Hundreds of women politicians and activists under the auspices of Women in Politics Forum (WIPF) yesterday in Abuja protest the exclusion of women in the appointments made so far by President Muhammadu Buhari.
President of the forum, Barrister Ebere Ifendu, said the President’s action was unjustifiable as it portrays an administration with gender insensitivity in its pattern of political appointments despite the promises made during campaigns and the National Gender Policy (NGP) which stipulated 35 percent affirmative action.
She recalled that before the inauguration of President Buhari WIPF had protested the deliberate marginalization of women in the constitution of his 19-member Transition Committee which included only two women Nike Aboderin and Bola Adesola, despite women constituting 50 percent of the nations’ population.
“We find this trend to be not only repugnant but a gross abuse of the fundamental rights of the womenfolk in our country. Experience has shown that this government is focused on its policy of perpetual marginalization of women. How else can we explain a situation where apart from the nomination of a woman as the Acting Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), no other woman has made the list of present appointees of the President?
“We call on the APC to note that their collective record on women is poor – with a dismal three out of eight women in the Senate and five out of 17 in the House and the numbers in the State Assemblies is even more discouraging. It is only with appointments that this anomaly can be addressed and the APC can make good its promises to Nigerians in its manifesto,” Ifendu said.
Also speaking Amina Salihu, Olufunke Baruwa of the Nigerian Women’s Trust Fund (NWTF), Hauwa Shekarau of the International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA), Ezinne Amaka Agbiogwu of APGA, Dr. Dayo Kusa of National Peace Summit Group and Helen Odeh of New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) unanimously said that President Buhari should not see women as less critical now and worthy of appointment when he had say they were critical during the campaign and having contributed the highest number of votes to his emergence.
The group therefore urged the President to appoint INEC Chairman and Commissioners, with a clear representation of Women in line with the NGP.
