Arewa Women Demand 35% Affirmative Action

Women from the northern part of Nigeria have demanded the full implementation of 35 percent Affirmative Action (AA).

Solacebase reports that the Affirmative Action was initiated by the National Gender Policy (NGP) formulated in Nigeria since 2006.

The campaign demands that 35% of women be involved in all governance processes.

However, at an event organized by Sisters Keepers, a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO), in Kano on Sunday, an activist, Hajiya Amina B. B Faruk said it is possible for the federal government to actualize the Affirmative Action.

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Given the tips on how to achieve the campaign, Mrs. Faruk said the Federal Government should allocate an automatic ticket to women at one of the three senatorial zones in a state.

She also suggested that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) should refuse to register any political party that fails to allocate one-third of the leadership slots of the party to women.

Mrs. Faruk, a politician, lamented that women had been reduced to mere voters, rather than being active in politics to be voted for.

“For instance, in all the 19 northern states, we have only one female senator. So sad, in Kano State, it is a male legislator that heads the committee on women’s development in Kano State. This is uncalled for.

” Women are being pushed to the lower rung of the ladder. Instead, to have been active politicians, we have now been reduced to mere voters who are induced by just N200 to go and cast our vote.

“We can’t take this. We demand the 35% Affirmative Action. We can’t continue to be a slave in a male-dominated nation. Women are capable of doing whatever men are doing in politics,” she said

She also stated that the arewa women had rejected the routine appointment of “Women Leader” In party leadership, claiming that henceforth, they should be given the position of secretary, PRO, among others.

In a remark, the Director-General,  Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigerian (SMEDAN), Dr. Umar Dikko Radda stated that women have a good role to play in the economic development of the North.

According to him, there are hundreds of businesses that need to be exploited by women, noting that religious and cultural values of the North had affected women in the region.

He assures that SMEDAN would partner with Sisters Keepers in a bid to boost the socio-economic life of women in northern Nigeria.