Friday, July 4, 2008

Politics & Nigerian Women

Yet another article from the allAfrica website giving support to women to take an active role in local government and politics.

This story is from Hilda Esin, in Nigeria:

Nigeria: Group Applauds Women Participation in Politics
"A non-governmental organisation, Gender and Development Action (GADA), has affirmed that the number of women's participation during the 2007 elections in the South West was higher than the previous elections."

The Director of GADA (Gender and Development Action) Agina-Ude revealed that "during the election the project group supported the women in training on feminist transformative leadership to empower them, and embarked on various activities such as sensitisation and constituency building exercise in all the six states in South West Nigeria.

Agina-Ude commended the results of women gains at the local government election which recorded women 8.6 per cent, representing 2 per cent increase compared to 2003, albeit still a far cry from the minimum of 30 per cent or the desirable 50 per cent.

A breakdown of the figures showed that women were elected into the following positions: five Deputy Governors, 54 members of state Assemblies, 27 in the House of Representatives, and 9 senators.

According to the GADA official, over 110 women aspired and fought through the party primaries and stood gallantly as candidates for the presidency, governorship as well as national and state legislatures, a departure from previous elections where there were few women candidates."


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