By Chibuike Nwabuko
Abuja (Sundiata Post) – International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA) Nigeria has said that the 2023 general election is going to be business unusual as women will no longer queue behind men as done in the past, particularly with the brazen rejection of the five (5) gender bills by the National Assembly.
FIDA Nigeria Country Vice President/National President, Mrs Amina Agbaje stated this on the sideline while fielding questions from journalists during the Methodology Workshop for stakeholders to review violence against women in elections survey tool and public presentation of the 2022 Osun elections report with regards to women and persons with disabilities participation, held on Monday in Abuja.
Agbaje called on women to come out to vote for women whose names and pictures are on the ballot rather than vote for men who do not think it fit to give women appointive positions when they get hold of power.
On how women will follow through the promises made to them by men candidates, the FIDA Country President said as women group, they have been able to come together under a manifesto and have an agenda where they have called all the political parties and present this agenda to them in a way that they (women) will hold them (men) accountable.
In her words: This is business unusual, So it is a document that we have given to men and we will hold them accountable when we get there. Most of these political parties, when they are looking fir something, they will make promises but in time past we have seen that they have reneged on those promises so now we are going to hold them accountable by reminding them – putting all their promises on billboards in all strategic areas so that anytime they pass they will see it and when they do not do it, we will come up with those billboards to say you promised x,y,z for us and here is that agenda we presented to you but you have not done it. This is a sort of naming and shaming at the point whereby they draw back from their promises.
Earlier in her remarks, Mrs Agbaje hinted that this methodology workshop towards reviewing a standardized violence against women in elections survey tool/ instrument, when reviewed will be deployed across four project states namely Kwara (North Central), Borno (North East), Plateau (North Central) and Kaduna (North West) towards generating findings that will be used to support peace building architectures in the quest to mitigate violence against women at the forthcoming general elections in 2023 and advance the participation of women.
She stressed that the essence of the workshop is to identify and address issues militating against women when it comes to politics, with the view to protecting women aspirants as well as women voters given that they constitute a powerful electorate with millions of votes in Nigeria.
Sundiata Post recalls that Nigerian women signaled their intention to make their voices heard in the 2019 election, accounting for about 47.14 per cent (39,598,645 million) of the 84,004.084 million registered voters nationwide, according to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC),
It is on this premise that this methodology workshop is being organized towards improving the participation of women in the general elections by strengthening the capacity of selected networks, institutions, electoral bodies, and oversight mechanisms to better prevent and respond to violence against women in elections , Sexual & Gender Based Violence , and other forms of Violence against women ” that may deter female electorates through the development and analytical review of the draft tool.
In her goodwill message, the Minister of Women Affairs, Mrs Pauline Tallen represented by the Assistant Director Women Development, Ilyasu Omar Zubair, suggested that the mitigating tools to the menace of violence against women in elections include but not limited to :
- Increased awareness creation of government mechanisms to curb violence against women and enforcement by relevant agencies to safeguard women from reprisal attacks by opponents.
- Improve girls access to quality education so as to create for competition with their male counterparts.
- Break the culture of tradition-induced gender inequality.
- Women should build gender solidarity by forming coalitions to contribute their quota to the national development.
- Women should develop their political acumen through leadership training, campaigns and gaining leverage via social media.
Others who attended the event are National project Officer, Women’s Political Empowerment, Chundung Ashley Dauda, representative of UNwomen; representatives of Nigeria Police Force and representatives ot Independent National Electoral Commission.
