for the men.

Justifying his assertion on women, Obasanjo pointed out that a number of men had been prosecuted for several corrupt cases compared to women.

According to him, "Needless to say, woman constitute more than half of our population, in fact 52 per cent, in Nigeria and their contributions to the Growth Domestic Products is great, not as professionals, but as entrepreneurs, especially in the so called informal sector as market women, traders, craftspeople, artisan and farmers, and even by doing unpaid care work at home as housewives.

"All hindrances to free and compulsory girl-child education in Nigeria for the first nine years of formal school such as culture, religion and so on should be stopped. Child marriage should be made unlawful. Girls must be able to receive formal education. from primary to tertiary. When you educate a girl child, you educate a family. We should not lose sight of the that our girls have equal right as boys to lead. We should continue to support them to speak up for themselves, to make decisions about their own lives and take the positions of power to which they are entitled.