By Sunday Joseph |
Ace Nollywood Actress, Omoni Oboli has decried the electoral process that marginalization women in Nigerian politics and described it country’s “dirty politics” that is mostly characterized by violence.
Oboli said at the Citizens town hall meeting on electoral reform organised Yiaga Africa and its partners to address the declining quality of elections and loss of faith in the democratic institutions due to impunity, exclusion and unbridled corruption.
According to her, “women have been greatly marginalized. It’s very disappointing that even till now, we don’t want women in key elective positions. They’re mostly appointed into offices not elected,” she said.
ALSO Watch – #FixElectionsNG Citizens Townhall on electoral reforms on YIAGA Africa TV on YouTube. https://youtu.be/0k2UuEpSDmA
Oboli who had produced a movie titled “Love is War” on the poor state of Nigerian politics said that most women don’t comes out during election because of finance.
“A lot of women won’t even bother to come out because they know they don’t have what it takes to pull through.
Most of the people that are financing politics are men and they are pretty much going to finance people that they think would win. So, these are the problems women are facing when it comes to politics”
According to her, “If we ensure that our electoral processes are free, fair, inclusive and safe, more women would come, more of them would want to get into politics.”
Reechoing this thought, Chief Executive Officer of Women Trust Fund, Mufuliat Fijabi further reiterated the need for an electoral reform that is inclusive of women. She said, often times we only look at credibility and fairness of elections, but we don’t look that the inclusion part of the it, especially the inclusion of women.
On the marginalization of People Living with Disability, Cobhams Asuquo, Nigeran-born songwriter said the electoral system has been designed in such a way that a lot of people with disabilities have not been able to exercise their civic responsibilities.
He said this is a major concern because going through the electoral act, you’ll discover where people living with disabilities are mentioned but it is at best not inclusive.
