WHY WE NEEDED MORE FEMALES IN POLITICS BY ALH. KAFILAT ADETOLA OGBARA

 Why We Need More APC Women in Elective Positions.

By Ogbara Kafilat

It is no longer news that a pronouncement has been made by the Electoral umpire saddled with the constitutional powers to conduct elections into the Fifty-Seven Chairmanship and Three hundred and Seventy-Seven Councillorship positions structured in our beloved Centre of Excellence, Lagos State.

The official announcement was a great relief for all political gladiators and observers, as the snippet that first came from the umpire's official Facebook page, the Lagos State Independent Electoral Commission (LASIEC), gave a potent direction to another Electoral journey.

With the full guidelines out for Lagosians to see the itinerary ahead of the July'24 polls, the stage is now set for the commencement of another round of political evangelism, and as a complete partywoman, I am fully ready to work with every progressive under the leadership belt of our revered political strategist, our National Leader, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu in working tirelessly to get another landslide victory for our party, the party delivering progress, growth and development to the delights of Lagosians, the All Progressives Congress.

The massive love being enjoyed by the party in the city of aquatic splendor is not far-fetched, as the party through its sound representatives at various levels has demonstrated, uncommonly, the values of providing massive development for humanity, indeed, Lagos State will continue to be the reference point for good governance in our country, because the blueprint laid by our political navigator, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu is legendary. Thank You Jagaban !

Since 1995, for any election cycle happening across the globe, the world has been clamoring for equal women participation to ensure women emerge as independent political actors and stop playing the subordinate roles in an electioneering process. This call has not only resonated world over, but has now become a cornerstone of electioneering campaigns.

In Nigeria today, with a comprehensive appraisal on the intermix of both genders, it is noteworthy that Lagos has become the leading poster environment on how to provide support for women to grow politically as Deputy Governors, Senator, House of Representatives and House of Assembly members etc. The numbers may be low, but it has continued to reflect with every electioneering process.

No doubt, the nearly equal participation given to women at all levels of political involvement in Lagos State may be an unknown reason for the equal sustainable development dotting her nooks and crannies.

Hence, there is a need to commend the entire leadership of the All Progressives Congress organogram in the state for making women involvement in politics one of the topmost agenda in all discussions.

In all events of life, women are the greatest protagonists, and in politics, women remain the better mobilizers who will use all networks to persuade a voter by giving a befitting facelift to a party irrespective of any perceived perception cladding the party.

Further afield, in the administrative ballgame to herald success, the good people of Lagos State know that women in the Public service in the State, either elected or appointed have been driven to serve the populace with intrinsic motivations by emphatically solving problems through the balancing of professional and personal leadership skills. Apart from this significant feature, women in Lagos politics have proven to be great mobilisers, listeners, natural multitaskers, strong communicators and high emotional intelligent public servants.

As the race is set for another electioneering, it is obvious that women of the All Progressives Congress in Lagos State constitute more than half of our party's
population, no doubt, the ongoing registration and revalidation exercise is a major testament to this fact.

While the women population are aware that there are many barriers to our political growth such as sexism and patronage based political culture, gender, economic and societal inequalities, the time is right for our leadership to take another landmark action embedded in them to provide enabling internal control policies for us to grow and increase the number of our able and capable electable Women into Chairmanship, Vice- Chairmanship and Counsellorship positions significantly through the establishment of gender-friendly guidelines ahead of the Local Government Elections in order to provide a greater chance for the better mobilisers to turn the tide and get more opportunities in the interest of the system.