2019 polls: Rights commission seeks more women participation in politics

AS the 2019 general elections draw nearer, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has asked the political class to encourage participation of women in elective offices as well as in shaping the political landscape of the country.

The Executive Secretary of the Commission, Tony Ojukwu who made the call while addressing a stakeholders’ meeting on, “Women participation in elections support bill 2019”, held in Abuja said Nigeria needs to take constitutional and legal measures to increase women’s representation in elective posts.

Ojukwu said women’s participation in elective office is grounded in their political rights as recognised in regional and international human rights instrument, to which Nigeria is a party.

The NHRC boss further noted that there is an insignificant number of women who actively participate in politics in the country compared to women in other countries.

According to him, “It is instructive to note that the path towards the political liberation of women in politics is overgrown by weeds of societal prejudices and norms, lack of adequate resources, dangerous political terrain and wrong impression of women’s participation in politics.

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“To successfully implement gender quotas which the bill seeks to entrench in Nigeria, there is the need for a paradigm shift in cultural requirements in regard to the role of women in politics in the country,” he added.

Ojukwu said the stakeholders meeting was held to scale up the advocacy for enacting into law, the “Women participation in elective office support bill 2019”, which, its second reading started in January this year at the National Assembly.

The bill, he said will affirm the international standard that the rights of Nigerians to participate in politics do not depend on whether they are male or female as well as enabling political parties to provide for gender equality and representation.

In her speech, the chairperson of the Transition Monitoring Group (TMG), Mrs Deola Akiode said the issue of women participation in the election is a right issue.

Akiode, who called for affirmative action for women in politics to balance the wrong, also expressed the hope that the “Women participation in elective office support bill 2019” will be signed into law soon.