By Eunice Orike
Executive Director, Gender Strategy Advancement International, GSAI, Adaora Onyechere Sydney-Jack, has said that there was need to bridge the leadership gap that currently exists between Nigerian men and women.
Speaking with journalists after a conference organised by two Non-Governmental organisations, GSAI and She Forum Africa, entitled, “The Godmothers’ Mentorship Series” in Abuja, Adaora Onyechere Sydney-Jack lamented that the number of women in the current parliament was insignificant, stressing that with the 2027 general elections around the corner, women should start early to get involved in partisan politics.
According to her, the idea behind the mentorship series was to continue to galvanize women to look at issues concerning mentorship, bridging the leadership gap between men and women, having robust conversations, but most importantly creating a lead-way for the documentation of some of the stories about women exploits, and ensuring that women tell the stories themselves.
She pointed out that the agency called Africa is always being in the story of exclusion and that means that the narrative and the gender parity will continue to resonate.
“The right thing to do is looking at what is important at a time and do it in the next election circle. Election violence would be there, how do we navigate in-between the lines and to also look at election financing, which is a huge burden on the African woman and for the Nigerian woman”, she said
Making her contributions, the founder of She Forum Africa, Inimfon Etuk, said their target in Nigeria as an organisation was geared towards the achievement of solid impact in the democratic process 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 election before we need to start gearing for it” she said.
In her speech, wife of former Senate President, Toyin Saraki and the founding President of the Well- being Foundation Africa, WBFA, advised women who have political ambition to always stay close to their communities to earn their trust before coming out for elections.
She stressed that if women could get actively involved in formal activities of political parties, then many women would have a chance of being chosen as delegates, and once there are female delegates, they have both a voice and vote within the parties.
Saraki emphasised that the best form of advocacy was action, adding that there was need to have women out there taking the opportunity to run.
She also encouraged women to ensure that they support credible and best female candidates, persuade other women to vote for them during elections to facilitate their victory.
“I think, it is seeing activity in action that gives people the courage. They shouldn’t just be showing up every four-four years, they should always stay close to their communities through the entire election and non-election circles so that both the stakeholders and the people feel that they are there” she said.
She disclosed that the organisation was determined to put together modalities on how to engage with younger experts in mentorship to generate knowledge that would be mutually beneficial, and prepare women for future elections.
“The GodMother Mentorship Series, I believe we are here today to begin to talk about how we are going to work in our different fields to become experts, and are meeting with the younger experts who wish to rise, and we are putting together modalities by which they can school us too to learn from each other so that by the time the next elections take place in Nigeria, we would have empowered ourselves to be able to lead”, she said.
She hinted that preparing the women and girls to understand that the investment that we make in the education of the children are what really create adults.
“So, we don’t wait until it is time to select people for leadership before we start looking for who is good”, she said.
According to her, In The Wellbeing Foundation Africa, we are working with the children, right from when they are in secondary school until they enter university, with the curriculum that first teaches them respectful relationship, the habit of looking up to themselves, self-care, dignity and also about having autonomy.
She explained that leadership should not be by endurance, but should be by merit, adding that what the organisation was trying to do was to create a higher and larger pool of those who can merit leadership.
Furthermore, Saraki explained that when women gather and when women resolve, there is always a transformation.
“As you see, we are starting very early on the election cycle, but elections are not just about presidential and gubernatorial, you are also going to look at the local government elections, we even have to look beneath that. The trend of election and who wins is not actually decided on the election day, it begins within the party, and each party chooses its candidate”, she said
Also speaking, Senator Biodun Olujimi, who emphasized on political activism, said the young ones must be motivated to be able to come and be part of the discourse.
According to her, without that, all the problems would not go away except they were constantly talked about.
“As you know, young people are very vibrant, they are a lot more energetic than some of us, but they are usually skeptical when it comes to political participation. Time for us to work is now.”, she said.
