No true democracy without women participation— OBASANJO
By Emmanuel Ulayi

October 28, 2006 - (Vanguard) For democracy to strive and make meaningful impact in the country, there must be an appreciable number of women in all spheres of life including the top decision making positions in Nigeria, President Olusegun Obasanjo said at the weekend.

Represented by the Minister of Women Affairs, Mrs. Inna Maryma Ciroma at the Women in Governance Summit organised by the Women Advancement for Economic and Leadership Empowerment in Africa (WAELE), where the Director General of National Agency for Food and Drug Administration Control (NAFDAC) was adopted as their sole candidate for the post of President come 2007, Obasanjo stressed that greater participation of women in politics and democratic governance brings new insights to all kinds of debates and without them poor decisions are often made because the specific concerns/issues of women would not be put to consideration.

He said: “The value of democracy resides in its ability to promote ideals of human excellence. Citizen participation in public affairs reinforces solidarity, respect for personal autonomy and dignity, and egalitarian and tolerant attitudes. Only when all citizens, including women, have real access to political representation will they be able to direct these qualities towards the full development of society. In this sense, democratic theory affirms the paramount necessity of both women’s and men’s participation under equal conditions.

“Democracy as we all know is governance with the consent of the governed. Free and full consent can exist only when citizens are able to choose from diverse alternatives. However, democracies even today may not allow this expression of individual will and autonomy if women have limited alternatives for channelling their political participation.

“When women’s relative position in this democratic competition is gauged, it becomes evident that the social prerequisites for perfect competition do not exist. In most democracies, only those who have access to the financial, organisational and informational resources necessary can aspire to candidacy, thus restricting the conditions of perfect competition implied in democratic theory. Democracy requires that men and women have unrestricted access to spaces of power where they can realise their political value and where their individual demands and preferences can be manifested and satisfied.

“The absence of women in political debates and the decision-making process distorts the appreciation of women’s interests. Women’s interests are not clearly articulated because male representatives and their interest groups do not possess adequate and appropriate knowledge or interest or both. Development indices show that the involvement of women in governance promotes development because women form the bedrock of the society”, he added.

Obasanjo further reiterated that it was in recognition of the above facts that his administration has demonstrated beyond reasonable doubt that women are just as capable as men in handling sensitive positions of authority if not even better.

In her welcome address, the convener of the Summit, Otunba Basirat Nahibi, Founder/President of WAELE, lamented that the political language in Nigeria was male and that politics as it is currently played does not favour the women.

“The agenda setting is male; even the sitting hours reflects men’s time table rather than women. In spite of women having made in-roads into traditional male domains, the question still remains, why aren’t there more women in politics? Specifically, why aren’t there elected women leaders? Is there something wrong with women? The statistics of women elected into various offices from the local government councils to the national level clearly shows that Nigerian women need to be more involved in politics”, she said.

From: http://www.vanguardngr.com/articles/2002/nationalx/nr128102006.html