ECOWAS Speaker says more women in parliament, government ‘ll bring peace, development

Speaker of the ECOWAS Parliament, Sidie Tunis says inclusion of more women in the Parliament and at all levels of government will foster peace, security and development.
Tunis, who said this on Monday in Abuja at an event organised by women of the Parliament, also called Parliament (ECOPAL) Amazons in commemoration of the 2021 International Women’s Day.
Tunis said the fifth legislation of the ECOWAS Parliament strongly believed that giving support to women across the region would go a long way in ensuring development in peace and security.
The speaker said that it was on that note his leadership was pushing for a binding legislation that would allow a more equitable allocation of more female Members of Parliament from Member States.
He, however, expressed concern that the current under representation of women in politics and governments as he urged member states to increase the numbers of female representation to the ECOWAS Parliament.
“In spite of the work carried out by ECOWAS Parliament in terms of advocacy and actions for the involvement of women in leadership roles, the region still falls short of recording significant figures.
“For instance, the most recent available statistics provided by the West Africa Brief show that women occupy 421 seats in West African Parliaments and thus represent only 16.1 pet cent of all lawmakers.
“Furthermore, 12 out of the 15 ECOWAS member states are short of the 23.3 per cent world average of women in government.
“In the region, women occupy on average less than 20 per cent of ministerial posts and of those, they are mostly clustered in the ministries covering women’s affairs and social issues.
“The theme for this year’s International Women’s Day, seeks to encompass in one statement, the idea that the world must, and has now come to embrace the necessity for women’s full and effective participation and decision-making in public life.
“We strongly believe that giving support to women across the region will go a long way in ensuring that we also bring about development in peace and security.
“You know women are very good when it comes to peace and that is one of the reasons we support them a lot,” Tunis said.
Tunis said the ECOWAS Parliament had always shown its support to women with strong advocacy and support for increased female participation in law-making and parliamentary services.