Don urges Nigerian women to organise for electoral participation
A lecturer at Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Prof. Dennis Aribodor, has urged Nigerian women to move beyond agitation and adopt a strategic organisation to realise their ambitions of contesting and occupying
- By Elekwachi Chinedum, Onitsha
A lecturer at Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Prof. Dennis Aribodor, has urged Nigerian women to move beyond agitation and adopt a strategic organisation to realise their ambitions of contesting and occupying elective positions.
Aribodor also called on women to establish supportive structures that will encourage and promote competent candidates among them for political offices.
He gave the advice in Awka during a one-day high-level stakeholders’ dialogue on inclusive electoral processes organised by the Social and Integral Development Centre, stressing that such an organisation must be holistic and inclusive.
According to him, women should prioritise coordinated efforts that involve broad-based participation and sustained engagement.
Aribodor, who serves as Owerri Zonal Coordinator of the Academic Staff Union of Universities and is a former ASUU chairman at the institution, added that the process should begin with popular education among women on viable alternatives to what he described as prevailing retrogressive practices.
He said, "The organizing also involves building their capacities and leveraging their population to turn things around. They can leverage and partner with credible groups to achieve their targets.
"It is good to put structures in place to encourage and motivate competent women to occupy elective positions.
"One way of doing this is to address, through legislation, the issue of exorbitant cost for obtaining the expression of interest form of political parties for all aspirants, especially women and youth.
"The current practice is highly exclusive to criminal elements and cannot give Nigerians the desired quality of leadership for transformation. The cost of the the expression of interest form should be tied to the National Minimum Wage and possibly be graduated.
"Other structural and systemic barriers, impediments, hindrances, and disabilities could also be addressed through such legislation."
Also speaking, Director, Institute of Social Policy and Strategic Studies, NAU, Prof Collins Nwogwugwu underscored the place of distinction in women's clamour for special seats.
According to the Professor of Economics, once a woman, youth, or person with disabilities distinguishes himself/herself among their peers, he/she is singled out for appointments or elective positions.
Earlier, Ugochi Agalaba-Ehiahuruike, Executive Director of SIDEC, said Project IMPACT - Inclusive Mobilization for Participation, Advocacy, and Civic Transformation—targets an inclusive electoral and governance system where males, females, youth, and persons with disabilities have equal opportunities to hold elective public offices.
The dialogue, which featured two panel sessions on inclusive Electoral process as well as the journey so far under project IMPACT and way forward, concludes the implementation of project IMPACT being implemented in conjunction with the Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room with funding support from UK FCDO in Anambra and Imo States.
