The Nigerian Women Trust Fund (NWTF) has expressed concerns over what it called the “inadequate legal commitment and political system,” saying these were the reasons for low representation of women in governance and achieving gender equality.
Chief Executive Officer NWTF, Ms Mufuliat Fijabi disclosed this Thursday in Abuja during a solidarity walk ahead of the International Women’s Day (IWD) celebration which comes up on March 8 globally.
According to Fijabi, this year’s theme, “I am Generation Equality: Realising Women’s Rights” is apt as it aligns with the UN women’s new multigenerational campaign and generation equality.
She said the celebration also provides a platform to amplify the concerns of women and girls, especially in addressing gender power gap and other forms of discrimination against women.
“IWD celebrated every March 8 is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women,” she said.
She, however, decried the low representation of women in governance and gender equality, which she attributed to lack of political will and inadequate legal commitment.
“Nigeria lacks adequate legal commitment to gender equality.”
“Also, lack of political will on provisions within existing national gender policy or other gender related policy documents and commitments make it difficult to hold governance structures accountable for the recurrent low women representation in governance.”
She, therefore, explained that the NWTF engages equitable citizens’ participation to enable it close gender gap in governance, leadership and politics.
“We are consequently driven by the tenets of general equality which are rooted within a collaborative system that generates knowledge and pool resources towards accelerated result on fair representation of both genders at all levels of decision making processes.”
While, calling on other stakeholders to bridge gender gap especially in governance, the NWTF boss reiterated their commitment towards women empowerment.