A former Vice-President of the World Bank and former Minister of
Education, Dr. Oby Ezekwesili, has said that male political leaders are
to blame for the poor state of affairs in Nigeria and Africa as a whole.She also absolved women of any blame, saying they have had only a
“marginal” role to play in the poor governance that has bedeviled the
continent.
She stressed the need to have more women at all levels of government and
good representation at all arms of government — executive, legislature
and judiciary.
Ezekwesili, who was the keynote speaker at the maiden edition of the HID
Awolowo Foundation annual lecture in Lagos on Tuesday, said research
had shown that in Africa, only five per cent of women are chief
executive officers, only 22 per cent of women are cabinet members, 25
per cent are parliamentarians, 29 per cent are managers, while a mere 36
per cent get promotion.
In the lecture, themed ‘Ethical, politics, peace, development and
security in Nigeria: The critical importance of women’s leadership,’
Ezekwesili said it was time Nigerian women disrupted the political
process that had acted as a barrier for them to enter into the political
space, noting that the barrier ranges from cultural, economic, social,
religious to self-imposed barriers.
She said, “For as long as the women are held down, the trend analysis
does not show any reversal of outcome. Nobody does any favour to
Nigerian women by involving them in governance.
“Women are incredible human resource that we must put to use, and what
this says to us is that we need to be more intentional and deliberate.
“Research shows that when many more women are at decision-making level,
there is less corruption and a wise society would know that empowering
its women is smart economics. The only way to honour the memory of Yeye
Oodua is to take it to that next level; disrupt this model, which is no
longer sustainable.”
Punch
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