Encourage Women Vile, Win Elective Offices- FG
Ahead of the 2023 general elections, the Federal Government has called on political parties to encourage women to be vile and win elective offices.
The Minister of State (Labour and Employment), Festus Keyamo (SAN), stated this on Thursday at the capacity strengthening training workshop on advocacy and communication for women cooperatives from the Nigerian for Women Projects, held in Abuja.
The FG charged the political parties to leave some offices exclusively open for women to contest intentionally.
The training was organized by the Development Research and Projects Centre, collaborating with Michael Imoudu National Institute for Labour Studies in Ilorin and sponsored by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and other partners.
The minister urged the stakeholders to ensure there are measures put in place to “strengthen and empower the 49.32 per cent of critical Nigeria’s population and entrust inclusive development of the country.”
On his part, the Coordinator of DRPC, Dr Yahaya Hashim, noted that since 1994, the centre had trained over 500 civil society organizations, stressing that working with women economic collectives was an opportunity to improve an essential sector of the nation’s population to order for advancement in their lives in Nigeria.
In his speech, the Director-General of MINILS, Issa Aremu, noted that “Understandably, the marginalization of women in political power structure dominates the gender discourse in the current efforts to review the 1999 constitution.”
Keyamo added that the Federal government is working with the National Assembly to ensure that women’s economic development and finance are included in the ongoing constitutional review.
