Time to Give Women Voice

May 9, 2005 - (This Day) Women Organisations For Representative National Conference (WORNACO), an umbrella organisation founded with a mission to dismantle all structures and barriers that promote discrimination against women in Nigeria, recently held a one-day strategic meeting to discuss their engagement with the Confab and to also set agenda for the proposed Women's Summit slated for June 2005.

The Convener of WARNACO, Professor Jadesola Akande, Executive Director Women, Law and Development Centre Lagos (WLDCN), chaired the meeting held at the Women Development Centre Lagos, which brought together forty-five participants representing organisations from the six geo-political zones in Nigeria.

The participants embraced WORNACO as a well-timed scheme capable of bringing out a unanimous position for women in Nigeria as regards relentless discrimination suffered by Nigerian women.

For most women present, it was a beautiful beginning for Nigeria as it would germinate better fruits since it had women who had for sometime, been in the field of activism for women's issue.

"We are playing a double function and if we can have such a level of participation in the women's summit, then Nigeria is going to be a better place for women", said one of the participants.

WORNACO's idea initially was to convey the fact that the National Political Reform Conference cannot take place without the voice of women, although it still remains on that, it has translated beyond just the issue of the National Political Reform Conference. "We have realised that the issue of marginalisation of women is a big issue and it is an issue which must be addressed in a very strong and strategic manner, so that is why we have decided to put our resources together and build a women's movement in Nigeria and that is what the whole idea is gradually translating into", Abiola Akiyode-Afolabi, interim coordinator (WORNACO), explained the idea behind the formation of WORNACO.

The Summit, according to Afolabi, came as a result of the long-standing discrimination against women, which has existed for time immemorial.

She also believes that the women's group in Nigeria have tried severally to see that they make things change in the society but, "it is becoming very obvious that the change is not coming as expected so there is a need for us to strategize and redefine our intervention to see how we can engage the system and all Nigerians"

The National Dialogue has been the issue on the front burner for quite some time and for Afolabi, if there is really going to be any representative National Dialogue, there is a need to have women's representative and women's voice in that dialogue.
"When the president broached the idea to constitute a National Dialogue and when we looked at the National Dialogue, we discovered that women were not adequately represented, we saw that there was a need to start responding to the issue", she noted.
Her contention was that the society must be balanced, there must be some form of gender equality. In fact, it must be 50/50 in the sense that women must be heard and visible as the men are in policy, making decisions in law and other things.

How far would WONARCO go with this? Her response:
"I know that we have been asked severally that how far can WARNACO go? I would say that from the little we have done, it is obvious that women have come to realise that there is a need for us to continue and that is why we have come to do a strategic planning.

"What we often realize is that some of the coalition that we had in the past, maybe, didn't pass through the kind of process that we have gone through. They didn't act on the definition of the objectives of the organisation, they didn't act on the formation of the organisation", she argued further.

The essence of WONARCO's meeting, she said was to reconfirm its aims and the project of building a women's movement with a charter of mind that would reflect the ideas and aspirations of the Nigerian women, adding, "and if you are part of the making, then you have that kind of ownership and would work seriously for its success. So I think that the network here, is a question of ownership".

Speaking further on WONARCO's incorporation, Afolabi said, "When you see an organisation coming up to call a coalition and everybody just comes in and joins and are now part of the foundation, that shows it would really work out.

"The foundation is about what you do in the classification, you don't give it to a legal person who just go and write a constitution and then bring it up to be adopted. That was why I said that the meeting for today is to clarify our objectives and reaffirm our commitment towards going on with the issue and also to set up the issue of structure that can carry on the agenda".

Consequently, Afolabi sees WARNACO certainly moving on as a women's movement, which the women have actually been waiting for in Nigeria for quite sometime.

2007 is part of the main agenda of this group as it is already around the corner and the group may not want to wait till January 2007 before it starts mobilizing.

"The mistake we always do is that we don't act fast and by the time we start acting, it may be too late for us to act, so by and large, good opportunities like these should not be allowed to pass, this has given us ample opportunity to plan for 2007 and the future, I believe that with the way we are going, if we engage at state levels, women groups, not just ordinary NGOs, but rural women, identifying local women that can actually take up positions - there is a need for us to have a data base and also there is a need for us to start having some kind of historical documents of what we are doing so that people can also know how we faired at every point in time on different issues. I think that it is also going to be an organisation that would usher in more women into elective positions in 2007 because we are actually going to be working with political parties and women in politics to make sure that the active structures which have negatively been affecting women's participation in politics would be dismantled", the coordinator emphasized.
Prof. Akande in her welcome address, posited that WONARCO's engagement in the National Political Reform Conference was to ensure that women voices, opinions, suggestions and everything that would make Nigeria a better place for all, was included in whatever comes out from the National dialogue.

"We have our members, some of those who have been in the vanguard of fighting for women's right; so we are going to feed them with enough information and facts that would make useful contribution to whatever is going to emerge", she noted.

In few years time, she sees WORNACO as one of the strongest women's movement that would ever exist in Nigeria. "WORNACO would be the voice that would be expressing women's views, manifesto and agenda. We are going to be interfering in all aspects of our nation - whether political or anything. We are in support of any dialogue that would make a better Nigeria, whether they call it National Reform Conference or they call it PRONACO or WORNACO, all we want is a better Nigeria, particularly as far as the women are concerned", Akande explained.

After exhaustive deliberations at the meeting, participants observed that women in Nigeria have suffered systemic discrimination in all spheres of life and that the present structure of governance has neglected women from active participation in public life. They also observed that the Constitution of Nigeria is gender biased to the disadvantage of women and that there was a need for a pressure group to respond to the women's question in Nigeria. WORNACO also noted that there was a need to have a Charter of
Demand that will reflect the aspirations of women in Nigeria.

The group resolved therefore, to organise a national all-inclusive women's summit to draw up a (WO)MANIFESTO as well as to have a Charter of Demands to reflect the aspirations of women in Nigeria, which will be used in engaging the present and future governments.

It was also bent on beginning systematic consultations at state and grassroot levels on women's representation in all spheres of life as well as to send a joint MEMO to the National Political Reforms Conference on the issue of women.
WORNACO was also determined to identify and support women aspirants for the 2007 elections to ensure gender balance and adequate representation in addition to building a critical mass of women.

To achieve all these and more, the group decided to make membership of WORNACO strictly open to all women's groups that believes in the vision and mission of WORNACO.

The proposed National Women's Summit slated for June this year is going to have a diversification of women's group from all spheres of life - from rural to professional women; women in labour force, women in NGOs and several other organisations. The conference, which intends to be a three-day event, also has an agenda to discuss all the issues relating to women. And one of the major issues that is coming out from the National Political Reform Conference for Women, according to the coordinator, is going to
be a "Womanifesto" and not a "Manifesto".

"A "womanifesto" reflecting the agenda of women in a different manner "she noted.
WARNACO actually held its first meeting in February this year and has truly worked fast within that short period, having had several actions in four courts.

Afolabi ascribed WORNACO's success to commitment and then to the fact that for the first time, women have come to agree that, women could no longer remain in the rear".

"We have to move back and also move forward and see what is going to be the fruit of our progress. We don't want to be blamed and we don't want to be a wasted generation, so we realised that there was a need for us to begin to engage in a process that would translate Nigeria to a more gender sensitive country", she concluded.

From: http://allafrica.com/stories/200505100364.html