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By Henry Uche
In a bid to equip female political candidates who are seeking elective positions in the 2023 general elections with requisite strategic knowledge, the International Press Centre (IPC) has organized a two days workshops for 60 female candidates from the southern parts of Nigeria and Kwara State.
The workshop, which is focused on advanced strategic communication and media engagement holds between 12th & 13th December 2022, in Osogbo and Port-Harcourt concurrently.
The workshops are aimed at equipping the female politicians with the use of conventional and online/social media platforms during political processes and campaigns.
The EU funded training has the support of Institute for Media and Society (IMS) within component 4 (Support to media) of the European Union Support to Democratic Governance in Nigeria-Phase II (EUSDGN II) project.
A statement signed by the Communications Officer, Component 4 (Support to Media), EUSDGN II Project, Olutoyin Ayoade, and made available to The Sun indicates that the training will present the selected female candidates the opportunity to interface with journalists, share their views, expectations, and experience from the perspectives of women in politics.
The statement quoted the Executive Director of IPC, Lanre Arogundade as saying, “In terms of female political representation, Nigeria has one of the lowest rates in the continent with a 4.1% parliament representation. That is why tactical workshops like these are necessary to support women in politics which inherently promotes credible elections”.
Arogundade affirmed that IPC is essentially building on the attainments of the first phase of the EU-SDGN project, in which ten women who participated in the IPC capacity building workshops for female politicians were elected to political offices across the country.
“The workshop will also draw from the lessons learnt from subsequent engagement with the elected female politicians in terms of implementing post-election activities and capacity support,” Arogundade added.
A team comprising Samuel Egbala, The Nigerian Chronicle, Calabar & Vice President, East, Nigerian Guild of Editors, Uduak Obeten, CRBS and Sunny Dada, Director of Programmes – African Centre for Media, Governance and Peace Building will address various topics including ‘Female candidates: Cultivating the media and building relationships for increased visibility.’
Others are: ‘Female candidates: Building self-confidence and maximising the potential of the broadcast media for increased visibility’ and ‘Leveraging on social media & online channels for maximum visibility for female candidates.’
In Osogbo, resource persons Jadesola Ajibola, NAWOJ Chairperson and Monday Ashibogu, Managing Editor, Quick News will make presentations on similar topics.
IPC in subsequent trainings will expand the initiative to Female candidates in the Northern states.
The specific objective of the EU funded programme is to ensure that, “The Media, including New and Social Media, provides fair, accurate, ethical and inclusive coverage of the electoral process,” the statement added.
