Source: Vanguard
Abuja — Not satisfied that women have not been adequately represented in both elective and appointive positions in Nigeria, Leader of the House of Representatives, Mrs. Mulikat Adeola-Akande, is mobilising women across the country to strategise on how to assert themselves more on the political terrain.
The House Leader told journalists in Abuja that a conference, which is being organised by her office, seeks to bring women across the country irrespective of their political parties and leanings together with a view to extracting the needed commitment from the political leaders for the women.
Adeola-Akande said it was appalling for women's participation in the National Assembly to drop to a paltry 32 out of the 469-member legislature, depicting a downward trend of only seven percent representation of women in Nigeria.
She said her office would seek to link up with the work by all the stakeholders for a robust conference that would harness and review initiatives, commitments and strategies towards the 2015 general elections and beyond.
On the aim of the conference, Adeola-Akande said it would galvanise a pool of stakeholder intervention and strategies towards greater electoral victory for women in 2015 and assess and agree on practical political interventions for increasing the role of women in political parties.
She added that the conference, slated for next week in Abuja, would also revisit political parties' statutory gender provisions and generate practical commitments to actualise the provisions.
"Beyond that, the gathering is targeted at encouraging more women to participate in the 2015 general elections by registering as members of political parties and contesting as candidates, so as to actualise the 35 percent Affirmation Action for Nigerian women," she added.