Women lose tally in National Assembly

International Press Centre (IPC)Friday said it is saddening that the outcome of the February 23 general elections show that the women have lost out in increasing their tally in the National Assembly. “Against the present eight National Assembly which has a combined membership of 469, consisting of eight female senators and 15 female House members, […]

International Press Centre (IPC)Friday said it is saddening that the outcome of the February 23 general elections show that the women have lost out in increasing their tally in the National Assembly.

“Against the present eight National Assembly which has a combined membership of 469, consisting of eight female senators and 15 female House members, it is worrisome that the ninth National Assembly to be inaugurated in June, will only have six female senators-elect and 13 female House members-elect,” IPC Director, Lanre Arogundade said.

He called on stakeholders to consolidate efforts in ensuring that women are engendered into democratic governance, especially drawing from the fallout of the outcomes of the 2019 elections which saw many women unable to clinch elective positions.

This was contained in a statement in commemoration of the 2019 edition of the International Women’s Day with the theme #BalanceforBetter.

Arogundade said  it was imperative that Nigerian women, who accounted for about 47 per cent (39,598,645 million) of the 84,004,084 million registered voters nationwide, were adequately mainstreamed into governance structure.

This, he added, would  give them adequate representation and balancing of the affairs of governance, especially as the preliminary outcomes from the February  23 National Assembly elections indicates that very few women were elected.

The IPC Director urged, “We are therefore calling on stakeholders to galvanize actions to engender women in appointive positions even as it is hoped that the electorates would be disposed to vote women in the March 9 governorship and state assembly elections.”

“There is no better time to ensure gender inclusion than now, as women continue to face all forms of discrimination and challenges in their quest to contribute their quota to the development of society,” he added.