The Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, has frowned at the seeming relegation of women to the background in the country’s political dispensation.
Senator Ekweremadu, who participated in a stakeholders’ forum to improve the representation of women in politics, lamented that despite the active participation of women like late Kudirat Abiola, Ayo Obe and Joe Okei-Odumakin in the evolvement of Nigeria’s democratic dispensation “women continue to be relegated in the governance of the country”.
His words: “Ours has been a case of one step forward, two, and sometimes, three steps backward. Our women have been held down by factors ranging from the cultural to religious, economic and political. “Our society wrongly believes that the role of the woman is that of a fosterer and in the kitchen. There is the wrong notion that women are not meant to lead, thus placing a glass ceiling over them. Those who vie for leadership positions are viewed as overambitious and deviants”.
Senator Ekweremadu observed that “women representation in Nigeria’s parliament where major policies are discussed and given legal backing is very poor. “According to the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), Nigeria places a very distant 168th position in women representation in national parliaments worldwide as at May 2018. Nigeria is just slightly better than a few countries like Thailand, Kuwait, Lebanon, Haiti and Oman.
According to him, “Conversely, Rwanda is first in the world, while Namibia is 5th. Ironically also, other African country’s such as South Africa, Mozambique, Ethiopia and Senegal are among the top 20”.
