The Association of Women Leaders of Edo State has pledged their unyielding support for Governor Godwin Obaseki for his uplift of women in his recently inaugurated cabinet. The women stated this during the conclusion of their annual three-day conference in Benin City with the theme “The Politics of Progress & Gender Inclusion”. They noted that even appointments made thereafter, such as the recently announced appointment of Solicitor-General to the State and SUBEB chairman have been gender-balanced. The keynote speaker at the conference, Pastor Edna Omame, in her presentation, decried the situation where women are used as assets for votes during electioneering and campaign season, but never integrated or included into the affairs of governance.
“Sometimes, it is almost as if they are telling us that we are unqualified, that we don’t have capacity.
Look at the Federal Government. How many women are there? Meanwhile during campaign, you will see them running after our association, or our sister associations at market level. This is not sustainable.” Madam Dorothy Nosa-Uyigwe, Publicity Secretary of the group, said Edo women have become more enlightened and more empowered, adding that there would be no going back on full participation of women in the governance of the state. She urged more political leaders across Nigeria to emulate Obaseki.
“Determined in his drive to create a state which gives the girl-child a voice, Governor Godwin Obaseki has continued to constitute his cabinet to reflect gender balance and equality.
Of the Commissioners and Special Advisers so far appointed by the Obaseki administration, women make up about 48 per cent of the cabinet. Also, Women in Medicine and Sciences Foundation, Edo State chapter, described as unprecedented, the gesture of immense goodwill extended to the womenfolk by Obaseki.
In a statement signed by the President of the Foundation, Mrs. Agnes Orobosa Igiebor, the group roundly applauded the governor’s appointment, highlighting the difference that seeing women in leadership positions would make in the lives of young girls and women across the state.