In a bid to encourage increased women participation in politics, a non-profit organisation known as Gender and Development Action, GADA, has turned its attention to building the capacities of young female students across tertiary institutions in Cross River State, southern Nigeria.
GADA under its Women’s Voice and Leadership Project, WVLP, decided to organize a debate for selected young women from tertiary institutions in Cross River State on the need to trade apathy and discrimination for confidence and vision.
The Acting Programme Manager of WVLP – GADA, Ms. Nnenna Ugbor explained that to have a greater number of women politicians at the national level required that the capacities of younger females be enhanced by encouraging them to shun apathy for student union politics despite discrimination.
Ugbor, who noted that young women interested in university politics were often intimidated and shamed by their male counterparts including fellow female students, said “young women are the least represented amongst political leadership and we recognized that their participation in formal politics is important as they lead issues like climate change, racial justice and gender equality.”
Continuing, she stated, “GADA wants to focus on an important aspect of women’s rights, which is strengthening their involvement in decision making whether economic, political or social.”
Raising Awareness
The Commissioner for Women Affairs, Dr. Gertrude Njar in a goodwill message read by Mr. Hope Oyama described the debate as vital to raising the consciousness of younger women on gender based violence in school politics and commended GADA for complimenting the effort aimed at developing multi-sectoral services for all women and girls in Cross River.
Similarly, the traditional ruler of Big Qua Town in Calabar Municipality, Ntoe Oqua pinpointed that the education and political enlightenment of women in the society was empowering women to perform better than men in the civil service, political arena even the military.
He stated, “there is need for women to be actively involved in the country’s decision making as well as increased representation in private and public spaces. I appeal for continuous support of state actors, community leaders, tertiary institutions, religious bodies and political parties to work assiduously to mobilize women to vote and be voted for so that their voices can be heard.”
The debate involved eight young women selected from the University of Calabar (Unical); the University of Cross River State (Unicross) and the College of Health Technology all in Calabar, the state capital.
The eight were divided into four groups identified by the names of prominent Nigerian female politicians such as teams Margaret Ekpo, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Oby Ezekwesili and Nkoyo Toyo.
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