Mrs Pauline Tallen, the former Minister of Women Affairs, has urged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to ensure favourable conditions that will encourage more women into politics.
Tallen said this in Abuja while speaking with newsmen on the sidelines of the inauguration and unveiling of a book titled: “From Margins to Mainstream: Navigating gender inclusiveness in Nigeria”.
The about 200 pages book was written by Princess Nikky Onyeri, a gender advocate, and politician.
The former minister, who decried the low number of women in politics, also urged political parties to make their electoral conditions flexible, saying that it would encourage more women to go into politics.
According to Tallen, there are countless number of women that can stand shoulder to shoulder with men when it comes to political issues, but better conditions must be given if this must happen.
She also called on women to come out en-masse to vote the right candidate in the forthcoming Edo and Ondo elections.
“I feel so sad because the number of women that are given tickets is not enough, it is just a little per cent and this amount to nothing, it is not that the women are not willing to come out, but they are not being given the support.
“We are calling on all our political parties, we are calling on INEC to make sure they give better conditions to encourage the women for the betterment of the country.’
The former minister commended President Bola Tinubu for carrying along more women in his government, adding that more still needed to be done in the area of gender equality.
Tallen alzo commended the First Lady, Mrs Oluremi Tinubu, adding that she was doing a lot to support and encouragewomen especially with her pet project.
The former minister said that the first lady is doing somuch in the area of empowerment of the youths, giving scholarship to children.
According to her, the first lady is encouraging the governors wives to ensure that the dividend of the government gets to the grassroot within their environment.
“The presentation of the book speaks volume because women are doing somuch but unacknowledged, it is the women that nurtured the home, it the women that ensure that both the husband and the children are in sound health.
“There are bundles of responsibilities that lies in the women, they make sure the homes is in the right balance, yet it is never notice, by the time you take a look at this book, you will appreciate the womanhood,” Tallen stressed.
On her part, Onyeri said that she was inspired into writing the book based on the struggle she had seen from women group within the last 30 years, and she had since then continue to support women emmacipation.
Onyeri, a breast cancer survivor said that she was part of the protesters to the National Assembly in 2023 who called for the passage of five gender bills, but unfortunately the bills were not passed, and this also spur her to writing the book.
“I look at the past, the present and the future of where do our hope lies as women, and were do we want to be. This thinking had brought me to where I am today and am glad about that.
“I wrote the book from my own perspective, and I hope it will give people a cause to think about women and embrace them. My hope on this book project is to promote literacy.
“We are going to be donating books around the country from the fund we will raised from the launching of this book so that more people can know what gender is all about, we assumed that many people do not know about it
“We will also be creating endowment chairs for gender studies in the Universities, these are the two key projects that will come out after this book launch,” she stressed.
Mrs Moji Makanjuola, also a gender advocate and a public speaker, commended the author of the book, adding that she had wage war against cancer, and had been a speaker for those with cancer.
According to her, women must hold each other back, and they must stop improvising themselves, but must work towards developing themselves.
Cross Section of dignitaries during the book launch
Igwe Simon Ikechukwu, Chairman, Enugu State Council of Traditional Ruler, said that the call for gender inclusiveness should not be limited to Nigeria only, but should be made global.
The Igwe equally commended the author of the book for coming up with such write-ups, while calling on the men folks to stop violence against women.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that a lot of dignitaries both from private and government agencies were at the inauguration of the book, which also featured award giving to some personalities.
