Stakeholders Advocate More Osun Women Participation In Politics

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”, organized by a non governmental organization, Hope for Family Development Initiative (HFDI), have the charge.

The meeting which was supported by the German federal foreign office’s funds by ifa (Institut fur Auslandsbeziehungen), Zink funding programme, was held on Tuesday, 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 times house of representative candidate, stressed that most men particularly husband most times discourage their wives when 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 a husband of a female candidate leading her campaign?.

Meanwhile, the chairman, Inter-Party Advisory Council in Osun, Hon. Victor Akande, emphasized 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 dominant 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 deputies when even 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.

Oladapo appealed to party stakeholders to support women who were courageous enough to vie for elective offices and allow technocrats to birth good governance in the nation.

She said, “If more women are given the opportunities and tickets, they will bring hope back to the masses and the society will benefit more.

CityMirrorNews reports that the market women, traditional rulers, students, youths representatives among other signatories were present at the event.