IWD: Centre mobilises grassroots women, girls on political participation
By Justina Auta
The National Centre for Women Development (NCWD) says it is mobilising women and girls to exercise their civil rights by using their numerical strength to occupy decision-making positions and empowerment.
The Director General, NCWD, Mrs Mary Ekpere-Eta, made this known while briefing the media in Abuja on Monday in commemoration of the 2021 International Women’s Day (IWD).
The IWD is annually celebrated around the globe on March 8, in recognition of the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women and also a call to action for accelerating women’s equality.
This year’s edition has “Women in Leadership: Achieving an Equal Future in a COVID-19 World” as its theme.
Ekpere-Eta said available statistics negate the claim that more women voted than men in the 2019 general elections, as report shows that only 11,897,180 women voted out of the 26,348,429 accredited voters during the election.
She attributed the poor representation of women at both elective and appointive positions to patriarchy, political violence, insurgency and others, which plummeted the number of women casting their votes.
She added that “the NCWD is mobilising women and young girls in Nigeria, especially at the grassroots on the need for them to know the power of their civil rights.
“And use of their one vote to empower women and put them in decision making positions for good governance.”
According to her, the centre mobilises women and girls through media publicity and sensitisation to enable them to occupy political or appointive positions.
She added that “the centre is also working with the National Bureau of Statistics to ensure documentation of Gender Based Violence (GBV) issues and track incidences in the country with a view to end the practice.
“One important area of focus for us is the documentation of unpaid care work in Nigeria, which we are currently carrying out in collaboration with the National Bureau of Statistics to reduce the burden of unpaid care work on women,” she said.
The NCWD boss, therefore, urged unity to end Sexual/Gender Based Violence, patriarchy, discrimination against women and others.
She said the IWD provides an opportunity to call out gender bias and inequality, seek out and accelerate women’s achievement and advocate for increased participation of women in development and decision making.
She noted that the NCWD had empowered over 7000 women and youths with various skills and equipment and trained over 2000 women and girls in various skills through the Federal Government Post COVID-19 Programme. (NAN)
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