Nigeria's women fight to get into government in upcoming elections

[the_future_modernes]

Women vie for votes in Nigerian elections

Feb 17NIgeria: Women's Manifesto for 2011 elections

Mni — Between February1-3 2011 women politicians and civil society activists regrouped to continue their empowerment activities with a focus on 2011 elections.

It was organised by the International Republican Institute IRI and followed a similar event that was organised for women candidates at the TRANSCORP Hilton Abuja the previous day which featured the launching of a documentary on the achievements of some female legislators. The major difference was the workshop format adopted which resulted in the production of a Nigerian Women's Manifesto.

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The papers presented were loaded with information and best practices from other parts of the world on the manifesto concept, message development, advancing women's issues through the '100 Women's Movement' and coalition building. Participants then broke into syndicate groups to identify the priority issues for women in Nigeria. At the end of the workshop they declared as follows:

We, women representatives of different political parties and civil society groups from the 36 States and Federal Capital Territory with common intention and purpose gathered for a 3-day workshop titled "Nigeria 2011 Elections: Advocacy Strategies and Launching of Women's Manifesto state as follows:-

We resolve that maternal and child health, women and youth empowerment and women's political participation would constitute our manifesto to be used as an advocacy tool to engage with all relevant stakeholders in various sectors, governmental, political parties and the populace.

On Maternal and Child Health the manifesto states, according to the World Health Organisation, Nigeria experiences the second highest maternal and infant mortality rate in the world due to inaccessibility to quality healthcare. Adequate funds are not allocated towards maternal and infant health, and corruption is rampant within the health sector. Negative cultural and religious practices, including a longer reproductive cycle due to child marriage and female genital mutilation contribute to the rising concern of maternal health.

Nigerian women strongly demand: -An educational awareness program to change the negative cultural and religious beliefs about reproductive health issues. The budgetary allocation of adequate resources to enable the implementation of existing policies including: Health Policy, Childs Rights Act and the National Gender Policy

Every State should have evenly spread out secondary health institutions where primary health facilities can feed into; and every local government area must have well equipped, adequately staffed primary health care centres within their communities. Government should provide access to emergency obstetric care services at all levels with a very effective emergency response system.

The domestication of the Protocol to the African Charter on human and people's Right on the rights of Women in Africa, Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the design of a roadmap for Campaign on the Accelerated Reduction of Maternal Mortality in Africa (CAMA). Government should accelerate action for the passage of the domestic violence bill into law. Implement the 15 percent of the Abuja budget declaration.
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POLITICS-NIGERIA: In the Shadows of Men: Women’s Political Marginalisation

KANO, Mar 12 (IPS) – Ten years after Nigeria returned to civil rule women still play second fiddle in the male-dominated politics of Africa’s most populous nation, women politicians and activists say.


Since this West African country of 140 million people broke from military rule and embraced uninterrupted multi-party democracy in 1999, men have been calling the shots while women, who constitute more than half of voters (54 percent), only hold marginal elective offices.

"Although it has been a decade of uninterrupted civilian rule, Nigerian women are still battling political marginalisation where they are not given the chance to hold political offices," Rabi Musa, a women’s rights activist told IPS.

"Despite the relative improvement in women political participation and representation between 2003 and 2007, such improvement does not reflect women’s numerical superiority," said Musa, coordinator of the Women’s Right Advancement and Protection Alternative (WRAPA).

Between 1999 and 2003 a total of 15 female parliamentarians, were elected. This figure marginally improved from 2003 to 2007 and there are currently 26 women are in parliamentMORE





Elections: Our husbands dare not fail Nigerian women– Hajara Adeola

Wife of the vice-presidential candidate of the Action Congress of Nigeria, Mrs. Hajara Adeola, said on Thursday that she would not be a party to a government that would fail women.

She said that the combination of Nuhu Ribadu and Fola Adeola could not afford to return to the people after their tenure with excuses of non-performance, especially towards the women.

She said, “Our husbands dare not fail Nigerians, especially the women, because we will not watch them fail. Besides, they are men who have proved their mettle in their areas of endeavour.

“For instance, that is what Adeola did with the Fate Foundation project. It was born out of his dissatisfaction with the unemployment rate in the country.

“That is why till date, about 20,000 youths have been trained to create their own jobs rather than waste away while waiting to be employed by others.”

Adeola made this remark while responding to questions from participants at the Ribadu-Adeola Women Forum held in Lagos on Thursday.

Although the wife of the presidential candidate was absent, Adeola said that they were committed to ensuring the full implementation of the National Gender Policy, the Beijing Declaration, the World Summit, the Ouagadougou Plan of Action and Millennium Development Goals in respect of women.
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