The United Nations (UN) has decried the low number of female candidates contesting in the 2023 general elections, describing the development as unacceptable.
Speaking at a workshop on the promotion of women in politics organised by the Centre for Democracy Development (CDD) on Tuesday, the UN Women Programme Specialist, Generation Equality, Desmond Osemehenjie, said Nigeria scored low in the area of women’s participation in politics compared to other African countries.
He said: “The women’s participation in politics in Nigeria is very appalling and very unsatisfactory, and very, very unacceptable. If you look at the African sub-region, Nigeria is one of the lowest countries as far as women’s representation in parliament is concerned.
“Women representation is just 4.1 per cent in Nigeria while in other countries like Rwanda it is 67 per cent, Senegal is sending about 57 per cent. These are all countries with a very high-level representation of women in parliament, but for Nigeria, it is very unacceptable.”
Osemehenjie listed factors that are responsible for low women participation in Nigerian politics including Africa’s patriarchal system, religion, inadequate political education for women and monetisation of politics.
In his remarks, Senior Fellow, CDD West Africa, Prof. Jibrin Ibrahim, also described the low political participation of women in Nigeria as unacceptable, adding that “we must make sure that, as men, we take pride as agents of change and we must promote gender equality and speak up against women’s marginalisation, invest our time and resources on women whose rights have been violated.”
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