Nathaniel Zaccheaus
The National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS) and the Westminster Foundation for Democracy (WFD) have described as unhealthy, the inadequate representation of Women, Youth and Persons With Disabilities (PWD) in the administration of political parties in Nigeria.
They argued that the low number of women among the executive of the various political parties in the country led to their poor outing in the last general election.
They spoke at Dialogue on Inclusive Practices of Political Parties in Nigeria organised by NILDS in conjunction with WFD on Wednesday in Abuja.
The Forum had in attendance, representatives of the 18 registered political parties in the country,
They attributed the poor outing of women in the last election to their inadequate representation in the executive of political parties.
The NILDS and WFD insisted that a situation where only 55 women got elected into the various State Houses of Assembly three into the Senate and 15 into the House of Representatives at the end of the recently conducted general elections, was unacceptable.
The Director for Democracy and Development at NILDS, Dr Adewale Aderemi, said the trend must be changed ahead of the 2027 general elections.
Issue of inclusivity he explained, must be factored in future elections to protect the vulnerable.
He said, “Political parties are the fulcrum of any democracy. We’ve spent so much in training political parties and very little has come back. We’re trying to come up with a new approach how to address the issue of making political parties more vibrant.
“This dialogue is about inclusivity. There are cries that women, youths and the disabled are not well represented within the political space.
“We’ve conducted research to find areas of weaknesses in the system of our political parties. Anything that will sustain the political parties, we will be part of it. We need to fix the problem of inclusivity. Are there mechanisms within the political system that accommodate the underrepresented?”
In his own submissions, the Country Director of WFD, Adebowale Olorunmola, noted that there were over 30 million disabled people in the country, but wondered why they were not well represented in the affairs of political parties.
Olorunmola said, “The essence of this gathering is to deepen democracy. If we look at the records in recent times, not very encouraging.
“Over 30 million Nigerians have different forms of disabilities based on the United Nations definition. We need to open the space.
“The political space should be opened for underrepresented groups. As we progress, I believe some of these issues will be addressed,” he said.
However, the National Chairman of the Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC), Sani Yabagi, attributed the situation to a number of factors including the poor financial status of most women, youths and PWD.
He nevertheless urged leaders of political parties to bring in the vulnerable groups by reducing financial commitments due to them
Yabagi said, “Nigeria is an important country. We saw that during the just-concluded general elections.
“Political parties have to deliberately see how they can bring in women, youths and disabled people into the scheme of things,” he said.
