By Michael Ajayi
Lagos – Chief Folake Solanke, the first female Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), has called on the government to encourage equality in governance to enable women participate optimally.
Solanke made the call in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos on the sideline of the Inaugural Dialogue and Book Launch in honour of Justice Chinwe Iyizoba held in Lagos on Thursday evening.
According to Solanke, good governance embraces the participation of capable men and women who work for the good of the people.
Solanke also said that the education of children is of vital importance because one must have the capacity to receive knowledge to be able to contribute to the society.
The celebrant, Chinwe Iyizoba, who attained the statutory retirement age of 70-years on Jan. 19, 2020, called for total inclusion of women in politics and governance as women are now better equipped to participate in politics.
She said: “I am advocating for women coming into governance because I think time has come for women to understand that they hold all the aces.
“If women would understand the power of their vote and that it is not good to simply vote somebody in because he gave you money, then we will begin to make progress.
“The most important thing is for women to come together.
“Also, women are the bulk of voters, if only they will learn to do right, then that will help us to put into power, people who are worthy to be our leaders, women who are competent and capable, women who merit it,” she told NAN.
She, however, said the biggest problem women were have was funding.
“Women do not have money. Abroad, political parties go and search for competent people, whether you have money or not.
“They look for competent people to push forward in the election, but it doesn’t happen like that in Nigeria.
“So, these are the things we have to educate our people.
“If you are a political party and want to win an election, you should present a worthy candidate, not somebody who because he has money will come and use money to buy up the position.’’
Iyizoba suggested the possibility of making a law at the state levels and at the national level to give a specific quota to women to encourage them to come up in politics and governance.
She said it was compulsory that “We need good schools for the children and good roads, water and electricity for all citizens
“This is a job for all of us. It is a job for all of us to educate, most importantly, the rural women, for them to understand.
“Oftentimes, when you see the line, the people queuing are mostly rural women.
“So, we need to educate women to understand the power of their vote and to vote in the right candidates,’’ she said.
Earlier at the event, Chief Emeka Anyaoku, a former Commonwealth Secretary General, had commended Iyizoba for establishing the African Women Forum for Good Governance (AWFG), an NGO that will see to women participation in governance.
“Governance headed by women tends to have two very distinguishing attributes.
“First, you have compassionate governance and governance that is much more efficient in the management of the national resources,’’ he said.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Iyizoba was a former Attorney-General and Commissioner of Justice (1994-1997) in Anambra where she was later sworn in as a Judge of the High Court of Anambra.
She was also member of the Election Petitions tribunal in Sokoto State and Kwara (1999) and Kebbi State (2007). In July 2010, she was made a Justice of the Court of Appeal of Nigeria.
Iyizoba was a member National Committee on Reform of Nigerian Prisons (1991) and a Nigerian delegate to the 45th General Assembly of the UN in New York (1992).
(NAN)
