Ahead of the 2023 general elections, the International Federation of Women Lawyers Nigeria has trained police personnel in Plateau State on how to respond to violence against women, people living with disabilities.
According to The Sun, this was disclosed by the Country National Vice President of FIDA Nigeria, Mrs Amina Abaje, in Plateau on Thursday.
She outlined how Borno, Kwara, Kaduna, and Plateau State are participating in the project, which is funded by UN Women.
Women are underrepresented in politics in Nigeria, according to Mrs. Obioma Achilefu, who was speaking on behalf of the FIDA Chairperson, Plateau State Chapter. She also noted that the workshop was designed to give women the confidence they need to actively engage 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 stated that data available revealed that women’s rates of participation in formal decision making remain among the lowest in the continent and around the world, with women holding only 5.6 percent (86 out of 1534) of all elective positions at 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 added.
