National Women Leader of the All Progressives Congress, Betta Edu has stated that there are many factors militating against women participating actively in the political sphere in Nigeria. She however, identified two major factors – religion and culture.
According to the APC National Women Leader, who appeared on This Morning show, some areas in Nigeria strongly believe that women should not be heard, or should be on the same path as men, and that they cannot contribute equally, and that women should stay at home.
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She went on to say that there are states where women will not be voted because the states believe they will not be adequately represented by a woman.
She bemoaned the fact that women are stereotyped and relegated.
Dr. Betta Edu observed that women are doing well in other parts of the world.
“In other climes or countries around the world, you find women doing so well, women are leading countries as presidents, prime ministers, you name it, you find women in parliament, you find women all the way down, you find women everywhere, they are taking their rightful place they are being mainstreamed, unfortunately, in Nigeria we have not yet gotten to that level yet”
According to Dr. Edu, women are starting to change their ways of not supporting women.
“Women are starting to realise that we have the numbers, and we should come together to help other women succeed in whatever elections they stand for”
She continued by saying that because women often want to pursue political careers but lack the financial resources.
“A man is coming into the election with so much money to do consultation,
print posters do jingles, go door-to-door, provide some incentives, campaign materials and the rest of it and then the woman who is running might not be as buoyant as that man to be able to run, and so he puts her on a disadvantaged position in reaching out to the population that will actually vote”.
“whether you believe it or not, election is an expensive process and so women not being financially capable have deterred some from getting into the ring”
The APC National Women Leader bemoaned the fact that none of the seven bills that went to the national assembly were passed because these are bills that would have put women in the mainstream center position to reach out to fellow women and contribute their quota to the country’s development.
“It’s unfortunate that seven bills went to the house or the national assembly and they were not passed it, should not be so, these are bills that should strengthen the female gender, these are bills that should give us thirty five percent of formative action, these are bills that should be able to place us in the mainstream center position to reach out to fellow women and indeed give our own quota to development of the country but this was not so.
“I think the most important point the starting point is actually laws and policies legislations policies that will empower women” she added
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