Group bemoans fate of female politicians

By Vincent Ujumadu  

AWKA -A NON-GOVERNMENTAL Organization, the Women Aid Collective (WACOL) has bemoaned the fate of Nigerian female politicians who it claimed, have been shortchanged by their male counterparts.
 
Executive director of the organization, Mrs. Joy Ezeilo who spoke at a capacity building workshop for female candidates and aspirants in Anambra State, identified the problems as lack of resources to prosecute the elections and inability of the women to raise money to assist them in prosecuting their campaigns.
 
“There is no doubt that Nigeria has the largest population of at least 70 million women in Africa. Regrettably, despite this women’s numerical strength, women representations and participation in democratic transitions in Nigeria remains dismal with less than 10% occupying elective position and less than 20% occupying appointive positions.
 
“In the process of the struggle for a democratic state, women, despite their enormous contributions in nation – building, have been unduly marginalized and largely excluded that it may not be wrong to say that they are the real victims of the politics of exclusion perpetuated by the political class and its party structure.
 
“Varying forms of threats militate against women’s political participation and these include political godfathers, hijacking of political party structure, mercantile politics that admits only money bags, thuggery, kidnapping and general insecurity in the polity, political party’s biases against female candidates, indigeneship contestations, zoning and power sharing formula, violence against women, among other issues.”