MAJORITY Leader of the House of Representatives, Mulikat Akande-Adeola, has canvassed the need for a framework that will define the constitutional quota for women in both elective and appointive positions in the country.
She stated this in a keynote address at a workshop with the theme "Leadership and Agenda Setting Forum for Women Candidates of Political Parties" organised by UKAID and UNDP in collaboration with her office held at the International Conference Centre (ICC) Abuja.
Akande-Adeola lamented the low number of female aspirants in the just concluded party primaries, a development she said amplifies the need for a constitutional intervention by the relevant stakeholders, especially the legislature.
Akande-Adeola, who alongside former Minister of Women Affairs, Josephine Aneni and other serving members of parliament launched copies of National Assembly Gender Strategy at the occasion, restated her desire to aspire for higher post to pave the way for more women to contest and win elections.
Corroborating in a paper titled "Women and Post Election Legal Issues", Ricky Tarfa, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) lamented that parties do not encourage women candidates, hence in Nigerian political culture women participation in politics is viewed as an entirely foreign concept.
He said despite the key roles played by women in the society, Nigeria has not given them requisite recognition in political matters neither has the country encouraged the participation of women in politics.
"Our nation as a whole is fraught with various gender and cultural stereotypes, abuse of religion, ideology, traditional practices and our patriarchal societal structure which constitute a challenge for women to adequately participate in politics.
"The absence and underrepresentation of women in the rubric of decision making and implementation emasculated the fundamental concept of a democratic form of governance which assumes that participation and representation in all areas and levels of public life will be equally available to men and women."
The Editor of The Guardian Newspapers, Mr. Martins Oloja, who presented a paper titled: "The role of media for increased political participation" stated the need by those vying for various elective positions in the forthcoming poll to build a powerful network of young persons including students to achieve their goals.
Oloja, who enjoined politicians to cultivate strong ties with media operatives, noted that a lot can be borrowed from President Barrack Obama and popular television presenter, Oprah Winfrey, who recorded resounding success due to the roles played by the youths in their respective careers.
He predicted that young persons, unlike their apolitical parents who are indifferent to exercising their franchise in election time would definitely explore the social media to influence the outcome of the 2015 poll.
Underlining the import of the use of young persons, he noted: "The implication of this strategy is that these young Nigerians are ready to participate, they are ready to register and then vote if they are mobilised to invest in the future through political participation.
"They are the drivers of social media. They are on all the platforms and mark this remark, in 2015, they participated in the success stories of Ekiti and Osun state elections. Please, note that these young Nigerians unlike their fathers are ready to follow passionate Nigerians who are ready to change Nigeria where they cannot get jobs anywhere now. They are politically aware. They are very creative as they combine brain with brawn."
"They make news a lot because they always pursue activities that are unusual. So, follow them wherever they are. I mean young Nigerians who can't understand why their parents are complacent and politically passive. Therefore, you need to know that 'inactive citizenry' syndrome is part of our political culture, but the young ones are ready to be activated if they can find strong men and women that are also reliable in the circumstances."
