• Friday, March 29, 2024
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WIMBIZ advocates for more women in selective position

Hansatu Adegbite

A group, Women in Management and Business (WIMBIZ) has called for more women in elective positions in Nigeria.

This position was made known at the recent interactive luncheon on the theme ‘Women’s Political Leadership in the post 2019 elections: The Road Ahead’, organised by the United Nations (UN) Women Nigeria in collaboration with WIMBIZ.

Hansatu Adegbite, executive director of WIMBIZ, said women need to present a voice representing all the women in the nation before the leadership of the country, to increase the representation of women in elective positions.

“I believe that it is time for all women irrespective of the platform they belong to, to come together. Women in politics, business, and women in the grassroots to come together and have a discussion on womanhood,” said Adegbite.

According to her, Nigeria is a peculiar country with lesser women on the party politics level representing in the leadership and decision making stage within political parties’ structure.

“Political parties have not made it easy for women to occupy some positions because of the huge amount of money they put forward for forms,” she said.

She further said: “I think finance has played a big role in disqualifying and limiting a lot of women, because women don’t have enough resources that are required to influence quite a number of things.

“But in all, I think legislation in this country is what is actually working against us and policies – we need policies that will ensure that a certain percentage of women are compulsorily put in leadership position. And I think it is time for credible women to step up to influence some of the things that this nation needs in terms of change,” Adegbite said.

Olubunmi Aboderin-Talabi, chairperson, executive council, WIMBIZ, said Nigerian democracy would be stronger and the development agenda would grow faster with more women in active politics.

“In terms of Nigerian democracy, having more women with different experiences bringing different priorities that affect the whole of Nigeria’s population will help a great deal,” she said.

According to her, many factors contributed to the poor representation of women in the last general election, and not for lack of trying because a lot of women actually vied for political positions.

“Some of the factors that will continue to impede progress are the structures of the institutions, systems in which these competitions are held, and more directly, there need to be more women in the leadership of political parties to support some of the reforms needed within the parties to make the parties’ vehicles more conducive for women to compete,” she stated.

 

SEYI JOHN SALAU