Two non-governmental organisations, Gender Strategy Advancement Initiative and the SheForum Africa, on Wednesday, trained young female politicians on how to attain leadership positions in the country.

The NGOs said this on Wednesday at a round table discussion titled “The Godmother’s mentorship series” in Abuja.

The round table discussion aimed at building the capacity of women to contest leadership positions in the 2027 general elections

The Founder, SheForum Africa, Inimfon Etuk, said that there was no point waiting until 2027 before the female folks could start galvanising themselves for the realisation of gender equality in the country’s political arena.

Mrs Etuk said her organisation had realised that no group could do it alone in building Nigeria to the desire of many.

She said, “No one person, no one organisation can do it alone; we all know there are a lot of targets right now globally, there is the United Nations 2030 target for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. Part of the SDG goals is gender equality, there is also a goal which talks about partnership, our target in Nigeria is geared towards the achievement of democratic dispensation by 2027.

“We are getting ready for the election, there is so much that has happened within the light of our politics in Nigeria. We don’t need to wait until the year of the election before gearing up for it.

We want to influence who emerges as candidates of political parties, the advocacy that is on the table right now is that we are targeting the political parties. We want political parties to field female candidates for the 2027 general elections, we want to leverage on the strength of numbers of women and young people in Nigeria.”

Senator Biodun Olujimi, who called for a backup of the legislation for the realisation of gender equality in Nigeria, added that it was the only way to achieve such an aim.

Ms Olujimi recalled that Sierra Leone was able to back such an idea with legislation before it could have 50/50 equal gender representation in its parliament.

She also cited Senegal as having 42/58 per cent inclusivity of both genders in its parliament, adding that there was a need to encourage young people to fill the political space in Nigeria.

Founder, Well-being Foundation Africa, Toyin Saraki, emphasised the need for knowledge transformation into young female Nigerians, adding that that was the reason why some of them were invited to the programme.

“We are invited here basically to this roundtable to begin to talk about knowledge transformation, especially in the different generational ways. Some of us have become experts to meet with the younger exploits. We are putting together modalities by which we expose them, to also spring up and learn from each other, so that by the time the next election takes place in Nigeria, we would have exposed more people who wish to take up leadership positions. We must understand investment in the education of our children, it is one of the processes of development of a child, we must begin to grow children in the right way before they grow to become adults,” she said.

Executive Director, Gender Strategy Advocacy International, Adaora Sydney-Jack, said that the Godmother Mentorship Series was all about raising the gap for leadership especially for young women in Nigeria.

Ms Sydney-Jack emphasised the need to change the narrative to have more women in the political positions in the country.

A former Country Director, ActionAid Nigeria, Ene Obi, said, “The time is now for Nigeria to shun god-fatherism in politics and allow more women to participate in it. The capacity building is an intergenerational mentorship initiative aimed at nurturing more women into leadership positions in the country. Few women are in the leadership positions in the country, and that this is so abysmal for a country like Nigeria known as giant of Africa which is supposed to serve as example to others.’’

(NAN)