Gada/IPAC Inter-Party Committee Inspires Inclusion On Affirmative Action For Women In Leadership And Politics
As part of GADA’s initiative to inspire inclusion during the International Women’s Day 2024, GADA collaborated with the Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) to address the pressing issue of women’s under representation in leadership and politics in Cross River State.
The event was supported by ActionAid Nigeria with funding from Global Affairs Canada. It aimed to inspire inclusion and advocate for Affirmative Action for Women in leadership positions. The IPAC-GADA Group firmly believes that the equitable participation of women in decision making and leadership is essential for sustainable development of any society, therefore the call for Affirmative Action for Women in Cross River State was indeed pertinent.
The theme: ‘Exploring Alternative Approaches to Women’s Low Representation in Politics and Leadership’ was discussed at the meeting which was timely during the women’s month which called on all to ‘Inspire Inclusion.’ The Group expressed its deep disappointment that with almost 150 appointments made by the Executive Governor of Cross River State, only about 25 of them are women which is a far cry from the promise of Parity made by Governor Bassey Otu during his campaign. Therefore, the IPAC-GADA Group aims to foster collaboration between women leaders of the 19 political parties in the state to raise public awareness about the importance of women’s participation in decision making and leadership, project the names of significant female candidates for appointments, support actions that advance through legal reforms the inclusion of more women, enforce measures such as gender electoral quotas, in order to enhance women’s future representation in local government legislative assemblies and take steps to increase the number of women in political party lists, membership and in key positions in party leadership structures.
The Executive Director of GADA, Francisca Effiom who chaired the event gave an overview of the Women’s Voice and Leadership (WVL) Nigeria project for the past five years of implementation in the state, stating the various achievements and impacts of the project and how GADA has consistently championed the empowerment of women in politics, leadership and in all spheres in the state. She urged the stakeholders to bring their expertise together in order to achieve the shared vision of women’s political participation and involvement. She challenged the women political representation in the state as being very low, recalling from the previous government where women representation was better than what it is today which further proves that women are not well represented in the state. She called on women to do things differently and seek for the way forward.
In his presentation, the Chairman of IPAC in Cross River State, Engr. Edet Effiom spoke on the status of women’s inclusion noting that women play a vital role in the global ecosystem. “Advancing women's inclusion in global activities is a crosscutting solution, and there is no policy more effective than women inclusion hence the need to come together in partnership with GADA and other parties to achieve this,” he noted.
The political party women leaders enumerated challenges experienced in the field of politics, ranging from women fighting themselves, sentiments and victimization from the men, and pull-down syndrome, God fatherism, women not grooming other women who are coming up in politics like the men do, lack of women’s intentionality towards leadership and power etc.
In the end, a Statement by Inter Party Advisory Committee (IPAC)-Gender and Development Action (GADA) Inter-party Group on Affirmative Action for Women in Cross River State was read to all and signed by representatives of both groups.
Highlights from the meeting include:
1 The IPAC-GADA Inter-Party Group firmly believes that the equitable participation of women in decision making and leadership is essential for sustainable development of any society. The Group met in Calabar on the 20th of March 2024 with support from Action Aid to deliberate on the theme.
2. The Group expresses it deep disappointment that with almost 150 appointments made recently, only about 25 of them are women. This is a far cry from the promise of PARITY made by Governor Senator Bassey Edet Otu during his campaign. They fear that the “season of sweetness” has been reserved largely for men and so the road to more gender balanced political decision-making in CRS remains far from reality.
3. Rising from their meeting, the IPAC-GADA Group identified and considered solutions agreeing that the best means to promote more equal and inclusive representation of women in decision making will require the government consistently adopting quota measures (35 %) and also deliberating recruiting younger women with the right leadership orientation to twin as Chairmen and Vice Chairmen ahead of the Local Government Elections in the State.
4. The IPAC-GADA collaboration, will work with all 19 political parties to facilitate peer to peer support for women from political parties seeking to advance their political participation and combat existing barriers against their inclusion.
Call-to-action:
The GADA/IPAC group urges all political stakeholders and women leaders in the State to raise public awareness about the importance of women’s participation in decision making and leadership.
Calls on political parties to put forward the names of significant female candidates for appointment knowing that such projection will help them get attention in the face of acts of sexism, harassment, discrimination and violation of women’s rights.
For the future, the Group:
Aims to support actions that advance through legal reforms the inclusion of more women and to also mobilize political influencers within civil society to promote the inclusion of women as a call for the broadening of the democratic system in Cross River State.
Calls on all political parties to adopt ambitious, well-designed and enforceable measures, such as gender electoral quotas, in order to enhance women’s future representation in local government legislative assemblies.
Urges all political parties to enhance inclusion of women by taking steps to increase the number of women on their lists, in their membership and in key positions in the leadership structures of the political parties.
Resolutions from the meeting:
1. Women need to stop fighting themselves and fight for themselves. There is a need to have a united front for better representation of women in Politics. Women must rally around each other and support each other more.
2. Based on the political system in Nigeria, women are discouraged from vying for political positions. But no matter the challenges, this should not be a setback, instead, it should be a reason to defy ordinary standards and put ourselves out there.
3. There is a need to canvass for the support from women who are already in political offices to support the other aspiring women. Let the women have one voice irrespective of the political party they belong to.
4. Women should be able to collaborate with men to join their bandwagon and work together to achieve equal participation in political positions and bypass political caucuses and the question of where you belong.
5. Women should appeal to their husbands to be more supportive of their political aspirations so they can thrive in politics.
6. Women should not just come out because they think they are women, they should be chosen on the grounds of accountability, credibility and exceptional leadership characteristics.
7. Women should pay attention to grooming themselves to become more enlightened so that they can be able to represent themselves and the women effectively. Women should develop themselves economically and have forums for development.
8. Women who are oppressed should speak up and make their voices heard. There is power in consistency in the political participation process.
9. There is a need to advance women’s inclusion in global activities. This is to give women more shots at leadership and more opportunities.
10. There is a need to establish women’s equality in the eyes of the law as well as ensure that women are included in decision-making.
The meeting ended with the signing of the affirmative statement by representatives of the Group made up of the chairperson, secretary and spokesperson in the persons of Engr. Edet Effiom (IPAC Chairman) Dr. Ihort Achu (GADA), and Felicia Odum (Social Democratic Party-SDP women leader) respectively.
The 19 political parties present are Accord Party, Action Alliance, African Action Congress, African Democratic Congress, Action Democratic Party, All Progressives Congress, All Progressive Grand Alliance, Allied Peoples Movement, Action Peoples Party, Boot Party, Labour Party, New Nigerian peoples Party, National Rescue Movement, Peoples Democratic Party, Peoples Redemption Party, Social Democratic Party, Young progressives Party, Zenith Labour Party, Youth Party.