From Gyang Bere, Jos
The International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA) Nigeria has trained police personnel in Plateau State on response to violence against women, gender and disability approach ahead of the 2023 general elections.
The Country National Vice President of FIDA Nigeria, Mrs Amina Abaje, who declared the workshop open on Thursday with a theme, “Capacity Building Workshop for Law enforcement Agencies on prevention and response to violence against women in elections, Gender and disability protection approach, held at Lamonde Hotel Jos, Plateau State said protection of women during elections is very critical to their active participation.
She explained that the project which is funded by UN women is holding concurrently in four states of Borno, Kwara, Kaduna and Plateau State.
Represented by FIDA Chairperson, Plateau State Chapter, Mrs Obioma Achilefu said women are not adequately represented in politics in Nigeria and noted that the workshop was aimed at building confidence in woman to participate actively in politics.
“Women share a common feature of marginalization in the sphere of public life, and their participation and representation in political life continues to be minimal. Involving participatory democracy, citizens (both women and men) have equal rights to participate in elections.
“We have observed low women’s participation in Nigeria’s Electoral process which has limited their contribution to decision making and democratic growth despite the fact that they represent about 50% of the Nigerian population.”
Mrs. Abaje said data available revealed that women’s rates of participation in formal decision making remain one of the lowest in the continent and across the world with women occupying an abysmal 5.6 percent (86 out of 1534) of all elective positions at both the national and subnational levels.
“Current statistics of women in parliament in Nigeria confirm that women representation in parliament is on a steady decline, 9% in 2007, 7% in 2011, 5% in 2015 and less than 10% in the 9th National Assembly. Using 2015 figures, there are only 4 women deputy Governors in all of Nigeria’s 36 states.
“Women constitute a powerful electorate with millions of votes in Nigeria. According to INEC, Nigerian women signaled their intentions to make their voices heard in the 2019 election, accounting for about 47. 14 percent (39,598,645 million) of the 84,004.084 million registered voters nationwide.
“Comparatively in 2015 3,667,076 house wives voted in the presidential election, placing next to students 4,480,708) and civil servants 4,628,433.
“Similarly, housewives rank third on the list of registered voters by group in the last 2019 election. They represented 14.10 percent of the total registered voters by group, next to farmers/fishers (16.23 percent) and students (26.57 percent).”
She noted that the workshop is being organized towards improving the participation of women through the mitigation of violence perpetrated against women in the 2023 general elections by strengthening the capacity of selected Law enforcement agencies, institutions, and oversight mechanisms to effectively prevent and respond to violence against women in elections, sexual and gender based violence, and other forms of violence against women.
Programme Specialist, Women Political Empowerment, UN women, Chundung Ashley Dauda lamented that women has only 3.8% representation in politics in Nigeria.
She said when women are represented in politics, they champion issues of national development in health, education, agriculture and other sector of the economy and lamented that violence has limited the participation of women in politics over the years.
The National Officer of International Federation of Women Lawyers FIDA, Rita Lasoju who gave an overview of the programme noted that women contribute significantly to the success of the electoral process in Nigeria but are minimally represented in politics.
She noted that the two day workshop will strengthen the capacity of security agencies to respond adequately to issues of violence against women to enable them participate actively in the 2023 election.
A participant, SP Dan Igagu said the workshop will strengthen the capacity of the police who are deeply involved in the electoral process to response swiftly to issues of violence again women.