The Registrar, Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Prof. Is’haq Oloyede, and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Resident Electoral Commissioner in Kwara, Alhaji Attahiru Madami, have canvassed more space for women participation in the Nigerian politics.

While Oloyede urged all political parties in Nigeria to review their constitutions to allow 30 per cent women participation in elective positions, Madami hailed the National Assembly for adopting direct primaries for choosing political parties’ flag bearers.

The duo spoke in Ilorin on Monday at the third distinguished personality lecture organised by the University of Ilorin (Unilorin) Centre for Peace and Strategic Studies.

The lecture was titled: “Patriarchy and female participation in politics in Nigeria”.

“INEC elections are becoming more credible because we are using electronic transmission.

“We did that in Edo and Ondo states and there was no complaint.

“So with electronic transmission of result and electronic collation and parties adopting direct primaries for the choice of flag bearers, the issue of violence during campaigns will be eliminated.

“This will give both men and women equal opportunity to contest for elective positions and the winners will now be based on merit; not by rigging nor by manipulation of results,” Madami said.

Oloyede, a former Unilorin Vice Chancellor, said the adoption of gender politics by the government should encourage more women participation in politics.

“And it is a collective responsibility to allow women to play their roles in nation building through politics.

“As the 2023 general elections approach, there is the need to sensitise Nigerians to let women play more active roles.

“Though 49.4 per cent Nigerians are said to be women, but they represented 11.36 per cent of 2,870 women whose names appeared on the 2019 nominated candidates list,” Oloyede said.

He noted that the 2019 elections were the worst for Nigerian women in nearly two decades representatively.

“A part of the fact is that six female presidential candidates withdrew from the race for various reasons.

“A state like Lagos where women had always been deputy governors slided into more patriarchy with the election of a male deputy governor at the end of 2019 governorship race.

“Creating more room for women participation in politics requires legal, social and political intervention.

“From the legal angle, the 35 per cent affirmative action may be enacted as law just as it was done in Senegal and in Kenya too where women got just 30 per cent before the parity of 50 per cent in politics,” Oloyede added.

Oloyede however advised that socially there may be need for men to be more receptive to the idea of women attending political meetings especially those that hold in the day.

“There is no law that requires political meetings to hold at night during which many respectable women would be expected to be at home.

“Politically, the political parties can do better by creating more space through their gender-friendly and internal affirmative action,” he said.

The ex-vice chancellor therefore suggested that in charting a way forward there is also a question of interrogating the quality of female performance.

He explained that women participation in politics is necessary does not mean value should be sacrificed for expediency.

The Guest Lecturer at the event, Rep. Tolulope Akande-Sadipe (Oluyole Federal Constituency of Oyo State) urged women to prove their worth whenever they are given an opportunity to lead.

The serving federal lawmaker noted that countries where women are leading like Rwanda and Finland are developing rapidly.

Akande-Sadipe posited that nothing should stop any woman from attending a meeting at any given hour of the day where a Nurse can be called to attend to a patient, there should not be any reason why women politicians can’t attend events at the wee hours too. (NAN)