By Christiana Ekpa
The Minister of Women Affairs, Pauline Tallen, on Wednesday led a delegation of the All Progressives Congress (APC) women and some Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) to the party Secretariat where they presented demands, including the stoppage of delegate system in primary elections, to the party’s Constitution review committee.
The memoranda was received by the Chairman of the APC Constitution Review Committee, Prof. Tahir Mamman, at the Party’s National Secretariat in Abuja.
The Woman Affairs minister was accompanied by the United Nations Country Representative, Comfort Lamptey; Chair, House Committee on Electoral Matters, Hon. Aisha Duku; representative of the 100 Women Lobby Group and other Civil Society Organisations.
The women present their demands to include: Legislative change, including legal and administrative reforms to improve women’s participation, creation of public awareness on existing legislations and programmes aimed at realizing gender equality and women empowerment in the party.
Others are to establish a system of gender mainstreaming which incorporates the policy of 40% of women representation in party organs, to show commitment to non-discrimination against and persons with disabilities in the party, to institutionalize justice and fairness for men and women within the party and its framework, Creating an organ within the party to monitor and evaluate the implications of party policy and practice for both men and women.
Also in their demands are: strengthening the office of the Women Leader to serve as the focal point for implementation of gender issues within the party, adequate and guaranteed access to funding, human and technical resources to carry out the responsibilities of the office, devoting at least 15% of the party’s annual budget of the party to the delivery of increased participation of women, to take conscious action in party structures and elections so as to ensure that no gender constitutes more than 60% from the ward to the national level.
They also demanded that no gender constitutes more than 60% of delegates and candidates in the final list after primaries, institution of accountability mechanisms and frameworks in the principal documents, such as party constitution, party manifesto, party leadership and strategies on the implementation of the National Gender Policy and the use of gender-disaggregated data for planning.
