2023 Polls: NILDS, WFD, IPAC Lament Poor Number of Elected Women

*Urge more female politicians to challenge men in subsequent polls

Sunday Aborisade in Abuja

The National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies, (NILDS), the   Westminster Foundation for Democracy (WFD), and the Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC) have described as unacceptable, the unimpressive figures of women who got elected at the just concluded general elections.
Despite their huge population, women did not produce a female governor, got just three seats the Senate, 15 in the House of Representatives and 55 seats in the various State houses of Assembly, at the end of the recently conducted general election.

Participants at a one-day Dialogue on Inclusive Practices of Political Parties in Nigeria organised by NILDS in conjunction with WFD in Abuja at the weekend, described the development as unacceptable.
The forum had in attendance, representatives of the 18 registered political parties in the country.
Speakers at the event, he blamed the development, partly on the inadequate representation of women, Persons With Disabilities (PWD) in the administration of political parties in Nigeria.

They challenged the women, who formed half of the nation’s voting population, to tackle the men in subsequent elections in the country.
They noted that the low number of women among the executive of the various political parties in the country led to their poor outing in the last general election.
They attributed the poor outing of women in the last election to their inadequate representation in the executive of political parties. The NILDS and WFD insisted that a situation where only 55 women got elected into the various state Houses of Assembly, three into the Senate and 15 into House of Representatives at the end of the recently conducted general elections, were grossly inadequate.

The Director for Democracy and Development in NILDS, Dr. Adewale Aderemi, said the trend must be changed ahead of the 2027 general election.
Issues of inclusivity he explained, must be factored in future elections to protect the vulnerable.
He said, “Political parties are the fulcrum of any democracy. We’ve spent so much in training political parties and very little has come back. We’re trying to come up with a new approach on how to address the issue of making political parties more vibrant.

“This dialogue is about inclusivity. There are cries that women, youths and disabled are not well represented within the political space. We’ve conducted a research to find areas of weaknesses in the system of our political parties.
“Anything that will sustain the political parties, we will be part of it. We need to fix the problem of inclusivity. Are there mechanisms within the political system that accommodate the underrepresented?”

In his own submissions, Country Director of WFD, Adebowale Olorunmola, noted that there were over 30 million disabled people in the country, but wondered why they were not well represented in the affairs of political parties.
Olorunmola said, “The essence of this gathering is to deepen democracy. If we look at the records in recent times, not very encouraging.
“Over 30 million Nigerians have different forms of disabilities based on United Nations definition. We need to open the space.

“The political space should be opened for underrepresented groups. As we progress, I believe some of these issues will be addressed,” he said.

However, the National Chairman of IPAC, Sani Yabagi, attributed the situation to a number of factors including poor financial status of most women, youths and PWD.

He nevertheless urged leaders of political parties to bring in the vulnerable groups by reducing financial commitments due to them

Yabagi said, “Nigeria is an important country. We saw that during the just-concluded general elections.

“Political parties have to deliberately see how they can bring in women, youths and disabled people into the scheme of things.”

“There are lots of dichotomy in our nationhood about religion, ethnicity and regionalism which has become a factor in our elections.

“Talking about how youths and women are included in what we do as a party and in elective positions, we’ve been strategising on how to situate women and youths in the scheme of things. We have young dynamic population

“We have to bring youths and women to the centre of activities so that they can take their rightful places in the scheme of things.

“Most political parties have complied with the 35 per cent affirmative action. Many are even doing 40 per cent. We need youths and women at the grassroots level to widen the base of political parties”

The presidential candidate of the African Action Congress, Omoyele Sowore, said a woman could emerge as the nation’s president if they make use of their numerical strength.

He added, “Women should present themselves for political offices because almost half of the registered voters are women.

“If they offer themselves for service at various levels of political participation, they would win most of the elective positions.

“I won’t be surprised if we have women governors, senators and even emerging as President. They just need to convince a few more men, their husbands, brothers and boyfriends and they would win.”