Ene Oshaba
Women in Politics Forum (WIPF) a Civil Society Organization (CSP) working towards achieving increased women’s participation in politics and leadership has called on the various stakeholders in the 2023 general elections to ensure a free, fair and credible exercise.
National President of the forum Ebere Ifendu, made the call during a press briefing it organized in Abuja tagged “Women’s Political Participation in the 2023 Elections”.
The briefing was part of the intervention project on improving electoral integrity and accountability in Nigeria funded by the MacArthur Foundation and implemented by WRAPA in partnership with Nigerian Women Trust Fund, 100 Women Lobby Group and Elect Her.
Ifendu expressed concerns on the very few female candidates in Abia, stating that it is particularly worrisome that the state ranks among the 15 states in Nigeria that currently have no woman in the state house of assembly.
She noted that the 2023 elections presents a chance to change this narrative as Abia states is one of the states that have female candidates contesting for the gubernatorial, National Assembly as well as Abia state house of assembly.
“WIPF recognizes the marginalization of Women in Politics, decision making and the importance of unity, regardless of political party affiliation, to give a voice to Women in Leadership.
“The 2023 elections are at hand and Abia state is not left out in this electioneering period with February 25th for the presidential and National Assembly elections and March 11th for the Gubernatorial and State house of Assembly elections.
“This is an encouraging turn of events for the women in Abia state in terms of political participation as the INEC register shows women as 47% of registered voters, women in Abia state inclusive.
“With the introduction of the BVAS machine in the electoral process and the passage of the new electoral Act, major sanity has been brought to the electoral process giving it more credibility as voters can be rest assured that their votes count and elections will not be easily manipulated as it was before.
“We demand that INEC and States Electoral Commissions ensure that staff to be deployed on Election Day be properly trained and scrutinized to avoid any attempt at manipulating the electoral process.
“To ensure that everything necessary is done for Nigerians to be able to collect their PVCs before the expiration of the extended deadline To ensure that there is gender inclusion in the deployment of officials on Election Day
“We appeal to the media to give more access to female candidates, giving them good visibility across board while enabling them to communicate their vision to the electorate• We also appeal to the media to ensure stories are fact checked before they are released in the media to avoid the spread of fake news and hate speech that can trigger electoral and political.
“We implore security agencies to be more proactive to ensure that campaigns and elections are peaceful and all forms of violence before and during elections are addressed.
“We would like to commend security agencies on the Anambra, Ekiti and Osun State elections and ask they sustain the success achieved. We also ask the security agencies to work more with female candidates across political parties in the country to provide security support during this electioneering period.To ensure that there is gender inclusion in the deployment of officials on Election Day.
“Political parties should ensure that party agents are properly trained before being deployed to polling units to avoid any attempt to sabotage the electoral process or trigger any act of violence.
“electorate should also ensure that they come out on all election days to vote their conscience and not be a part of any attempt to sabotage the electoral process.They should be vigilant at their polls to make sure the BVAS counts 0 accredited persons at the opening of polls.To ensure that they are not in any way party to pre, during and post electoral violence,” she urged.