The Nigerian Women Trust Fund, has called on government and the Independent National Electoral Commission to empower women politically in Kogi State.
This call was made by the Program Lead, NWTF, Zainab Yahaya Tanko on Wednesday at a one-day advocacy meeting in Lokoja, on enhancing women’s access to voter registration points in reaction to the low turn out of women during election,
Tanko stressed that empowering women on voter registration will further strengthen their confidence in participating actively in the electioneering process.
She said, “We are here to get steps for reforms concerning barriers to voter education in Kogi State.
“We did research last year on identifying barriers to voter education. After the research, we got key findings and recommendations of barriers that are peculiar to Kogi State.
“We have developed an advocacy strategy on how to move forward within all these identified barriers.
“Now, we are bringing stakeholders who have been identified for the advocacy to give us insight and steps to reforms that will be needed to end these barriers in Kogi State.
“One of the reforms is empowerment of women on voter registration.
“When we talk about empowerment, if Civil Society Organizations and the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, can come together with the support of the government to move women from one point to another point for registration, it will help to improve voters’ registration for women in Kogi State.”
Earlier, the Program Lead, dentified physical, socio-cultural, legal and financial barriers as some of the factors limiting women from participating in voters’ registration.
Speaking on the remedy, Tanko said, “under the physical barriers, women want more registration points to be made available within their localities.
“When we talk about the reach of women, it has to do with public places like markets, schools and hospitals where women can easily have access to and quickly run back to their business or run back to their families.”
Also, the Kogi State coordinator, Young Women in Politics Forum, Barr. Joy Oluwaseun Akinola, sought collaboration among relevant stakeholders to achieve full representation of women in politics.
