News:
March 13, 2020
A member of the Nigerian House of Representative and a representative in the newly inaugurated fifth Legislature of the Community Parliament, Lynda Chuba Ikeazu is advocating for issues of women empowerment in the sub-region to be made a tradition.
According to the lawmaker, the issue of women empowerment should not be reduced to tokenism, rather it should be natured and entrenched.
“Right now we are just like a cup in hand, can you do this and that for women, the best way is to make it part of our tradition so that when we talk of empowerment no one is going to feel that they are doing us a favor”.
Mrs. Chuba Ikeazu in an interview lamented over a situation where in the inaugurated fifth ECOWAS Parliament there is no female representative from the Republic of Togo.
She made this remarks in the wake of the election of a third Deputy Speaker when the female agenda was being pushed to get two women by Burkina Faso. Togo made a solid point that they have never occupied the position, and others believe it would have been a golden opportunity for Togo to pick one slot if they had a female lawmaker among the male dominated delegation.
“Togo in their National Parliament I do not know if they even have a female representative, as women we have a long way to go and challenges to deal with. If we do not make women empowerment a tradition, people are going to give us reasons for not supporting women”.
As to whether there is hope that the women empowerment agenda can make any progress, she responded that once there is life, there is hope and as ECOWA female lawmakers they are determined to work together, and quickly pointed out that power would not be given to women on a “silver platter”.
Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanamps.com/Niger