Worried by the low turn out of Women during election, the Nigerian Women Trust Fund, NWTF, has stressed the need for women to be empowered in Kogi State.
The Program Lead, NWTF, Zainab Yahaya Tanko made the call on Wednesday at a one-day advocacy meeting in Lokoja, on enhancing women’s access to voter registration points.
Tanko emphasized that empowering women on voter registration will further boost their confidence in participating actively in the electioneering process.
According to Tanko, “We are here to get steps for reforms concerning barriers to voter education in Kogi State.
“We did research last year on identifying barriers to voter education. After the research, we got key findings and recommendations of barriers that are peculiar to Kogi State.
“We have developed an advocacy strategy on how to move forward within all these identified barriers.
“Now, we are bringing stakeholders who have been identified for the advocacy to give us insight and steps to reforms that will be needed to end these barriers in Kogi State.
One of the reforms is empowerment of women on voter registration.
“When we talk about empowerment, if Civil Society Organizations and the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, can come together with the support of the government to move women from one point to another point for registration, it will help to improve voters’ registration for women in Kogi State.”
Tanko had earlier identified physical, socio-cultural, legal and financial barriers as some of the factors limiting women from participating in voters’ registration.
On the way forward, Tanko said, “under the physical barriers, women want more registration points to be made available within their localities.
“When we talk about the reach of women, it has to do with public places like markets, schools and hospitals where women can easily have access to and quickly run back to their business or run back to their families.”
On her part, the Kogi State coordinator, Young Women in Politics Forum, Barr. Joy Oluwaseun Akinola, called for synergy among relevant stakeholders to achieve full representation of women in politics.
