From Fred Itua, Abuja
Weeks after the conduct of the 2023 general elections, stakeholders and political parties, on Tuesday, converged on Abuja, to brainstorm on under-representation of women, youths and disabled in the country.
The stakeholders spoke during a one-day dialogue on “Inclusive Practices of Political Parties in Nigeria”. The event was organised by the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS), in conjunction with Westminster Foundation for Democracy (WFD).
Sani Yabahi, chairman of Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC), urged leaders of political parties to bring in the vulnerable groups.
“Nigeria is an important country. We saw that during the just-concluded general elections. Political parties have to deliberately see how they can bring in women, youths and disabled people into the scheme of things,” he said.
Dr. Adewale Aderemi, Director, Democracy and Governance, NILDS, while speaking, bemoaned the poor under-representation of the vulnerable people in the country.
He said going forward, the issue of inclusivity must be factored in in future elections to protect the vulnerable.
He said: “Political parties are the fulcrum of any democracy. We’ve spent so much in training political parties and very little has come back. We’re trying to come up with a new approach on how to address the issue of making political parties more vibrant. This dialogue is about inclusivity. There are cries that women, youths and disabled are not well represented within the political space.
“We’ve conducted a research to find areas of weaknesses in the system of our political parties. Anything that will sustain the political parties, we will he part of it. We need to fix the problem of inclusivity. Are there mechanisms within the political system that accommodate the underrepresented?”
Olumide Olamiyan, representative of WFD, said Nigeria has over 30 million disabled people, but wondered why they’re not well represented.
“The essence of this gathering is to deepen democracy. If we look at the records in recent times, not very encouraging. Over 30 million Nigerians have different forms of disabilities based on United Nations definition. We need to open the space.
“The political space should he opened for underrepresented groups. As we progress, I believe some of these issues will be addressed,” he said.
Jide Ojo, development consultant, said
He said: “You can’t have democracy without political parties. I’ve been part of those advocating for independent candidacy. It will not solve our problems. In fact the benefits are very marginal and the problems are many.”
Anita Chukwu, Young Progressives Party (YPP), said: “The manifesto of our political party is gender-sensitive. The voices of women, youths and the disabled are well represented.”