By Justina Auta
The Minister of Women Affairs, Mrs Pauline Tallen, has called on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to compel political parties to mainstream gender issues in candidates’ selection.
She made the call during the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) Ministerial Forum in Abuja.
The minister, who said that political parties were not fair to women and needed to mainstream gender policies in the nomination of candidates for various political positions, added that “I will say without mincing words, that all the political parties are not fair to women.
“Unless gender is mainstreamed, unless INEC does something about this policy by ensuring that all political parties mainstream gender in their submission, we will not get there.”
She cited Rwanda, which she said exceeded the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) recommendation on women equality with 61 per cent in executive and legislative arms of government, with 50 per cent in the judiciary.
She said “look at what is happening in Rwanda; it is progressing very fast, when you go there, you will not believe that you are in Africa.
“Rwanda has 61 per cent women representation in the executive arm. They have even exceeded the gender equality number 5 under the SDGs.
“The legislature is equally 61 per cent in Rwanda, the only arm of the government that we have 50/50 is the judiciary.
“So, I pray that Nigeria will get there; it is not that we do not have qualified women, we have and there is no sector given to a woman that will not perform.
“So, we will keep advocating for more space for women. Until that is done, Nigeria will not get to its designed position as the Giant Of Africa.
“If we call ourselves Giant Of Africa, we should show it by including women in all that we do.”
She, therefore, reiterated commitment toward advocating for gender mainstreaming in all sectors, as well as promote girl-child education.
She said “we are intensifying advocacy to community and religious leaders to ensure that we mainstream gender and the key thing is to ensure that the girl-child goes to school.
“It is most important because when you have an educated mother, she will ensure her children are educated.
“Education is key, it is the greatest empowerment. If a woman is educated and has a good job, she can support and know how to take informed decisions about her life and her children.
“So, we are appealing to every Nigerian family to ensure that the girl-child, and every child is educated because we do not want to leave or ignore the boy child.
“If we ignore that, we will have more problems because when we have only educated girls, when she gets married to an uneducated man, there will be problems too.
