The West Africa Network for Peace Building, WANEP has made a call to all relevant stakeholders in the country to make laudable contributions towards promoting women’s political participation in the upcoming elections in Nigeria.
WANEP Head of Programs, Patience Obaulo, made the appeal at a media roundtable on the Role of the Media in Combating Gender Related Hate Speech Online Through Objective and Conflict Sensitive Reporting which was organized by the International Press Center, WANEP and Humanity Family Foundation for Peace and Development with the support of Peace Tech.
Ms Obaulo expressed that women have been relegated to the background in the political space despite the tremendous effort put forward by Civil Society Organizations and other relevant stakeholders to call for more inclusive representation of women both in elective and appointive positions.
“Politically, Women have been relegated to the background, despite the tremendous effort put forward by Civil Society Organizations and other relevant stakeholders following the declaration of the National Gender policy (NGP) 2006 recommendation of 35% affirmative action for a more inclusive representation of women both in elective and appointive positions.”
Obaulo, who stated that it is obvious that Nigerian women are sidelined due to the political atmosphere and style of leadership in the country, buttressed that women participation in political leadership in Nigeria should be regarded as an issue of importance.
She thereby requested that quota system to be introduced at all levels of government while urging relevant stakeholders and political parties to ensure strict adherence.
Speaking at the media roundtable, Editor Health Style Plus Online, Mrs Yinka Shokunbi highlighted fund as a major impediment to the participation of women in active politics. Shokunbi believed that women could tap into numerous opportunities available to them.
Shokunbi highlighted the importance of mentorship in building women for political positions and urged women who are already in decision making positions to encourage the upcoming political players.
She also added that the principles should be instilled in children so they can grow up to develop an interest in political positions.
Online Editor of the Nation Newspaper, Mr. Lekan Otufodunrin who spoke on the role of the media in combating hate speech said “While it remains unclear from the data whether election-related violence disproportionately impacted women, observers surveyed believed that gender-based hate speech in North East and South East discouraged women from participating in the electoral process as candidates.”
To combat gender hate speech, Mr Otufodunrin implored journalists to “refrain from publishing inaccurate and misleading information, support campaign against gender-hate speech and act on gender hate speech complaints.”
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