An NGO, Legal Awareness For Nigerian Women, has urged the media to pay special attention on women issues to ensure inclusiveness and encourage women participation in politics and governance.
Mrs Rebbeca Sako, the Executive Director of the organisation, made the appeal in Kaduna at a workshop on promoting media synergy with women in politics.
Sako noted that though there were several laws that accord women equal opportunities to participate in politics, the media needed to educate the women to exercise such rights.
She said women constitute about 50 per cent in the society, “but when its come to their visibility in public spaces you will no see much women.”
The executive director also noted that political parties have not made efforts in enhancing the capacities of women to excel in politics.
“There is need for more participation of women in politics to get their voices and inputs in the decision making process so as to achieve more impact and contribute in building the society to stimulate socio economic development.
“During elections there are more women than men voters; we want to see more women as candidates and contestants since they have more than 50 per cent of the population,” she said.
Sako therefore urged women to use there numbers to take over the political space so as to make a difference in the governance of the country.
She noted with concern that less than 10 states have 35 per cent represention of women in elective and political positions in the country.
In her remarks, Mrs Hannatu Ahuwan of the organization’s office in Kaduna, said the objective of the workshop was to bring media practitioners in an inter party women network to create synergy on promoting women participation in politics.
Ahuwan said the organization is working in collaboration with National Democratic Institute on its
Women In Politics (WIP) project, being supported by the DFID since 2016.
She said it is aimed at encouraging women and other maginalized groups to be part of the political space and government in order to build sustainable democracy.
Ahuwan added that the project also seeks to increase the visibility of female legislators and strengthen the inter party network to be strong in political participation.
Mr Paul Onwude, who spoke on the role of media in promoting women participation in politics, called for the projection of women politicians and issues affecting women into the front burner of national discourse.
He streesed the need for the media to make issues of women more visible to the public, so as to elicit appropriate action by those in authority.
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