A rights group has urged community and political leaders to develop gender policies where men and women have equal opportunities to contribute to decisions concerning them.
Speaking during a meeting on “Responsibility Sharing” at a community hall in Okoro-Utip, Ibeno Local government Area of Akwa Ibom State, Dr Elsie Ifon of the Health of Mother Earth Foundation, (HOMEF), said if women were given serious responsibilities or assignments in the communities, some of the restiveness and other socio-economic challenges would not arise as women have the capacity to douse tension and address issues passionately.
Dr Ifon maintained that once the community leaders live beyond some stereotypes and assign the right people to various positions or offices irrespective of gender, there would be remarkable progress and development in the community.
Noting that women face some barriers in accessing employment opportunities and elective political offices, she advised them to stop being cheerleaders to politicians only but make deliberate efforts to empower themselves through education and skills acquisition.
Ifon said, ” I believe that once the right people are assigned various responsibilities, irrespective of their gender there will be development and progress. All we want is who can do it. If more women are assigned more serious roles and not mundane roles, there will be a significant impact.
“It is sad that women are only remembered when politicians need a crowd when they need people to cheer them during campaigns, how about bringing out these women to empower them, to encourage them to take up serious roles, they will even bring out the best in them.
“We are telling our women; you don’t have to be cheerleaders, we want to enlighten them to take up serious roles and make themselves available to be brought to the decision-making table.”
Also speaking, Jacob Iniodu of Kebetkache Women Development and Resource Centre regretted that women struggle a lot to fend for their families, including their communities but are being sidelined when opportunities come.
“When communities go for protest, women will be at the forefront, championing it but when benefits from the protest come, they are sidelined. It is good for responsibility to be shared equally and benefits shared equally. When people keep saying that women don’t talk when you go for meetings it’s actually stigmatisation, when women are stigmatized for a long time they tend to behave like that, we need to see how to tackle that stigmatization by learning how to bring them to the decision making table.” Iniodu said
