A matter of days to the November 16 gubernatorial election in Kogi State, women from the state have decried the militarised electoral processes in Nigeria and called for a conducive environment for women and other marginalised groups to vote in dignity and peace.
The call was made at a one-day consultative meeting on ‘Election Coverage from Gender Perspective’ held in Lokoja, Kogi State capital, organised by Search for Common Ground (SCG) in collaboration with Challenged Parenthood Initiative (CPI) and the Nigeria Association of Women Journalists (NAWOJ) Kogi State chapter, supported by EECSP, National Democratic Institute, YIGAA and CDD
The women pointed out that in the election planning, an inter-agency consultative committee on election security should ensure that women are sufficiently involved in order to give confidence and dignity to women to vote in peace.
They urged enforcement agencies to be more women-friendly, saying this effort will encourage the women folk to come out en masse during elections.
Kogi women equally emphasise that it is the duty of security agencies to make commitment to women that election will be conducive for women to exercise their franchise, adding that security agencies should treat women responsibly and fairly within polling units.
Media
The forum stated that generally, the media has a constitutional mandate of holding all the stakeholders accountable to women. They revealed their observations that the media has not been able to effectively discharge this mandate, saying women need to express confidence that the media is their greatest ally in their bid to ensuring increased women participation in politics.
They also examined the media’s constitutional obligations as regards the forthcoming gubernatorial election in the state. “According to the code of ethics for Nigerian journalists, the media is expected to have editorial independence, accuracy, fairness, privacy, decency, press freedom and responsibility, among others.
INEC
The forum equally reminded the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of its gender policy, saying it has become necessary to address the continuous low representative of women in the political space, especially in Kogi State.
The challenge of INEC in implementing its own policy is responsible for low representation of women at the state level.
They called on INEC to protect women polling officials from all forms of electoral violence before, during and after elections, adding that women look forward to gender disaggregated election data.
They also emphasised on the need to give women the opportunity to assume position of REC, Administrative Secretaries and other key positions for a better Nigeria,
The forum also lamented the unavailability of information for women candidate as they urged the commission to ensure women have access to documents, processes and also be mindful of instances of fraud that aims to deny women candidate their votes and take remedial actions.
However, the forum advised INEC to support the professional development of women through mentoring and training (work exchange programmes and network).
Politicians
The forum expressed its disappointment over the sustained low representation and participation of women in Kogi State. This observation is coming as a result of the number of women running for the 20th gubernatorial election in the state.
“Even Natasha Akpoti that came out has been suppressed from all angles. Political parties have been called upon to ensure absolute inclusion of women into various positions of authority.
“In 2015 only few women contested for gubernatorial election. Unfortunately, the situation has not improved as only six women have been shortlisted as contestants during the November governorship election.
“Since the creation of the state in 1991, no woman has been able to emerge as senator from the state, same thing with the House of Representatives and even the state House of Assembly. Within the three arms of government and tiers of government, Kogi women have been abysmally represented.”
“Despite the consistent rise in registered female voters in Kogi, the women have not been rewarded. They disregard the security treats, vote and have not been rewarded for their royalty”.
“Women are keeping watch on the process of recruitment of party agents and other stakeholders during election. Women have vowed to hold political parties accountable for any breach of peace during the election”.
“We are calling on political parties to support women’s participation in the state politics. There is need for protection against all forms of violence during and after the election. We are soliciting for peaceful conduct during the November off-cycle gubernatorial election
Foreign and domestic observers
The women called on would-be domestic and foreign observers in the forthcoming election in Kogi and Bayelsa States to ensure that women are given adequate consideration in all spheres to enable them participate fully in the exercise. They also noted with dismay the habit of electoral umpire intimidating women at polling units forcing them back home and preventing them from exercising their voting rights.
They reminded the observers of the need to give special consideration to pregnant women, nursing mothers, the aged and people with disabilities during the exercise.
