On Friday, July 6 and 7, over 300 groups comprising women gathered in Nigeria to restrategise for women’s advancement at a retreat organised by Womanifesto.
Tagged, Feminist Womanifesto 2023 Retreat: Building Consensus for Women’s Advancement in Nigeria Agenda, the Convener of the retreat, Womanifesto of which Women Advocates Research and Documentation Centre, WARDC, and Women’s Rights Advancement and Protection Alternative, WRAPA, are members, WARDC-led Dr. Abiola Akiyode-Afolabi, said there is a need to set agenda for the new administration on how to treat the issue of gender equality.
She noted that women are restrategising on how they need to build consensus around issues concerning women, ranging from the five gender bills which were supposed to help in terms of liberating women but were thrown out by the 9th National Assembly.
She explained that one of such issues is Violence Against Women which is yet to see effective implementation, hence the women are brainstorming to recommend to the government on steps to take by the new administration.
The women representatives who gathered at the event in Ikeja, Lagos, in one accord spoke on the issues relating to women representation and political participation, economy, sexual and reproductive rights of women, environment and agriculture.
Dr. Lydia Umar, National President Network for Peace and Security for Women in the ECOWAS Region, NOPSWECO, stressed the for unity among women and the need for working to promote peace and security agenda for women.
She bemoaned the condition of women in agriculture.
She said the country is battling with insecurity and the greater population of people involved in producing food are at risk of food insecurity in the country.
She queried, “Why does Nigeria want to go on developmental journey without the women, when the women constitutes about 50 per cent of the population, when the women have got their own perspectives and potentials to add to the table. Why is Nigeria making it difficult for women to come on board?
She attributed the current realities to patriarchical system.
According to her, “If we are going to have peace, a prerequisite to development, both politically, socially, economically, Nigeria can not succeed in having sustainable peace without the participation of women whether they’re young or older women.
The Executive Director of The Gender Awareness Trust, GAT, a Kaduna-based Non Govermental Organisation further said women should be allowed to enjoy every human rights that men enjoy.
Cynthia Mbamalu, a member of Womanifesto, who is a Director of Programmes, Yiaga Africa said women are experiencing a decline in political participation in Nigeria.
She explained that the Womanifesto is a platform of women across Nigeria working to promote issues of women to enable legislations for women representation in government.
According to her, in the 9th National Assembly, women had five gender bills, for those who followed the constitutional amendment, one of the gender bills was on Affirmative action for appointive offices, and that is a proposal to amend the constitution and mandate the President and all governors to give a particular percentage of seats to women in appointment.
“There was also a proposal for additional seats for women in National and State Assemblies, in the last constitutional amendment, there was also a proposal for women leadership in the political parties, amending the constitution to give women representation in party leadership, all those bills failed sadly.”
She urged the country to legislate for women representations, urging the government to learn from countries like Sierra Leone and Senegal who are making reviews in their laws.
She further stated, “This time around, we want to engage the 10th National Assembly for early amendments on the Gender and Equal Opportunities Bill.
She added, “We can’t run away from the constitutional amendment, we need it to provide for representation of women for appointive and elective offices, especially the National and State Assemblies that is where laws are made.
She submitted that the country can not move forward if there are no women in politics, proposing legislations that will ensure inclusive law and development.
Aisha Mohammed Dantsoho, mni, Permanent Security Ministry for Women/Children Affairs, Sokoto State, said women are strategising on how things would improve for them and move forward.
She said women are already doing greatly in various aspects.
According to her, having grassroots based participation for the future is key.
She said, “Once we build the capacity of the grassroots to enable them to speak, then we would have the kind of key participation that we are talking about.
She acknowledged reports of various bodies, like World Bank, UNICEF, Save The Child, etc., pointing to the fact that women and children have a lot of issues.
According to her, women are vulnerable to violence, environmental hazards, banditry, economic hardship, all these problems affect women more greatly than men because men can easily run out to get help but for women, even access to health, to education, to areas that involves her, even the climate now affects women.”
She advocated for unity in diversity in order to build a better society, better lives for women and key participation of women from different areas.
The civil servant informed, “We are trying our best, we’ve been working with development partners, NGOs, and Civil Socities Organisations.”
She said we now have a women’s movement in Sokoto, where WRAPA is engaging women groups to build themselves to be able to say a lot of things and that is key to participation.”
