Women politicians in the country have unveiled an online resource portal for women seeking elective positions in the 2023 general elections.
Speaking to newsmen after the unveiling of the project tagged: ‘Nigerian Women Aspirants Website’, president of the Women In Politics Forum and gender activist, Ebere Ifendu, called on President Muhammadu Buhari and the National Assembly to take electoral reforms seriously, and highlighted the expectation of these reforms to right the many wrongs of marginalization and injustices against women.
She added that that the mode of party primaries was not enough to bring the needed change expected to be seen in the country’s political process.
Ifendu said, “We had high expectations that the Electoral Bill would have been assented to by the President, unfortunately, that did not happen. We are in support of direct primaries, where every registered party member participates to choose their flag bearers.
“This would have opened up the space and made it more inclusive of women, youth and persons with disability”, she added.
According to her, there had been a decline in the number of women elected into political offices from 5.6 per cent in 2015 to 4.7 per cent in 2019, but that all hands must be on deck, come 2023, to reverse the downward trend.
