A gender advocate, Dr Jade Mohammed, says exclusion of women’s participation in governance as a result of marriage is undemocratic.
Mohammed, a lecturer at the Federal Polytechnic, Ede, in Osun, made the assertions on Friday in Ibadan, at a stakeholders’ meeting sponsored by the Nigerian Women’s Trust Fund.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that paper presented by the lecturer was entitled: “Citizenship/Indigeneship and Women Participation in Governance”.
She said that marriage should not be an excuse to exclude women from participating in governance where they reside.
According to her, marriage should even be an additional opportunity for them to contribute their quotas to the development of the country.
She made allusion to the recent primaries of political parties in which emphasis was placed on indigeneship instead of citizenship.
The gender advocate said that the development had prevented many qualified women’s representation “at different levels of government” .
According to her, the approach of indigeneship to elect representatives negate the provision of Nigeria Constitution and the federal character.
“What is in the Constitution is not what is being practiçed; what is being practiced in most places is indigeneship, not citizenship as envisaged by Sections 26 and 27 of the 1999 Constitution.
“Indigeneship over citizenship is a barrier to development in every society; women are particularly affected, especially if they are outside their place of origin.
“It is already rearing its head in recent times in the just concluded primaries where many women were dropped based on indigeneship.
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“As a woman, who is competent and suitable, wherever she shows up, such a person should be promoted, appreciated and allowed to contribute her quota to the development of her community.
“Women need to rise more than ever and understand that politics is beyond voting,” she said.
Mohammed, describing discrimination against women as a barrier to development, urged fellow women to rise up and promote competent women at all times.
Another speaker, Dr. Mistura Sanni, said the nation needed some actions targeted at bringing everyone to the same level playing ground in addressing women inequality.
“When we talk about imbalance, our situation in Nigeria is such that we take a blanket disposition in managing our affairs.
“Our data are not gender sensitive. When we set our data right, we will be able to move forward, because the data is what the decision is based on,” Sanni said.(NAN)
