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From Aidoghie Paulinus, Abuja
Minister of State, Foreign Affairs, Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu, has decried poor representation of women in politics.
She also highlighted the importance of education in every woman’s life.
The Special Assistant on Communication and New Media to the minister, Magnus Eze, in a statement, said the minister made the remarks at the Nigerian Women’s Day, on the sidelines of the 69th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women at the United Nations headquarters, New York, United States.
In her contribution during a panel discussion on the topic, “30 Years of Progress, Resilience, Impact and Renewed Hope,” presented by the Minister of Women Affairs, Imaan Sulaiman-Ibrahim, she commended the First Lady, Senator Oluremi Tinubu for making the historic event possible.
The minister noted that women go through alot but regretted that sometimes, the limitations that women have are caused by other women.
According to her, women have relegated themselves in African societies to just being praise singers, forming musical groups and applause for men who are going into office, but when women want to go into office, it becomes hard to get women to vote for them.
“So, I think what we need to do is to start changing that mindset. We have to also appreciate the fact that in other societies, when you have political parties in other societies be it in the Conservative Party, Labour Party, Republican Party or Democratic Party, you don’t have women leaders but in African political parties, you need to have women leaders, yet you don’t have men leaders. And what that says is that we have accepted that we are a segment that needs always to be carried along and I think that mindset needs to change,” Odumegwu-Ojukwu said.
She also decried hurdles faced by women when they seek elective political positions, pointing out that at such periods, they are either reminded of where they come from or where their spouses hail from.
“Another aspect is this, discrimination knows no status. When you are a woman and you are going into politics, that is when they will remind you of where you come from and where your husband comes from.”
Recounting her personal experience, she said that one of the biggest challenges women face was making money at a young age as this could lead to derailment and abandonment of their education.
The ex-beauty queen disclosed that the pageants she had won came with fame and money, then, there was the temptation of abandoning her law programme at the University of Nigeria, Enugu Campus.
“But the point I’m making is this, one of the hardest things is when you start earning money quite early, the biggest temptation is to leave school. By the time I was earning my own money, I was a law student living in the hostel with about six other students with no water, nothing, and then, going back to school to finish my education as a lawyer was quite challenging. But, that was one of the best decisions I ever made in my life. I think young women need to understand the power of education,” she advised.
