A women’s rights campaigner and the Executive Director, Kebetkache Women Development and Resource, Emem Okon has said that the political and economic inequalities in Nigeria have over the years promoted poverty among women in Nigeria.
Okon made the observation at one-day capacity building training on gender equality and social inclusions for community leaders, Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and political holders in Rivers State.
In her lecture titled, ‘Improving Electoral Integrity and Accountability,’ she said that the aim was geared toward changing the nation’s electoral process and structures to be all-inclusive, accountable and transparent.
She maintained that corruption remains a problem in several sectors of governance in Nigeria which include gender exclusion in the area of politics and economy which has increased poverty among women in Nigeria.
The human rights activist explained that the project by Women’s Right Advancement and Protection Alternative (WRAPA) and her organisation, supported by MacArthur Foundation is aimed at highlighting the intersection and connection between corruption and lack of electoral integrity and accountability that have robbed women of access to inclusion and participation which has denied them their right.
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Emem, who was the only resource person at the event, said that due to these limitations, the capacity of women to engage in the process has been truncated which has affected both their political and economic life.
She advocated for the removal of all the barriers against women inclusion in governance and participation in the electoral processes, including the right to hold executive positions both at the party level and in the governance structure.
The Executive Director further said that communities must take conscious effort to reject any idea or decision capable of impacting negatively on women and persons with disabilities in society, noting that transparency, accountability and gender inclusion will help reduce the rate of political corruption.
The rights advocate tasked the government and the people’s representatives, elected officials, civil society organisations to mainstream National Gender Policy in their local community to eliminate discrimination against women and persons with disabilities.
According to Kebetkache, the training was meant to also provide a basic understanding of gender equality and social inclusion.
Earlier, the programme officer, Patience Ekon in her opening remarks, said that both men and women should work together to promote all-around development.
Ekon called attention to the statistic that women constitute over 70percent of the billions of poorest people in the world, adding that “Nigeria is not an exception.”
