Negative portrayal of women threatens democracy: WODI
By Njadvara MUSA, Maiduguri
The Executive Director of the Women Development Initiative (WODI), Veronica Ogbole, has said that the negative portrayal of women in politics and leadership threatens democracy and justice in the country.
According to her, the roles assigned to women and their contributions to society are, however, not valued.
Veronica raised the alarm Monday at a two-day media training for political reporters in Maiduguri, the Borno state capital.
The training is an initiative of Women Radio 91.7 in partnership with UN Women and support from the Government of Canada.
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Ogbole, at the training session themed: “Positive Portrayals of Women in Politics and Leadership,” disclosed women’s political involvement since 2015 was very low, despite decades of struggles for gender equity and women’s empowerment.
She noted that women recorded all-time low participation, with onadRly 14 women in the Federal House of Representatives and eight in the Senate.
She said, “The National Gender Policy and the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) gender policy draft did not translate to an increase in the number of women elected or appointed into leadership positions”.
Besides, she added that this was even though women make up most of the global population.
She lamented that women remain under-represented in politics and leadership positions in all the country’s sectors.
According to her, political parties are one of the critical mechanisms for women to advance their political aspirations for leadership at all levels.
“The political parties in the country are not helping women achieve their leadership roles,” she said, stating that women are denied effective participation within the existing political parties.
No woman has ever held any key position in any political party in Nigeria.
