Prof. Abubakar Sulaiman, the Director-General of the National Institute of Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS) has decried the low representation of women in Nigeria’s political space.
Speaking in Abuja at the closing ceremony of a three-day International Conference on Women Participation in Governance organised by NILDS, Aulaiman said: ”the number of women in politics when compared to men is very insignificant. Democracy is not just about men but women as well.
”Three women out of the 109 senators and 15 women out of 360 members of the House of Reps and seven women out of 47 ministers does not depict democracy”.
He said that women participation in politics should be raised from 35 per to 40% affirmative action for women saying that in the last 10 years, maternity data show more girls than boys are being born.
He recommended that more responsibilities should be given to women in the political arena as they are doing better in other endeavors than men. Sulaiman said that there should be a Women Trust Fund in Nigeria to empower and support women in politics as it is done in Uganda.
He said that the conversation of women participation in governance has to be taken beyond rhetoric, talks assuring that the institute was going to follow up on the development.
Sulaiman said that the Senate President, Sen. Godswill Akpabio and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rep. Tajudeen Abbas had pledged to give support to the outcome of the conference.
”Akpabio has said that if other parliaments in the past failed to do something about it, he woll do something uncommon about women participation in governance”, he said.