Source: Nigeria.Gov
The United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women has launched a report and training manual for building the capacity of stakeholders on Affirmative Action in the country.
The manual titled: "Sociocultural Determinants of Voting Patterns in Nigeria - Reference to Women's Participation and Representation," was expected to serve as guide towards ensuring increased participation of women in the political process.
Speaking during the stakeholders dissemination meeting of the two documents at the weekend, the UN Women Representative to Nigeria and ECOWAS, Grace Ongile (Dr) said that the study for the report was conducted across six States of the six Geo-political zones of the Federation with particular reference to institutional, political and sociocultural factors relating to gender equality and the rights of women.
She added that the study also examined the extent to which national policies and laws have hindered women's participation in political activities in Nigeria as well as possible ways of networking and institutional engagements for increased representation of women in elective and appointive positions in the country. Grace Ongile further noted that the training manual offers generic and standardized tools and information for the capacity building of law makers, political parties and civil society organisations on Affirmative Action in Nigeria, indicating that it can also be adapted for use by other target groups.
According to her, there is need to change people's mindsets on women participation in governance and the need to support women when they come out to contest elections.
While unveiling the manual and report, the Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development, Zainab Maina hinted that the documents have offered hitherto unknown facts and useful data from research on the field and will be useful for reference purposes.
'The two documents, she explained will help enlighten women and other stakeholders not just for women's participation in elections, but will also translate to electoral victory for them.'
Represented by the Director of Women Affairs in the Ministry - Iran Ajifor, the Minister disclosed that for Nigeria to fully achieve the desired national development, women must be active participants in the democratic process. She also informed that a lot was needed to be done on voter education for women as well as sensitizing them to appreciate the dynamics of change, progress and development. She assured that the 2015 general elections will witness a remarkable increase of women's presence in the political terrain, both as voters and candidates in various positions.
Presenting an overview of the report, Olabisi Aina (Professor) of the Centre for Gender, Women and Children for Sustainable Development said that the major approach to achieving gender equality and women empowerment is for women to participate in decision making and political processes on equal footing with the men.