By Ismail Azeez, Osogbo
Women in Osun State have been charged on the need to actively participate in the state politics to contribute to the sustainable social and economic development of the state and the country.
Stakeholders who spoke at a two-day consultative meeting on, “Advancing the Participation of Women in Politics through Female elected candidates in the South West Nigeria,” organised by a non governmental organisation, Hope for Family Development Initiative (HFDI), gave the charge.
The meeting which was supported by the German federal foreign office funds by ifa (Institut fur Auslandsbeziehungen), Zink funding programme, was held in Osogbo, Osun State capital.
Speaking, Amb. Dr Aremu Stephen Adeola, Chairman, HFDI Board of Trustee called for more equitable representation of women in governance.
Adeola expressed displeasure over low participation of women in politics, saying that women’s participation in politics is a necessary step to achieving global gender equality and democratic governance.
In her address the Special Adviser to Governor Adeleke on market women, Chief Mrs, Eniola Omotosho, identified the opposite gender as the main factor hindering woman participation in politics.
Omotosho, a two-time House of Representative candidate, stressed that men particularly husbands most times discourage their wives from showing interest in elective positions.
She said, “The main issues women face in politics is discouragement from men, including there husbands, have you ever seen the husband of a female candidate leading her campaign?”
Meanwhile, the chairman, Inter-Party Advisory Council in Osun, Hon. Victor Akande, emphasised on the need for women to foster support for one another, noting that they occupy a significant percentage of the electorate.
Akande said, “Politics is a game of figures and woman are dominant in this figures, but the issue is women don’t support each other, we’ll have a larger number of female representation once they start fostering support for each other irrespective of the party.”
Earlier, the President, Osun chapter of the National Council for Women Societies, NCWS, Dr Adeola Ayoola, called on all women including women associations to propose a memorandum that will enforce that a female must be deputies when we have a male leader.
Alhaja Sadiat Oladapo, Amira, Federation of Muslim Women Association of Nigeria (FOMWAN), Osun state chapter called on the government to recognise the role of professional women in nation-building by giving them more opportunities in politics to transform the nation’s leadership.