Stakeholders advocate women participation in politics
By Deborah Oladejo, Osogbo
The Hope for Family Development Initiative (HFDI), has advocated for participation of more women in politics in Nigeria.
The Non-governmental organization in a two days consultative meeting on “Advancing the Participation of Women in Politics through Female elected candidates in the South West Nigeria” identified Oyo, Osun and Ekiti as the most affected state in the South West.
The meeting which was supported with German federal foreign office’s funds by ifa (Institut fur Auslandsbeziehungen), Zink funding programme, was held at the GMT Hotel, Osogbo, Osun State.
In her address the Special Adviser to Governor Ademola Adeleke on market women, Chief Mrs, Eniola Omotosho, identified the opposite gender as the main factor hindering woman participation in politics.
Omotosho, a two times House of Representatives candidate, stressed that most men particularly husband most times discourage their wives when showing interest in elective positions.
She said, “the main issues women face in politics is discouragement from men, including their husbands, have you ever seen a husband of a female candidate leading her campaign?
“If we have husbands who leads campaign for their wife, we’ll see that others will believe in her, even at the party level, being a two-time contestants I can authoritatively say that some past leaders discriminate.”
Meanwhile, the chairman, Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC) in Osun, Hon. Victor Akande, emphasized on the need for women to foster support for one another, noting that they occupy a significant percentage of the electorate.
His words, “politics is a game of figures and woman dominate this figure, but the issue is women don’t support each other, we’ll have a larger number of female representation once they start fostering support for each other irrespective of the party”
Earlier, the President, Osun chapter of the National Council for Women Societies (NCWS), Dr. Adeola Ayoola, called on all women including women associations to propose a memorandum that will enforce that a female must deputies when we have a male leader.
