Thursday, 28th March 2024
To guardian.ng
Search
Breaking News:

Rep advocates emergency declaration on women exclusion from governance

By Adamu Abuh, Abuja 
13 April 2023   |   5:07 am
The only female aspirant for Speakership of the House of Representatives, Mrs. Miriam Onuoha, yesterday, sought declaration of a state of emergency on women exclusion from governance in Nigeria. Officially declaring her interest to vie for the coveted seat...

Miriam Onuoha

The only female aspirant for Speakership of the House of Representatives, Mrs. Miriam Onuoha, yesterday, sought declaration of a state of emergency on women exclusion from governance in Nigeria. Officially declaring her interest to vie for the coveted seat, yesterday, in Abuja, Onuoha urged the political elite to address the issue.

 
The Chairman, House Committee on Disabilities and Special Needs regretted that women, who constitute over 60 per cent of the voting population, could only account for paltry three per cent representation in government. She said it has become a rarity to find women on the entire protocol list of the country.
 
The Imo State-born politician, who called on peers to support her aspiration, submitted that her emergence would bridge the gender gap nationwide. Her words: “I am now a ranking member of the House. I have gathered the requisite experience and qualifications. What we have now is a male-dominated Assembly, not a truly National Assembly. Everybody knows that is not inclusiveness.
 
“We want to have a strong voice. We want to be there for everybody, including the men. It is not possible for men to speak for women when we have credible women who can speak for women.”

Urging her male rivals to back her for the plum job, Onuoha argued that she remains most suitable for seat of Speaker of the 10th Assembly. She said: “No doubt, our President-elect, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, is a he-for-she, who has always empowered women in all spheres of life, having picked a woman as his running mate as governor of Lagos State, and also supported his amiable wife to become a senator in line the United Nations’ 35 per cent affirmative action for women.
 
“To this effect, my election as House Speaker will, therefore, afford Nigeria the rare opportunity of killing the two ubiquitous birds of gender balancing and youth inclusiveness with one stone.
 
“Truthfully, I amply represent the twin engine essence of Nigeria’s youth and female status quo, whom the circumstances of our political exigencies, have made an endangered and vulnerable species. 
 
“Again the issues of regional balancing in the nation’s leadership equation is also another veritable national challenge that my election to the Speakership of the House of Representatives will address and resolve simultaneously in the interest of national unity, pace and inclusion.”

0 Comments