As 2023 general elections in Nigeria draws closer, the Executive Director, Renaissance Care and Empowerment Foundation, Ambassador Idris Ozoveha Muraina has called for more involvement of Nigerian women in Politics.
Ambassador Muraina made the call at a Round Table Discussion on Women Participation in Politics organised by the Foundation for selected Media Practitioners in Lokoja, the Kogi State capital on Tuesday.
He decried the prevailing poor participation of Nigerian women in politics describing the development as worrisome which he said the round table discussion is out to address and proffer solutions and strategies to tackle the trend.
He explained that there has been a worrisome downward slope in the participation of women in politics as evidenced by available data in 2015 Gubernatorial elections in Kogi where women only accounted for 35% of accredited voters, and by 2019 general elections, that number had slumped to 29% which formed 17% decline from the 2015 elections.
The Executive Director said that the project is targeted at reducing the report of electoral violence against women in politics ahead of the General elections to be conducted in Kogi state come March 2023.
He said that it also intends to increase the participation of women voters over the last 2019 Kogi governorship election voter figures by the end of 2023 general election.
Ambassador Muraina enumerated strategies to be adopted in finding lasting solutions to remedy the trend to include; embarking on Media enlightenment, advocacy visit and community dialogue in the media to get women know their right to vote and be voted for.
He however, noted that the Foundation’s main objective is on ensuring societal development in the areas of health, education, vocational training, economic empowerment and conflict prevention with focus on children, women, youths and other valuable groups.
In his presentation during the round table discussion, Hamza Aliyu of Initiative for Grass-Root Advancement, commended Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi state for signing of the Violence Against Persons Prohibition (VAPP) bill into law which he said is a serious legal structure to help women to effectively participate in politics.
He said what is needed now is to secure community support across the three senatorial districts of Kogi state towards the actualizarion of the women project.