The First Lady of Ondo State, Betty Akeredolu, is making frantic efforts through her group, Imo Women Matter(IWM), to stop the neglect of women in governance in the state.
Speaking at a women’s conference in Owerri at the weekend, she decried the backseat given to women in governance, arguing that the women folk deserves equal rights like the males in politics and administration of the State.
The Ondo First Lady explained that her group, Imo Women Matter is born out of the desire to address this inequality and other rights the female gender is deprived of.
She said “There are instances where the boy-child is enrolled in school while the girl-child is made to stay at home and often compelled into early marriage as a means to raise funds for the education of the boy-child.
Narrowing her arguments to recent elections held in the State, she said “In an attempt to bring closer home the sad evidence of patriarchal tendencies and misogyny is a scenario in Imo State, one of the educationally advanced states in Nigeria.
“After the recent election conducted in Imo, three elected senators are males, out of the ten elected members of the House of Representatives, only one is female, and the twenty-seven elected members of the Imo State House of Assembly are males.
“The positions of chairmen, vice chairmen and secretaries of major political parties in the state are all males and all the governorship candidates across political parties in the state are males.
“The above data is a pointer to the precarious situation which confirms a position held by the womenfolk and observers that the bulk of the menfolk in Imo State do not believe that women matter.
“This reality is the immediate cause of the intervention by the Imo Women Matter which is an umbrella association of Imo women who reject its entirety the mindless exclusion of women in political representation and governance in Imo State,” Akeredolu said.
Sunnews
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