WIMBIZ says more women needed in governance, politics
A member of the Board of Trustees of the Women in Management, Business and Public Service, Ngover Ihyembe-Nwankwo, has said more women are needed in politics and governance to enhance Nigeria’s prosperity and greatness.
According to her, Nigerian women have done well in business and public service, adding that there is a need to get more women involved in politics and governance.
Ihyembe-Nwankwo spoke on Thursday at the 21st Annual Conference of WIMBIZ with the theme, ‘Firing Forward’ held at the Eko Convention Centre, Lagos.
The WIMBIZ board member, in an interview with our correspondent on the sidelines of the conference, said, “Firing forward is being intentional and wanting to make progress, and that can be progress for yourself and wanting to be in various ways, better. There isn’t one way to progress but there must be an intention and commitment. Firing forward, for me, embodies the starting and finishing of a race, especially at the time the gun goes off for take-off.
“When you look at the statistics, Nigerian women have not fared badly in most sectors. Nigerian women are leading in commerce and industry, not just in petty trading. We can look up the ladder to the distributors and women who own large stores over the years consistently. This is the same for formal employment.”
Lamenting the low representation of women in parliament and other elective and appointive political offices, Ihyembe-Nwankwo, who is also the Head, Client Coverage at Rand Merchant Bank Limited, stated, “The one area that we haven’t done as we ought to is politics and governance. I personally think that we need to fire forward on that. We need to be committed to the idea that women can and should be leaders. When you see a woman on the ballot box, let us be party agnostic, tribe agnostic. Let us see her as being from one party. Let all women have one party and objective, which is to see more women irrespective of the person’s party; we have to put more women in the front and centre of governance.
“That is the only way we can truly see a true representation of all the politics that affect our lives and also the way we can get other women to see that it is possible and want to do it. We will certainly see a country that is more inclusive in the way that things are done.”
In one of the plenary sessions with the theme, ‘Leading Beyond Borders’, the Nigerian High Commissioner to Jamaica and Permanent Representative to International Seabed Authority, Dr Maureen Tamuno, described the representation of women in the Nigerian political space as a ‘work in progress.’
Also speaking, the Nigerian High Commissioner to the Republic of Namibia, Humphrey Geiseb, noted, while making his remark on the topic that in all spheres of life, especially in the fight for a nation’s independence, “women have laid down their lives for freedom”.
He said, “When in 1999, the representatives met to draft the constitution of Namibia, we had a lot of women on the table to do so.
“I am coming from a country where women have played a leading role in the struggle for independence. This is not just in agitation.”
Punchng
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