- Insist on affirmative action for women, PWDs
Presidential candidates of All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu, and his Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) counterpart, Atiku Abubakar, were absent, yesterday, as the Labour Party (LP) and New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) candidates, Peter Obi and Rabiu Kwankwaso, joined others to sign agreement on inclusive governance.
Organisers of the event – Women in Politics Forum (WIPF), Youth Hub Africa (YHA) and Inclusive Friends Association (IFA) – said it was a consolidated agenda to be used as an advocacy tool in the 2023 general election and beyond.
YHA Board Chairman, Bukky Shonibare, said the agreement was meant to secure the commitment to legal and policy reform from the top three candidates for the presidential, National Assembly and governorship elections.
Shonibare said the document would also be used by Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) in the country to demand accountability from newly-elected officials on the commitments they made on Governance Agenda for an Inclusive Nigeria (GAIN) during the public presentation.
Lamenting the poor level of vulnerable groups representation in administration of the country, she said the commitment by candidates would also ensure that they make youth participation a deliberate part of national governance through affirmative action for 35 per cent of cabinet positions for youth under the ages of 45 across all states and the Federal Government.
She tasked the candidates on the need to facilitate inclusion of women in intra-party democracy, reduce high cost of purchasing forms for election and end stigmatisation of women political candidates.
According to Obi, who decried poor representation of women and youths in the administration of the country, Nigeria cannot progress when the most productive demography are left out of government, promising that his administration, if elected in 2023, will commit to the affirmative action on women and youths, as well as the disability community.
On his part, Kwankwaso, who alluded to the fact that many Nigerians are making waves in most countries, described inclusive government as the surest way to rapid development of the country.
Represented by his running mate, Isaac Idahosa, he stated: “Let us now deal with the issue of inclusiveness of other political parties and kill the winner-takes-all syndrome.
President of WIPF, Ebere Ifendo, emphasised that the document represented what women, youth and Persons With Disabilities (PWDs) wanted from government, adding that anyone undermining the groups was not interested in winning the 2023 elections.
Programme Director of the National Democratic Institute (NDI), Batura Aga, said the implementation and the demand for accountability from the candidates, who had signed the pact, was up to the public, noting that women, youth and PWDs had the numbers.
The Guardian
