Senator Ike Ekweremadu

By Dele Ogbodo

Wife of the Deputy President of Senate, Mrs. Nwanneka Ekweremadu, has called for greater women representation in leadership positions in the country. She said this was necessary as women were better placed to take decisions on some growing national challenges that affect them, such as high infant and maternal mortality rates.

“I want to express the unequivocal belief that such challenges that directly affect our women and children can only be adequately and effectively addressed if more women take the driver’s seat in policymaking and implementation. Consequently, I am passionately lending my voice to appeals for government at all levels and our political parties to give women the deserved greater opportunities to serve,” Mrs. Ekweremadu said in Abuja at a reception organised by the National Institute for Legislative Studies, to celebrate the political mileage achieved by Nigerian women in modern Nigeria and to honour some female national award recipients.

The female national honour awardees included were chairperson, Senate Committee on Marine Transport Senator, Zaynab Abdulkadir Kure (CON); Leader, House of Representatives, Hon. Mulikat Adeola-Akande (OFR); and former Peoples Democratic Party Woman Leader and Minister of Women Affairs, Hajiya Inna Ciroma (CON).
    
The wife of the senate president regretted that even though about 50 percent of the country’s population and about 51 percent of the electorate were women, they had not had a fair and commensurate share of opportunities.

She added, however, that women themselves had not harnessed and translated their numerical strength to political advantage.

Mrs. Ekweremadu described the awardees as “distinguished achievers whose first rate accomplishments in national service have continued to buoy faith and mobilise national support for the capacity of women to lead and produce results.”