Mrs Adekemi Ndieli, National Programme Officer, UNDP (UN Women), has challenged the political parties in Nigeria to be more affirmative in supporting women to win elective positions through concerted efforts.
Ndieli told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Monday that women should be made to be more relevant in the political scheme of things.
According to her, the usual belief that women are to be seen and not to be heard should be jettison.
``Affirmative action is not a permanent mechanism rather a temporary measure put in place to give women the opportunity to come up to the same level with their male counterpart.
``The measure is also to ensure a level playing field for women over a period of years,’’ she said.
Ndieli said that the 35 per cent affirmative action should be implemented before the 2015 elections to enable women take their right political positions.
She said that the measure became imperative, because women were not having equal participation in politics with Nigerian men.
Ndieli said that right now, there was no level playing ground for women to participate in politics, because men were making politics to be a difficult task for women.
``For example appointments in the three tiers of government are getting better, but when it comes to elective positions, it has become a big problem.
``This is as a result of the internal democratic practise of all the political parties,‘’she said.
Ndieli said that affirmative action was just a temporary special measure that would not last forever, because by the time women came up, the measures would fizzle out.
She said there was the need for accommodation of women, who had been systematically excluded over the years to allow for equal participation.
``The element of more women participation in politics should be inserted in the constitution, mostly a provision within representational capacity,’’ he said.
The programme officer said that Nigerian women were formidable forces in Nigeria politics, but that their enthusiasm and skills had not been translated into getting elective positions.
Ndieli said there were so many factors within the political parties in Nigeria that were militating against women access to elective positions in the country.
She said that this had to do with male domination, violence, ``god fatherisms'' and religious aspects of life.
Mrs Margret Ikwunja-Ejeh, Director Gender in INEC, said women should not lose the advantage of 2015 and put an end to their partial representation in the various elective offices in Nigeria.
She said INEC as an umpire was making a giant stride to sensitise women in all aspects of elective participation.
According to her, INEC is trying to look into problems confronting women in Nigeria politics and find a lasting solutions to them so that women can participate fully in politics.
Ikwunja-Ejeh emphasised the need for women to make themselves to become more relevant and formidable at all political levels.
She said that the commission had begun sensitisation campaigns to attract more women into mainstream politics, but that INEC could not initiate a law to this effect.
``The campaign include training, workshops, counselling, voter education and advocacy, while more than 3,000 NGO’s, women professionals, religious bodies and party members are being trained to train others.
According to her, the traditional rulers support for women has also been enlisted in enhancing the campaign.
She said that this measure became necessary because of the social, cultural and religious attitudes of some Nigerian ethnic groups, more often than not relegate women to the background.
Ikwunja-Ejeh said Nigerian women could only take their rightful positions in the administration of this country through active participation in politics between now and 2015.
