2023: NCWS calls for more women participation

The National Council of Women Societies (NCWS) has called on politicians who will contest for various elective posts in the 2023 general elections to field women as their running mates.

The President of NCWS, Mrs Laraba Shoda, made the call in a statement on Saturday in Abuja.

Shoda said that having more women in politics would assist in addressing challenges of gender inclusion in Nigeria.

“We want all male politicians vying for the offices of the President, the Governor and the Local Government Chiarman to consider women as their running mates,” she said.

The NCWS president said that women vying for such positions should also consider men as their running mates.

”Women are major stakeholders in nation building; therefore, adequate representation of women will go a long way in developing the country.

”As a council, we want to also call for the passage of the bill for creating additional seats for women in the National and State Assemblies.

”The bill when passed will go a long way to address related matters, generate more seats for women in the Senate, the House of Representatives and the State Assemblies.

”It will solve the problem of low representation of women in legislative chambers by providing additional seats to be contested for and filled by only women in both the national assembly and the state houses of assembly.

”This will serve as a temporary measure to promote women’s representation,” she said.

Reports said that at present only about 18 seats are occupied by women in the national assembly out of the 109 in the senate and 360 in the house of representatives.

”If the bill is successfully passed, it will bring the number of seats in the Senate to a total of 146 and the number of those in the House of Reps to a total of 434,” she said.

Shoda called on Nigerian women to come together irrespective of their political party affiliation, professional and ethnic background and make themselves available for elective positions.