By Philip Yatai

A non-governmental organisation, Women Mentoring and Leadership Initiative (WAMFOI), has called on President Muhammadu Buhari and Gov. Nasir El-Rufa’i of Kaduna state to alot 40 per cent appointments into the federal and state executive councils to women.

The President of the group, Mrs Florence Aya, made the call on Monday during a press conference in Kaduna.

Aya urged El-Rufa’i to fulfil his promise to alot 40 per cent appointments to women and people living with disabilities in the state.

She specifically made a case for women who contested and lost in the general elections to be appointed into his cabinet.

She expressed concern over the poor participation and representation of women in politics and governance in Kaduna state and the country.

She regretted that currently, none of the principal officers in the Senate is a woman, while the House of Representative had only one female principal officer, while only 24 of the 362 members were women.

Aya said: “This is in contrast with the situation in countries like Rwanda, where women make up 61 of 106 parliamentarians and Senegal where women occupy 65 of the 150 parliamentary seats.

“In Kaduna state, four women contested for the senatorial seats and nine House of Representative seats but lost to their male counterparts.

“We were only able to get two councilors, one seat in the state House of Assembly and the deputy governorship position.”

She, however, commended El-Rufai for being gender sensitive by ensuring that women played vital roles in his government.

She expressed satisfaction that the governor had four women as commissioners and numerous others in different positions in his first tenue.

She said that WAMFOI, founded in 2003 to encourage women participation in politics and governance, would continue to support government in nurturing and mentoring women for political and leadership roles.

Aya further said that the group, with at least 50 members, comprised women from different political, social and economic groups in the 23 local government areas of the state.

She further said that some of the objectives of the group included to unite women across different spheres for development, mobilise and encourage women for political participation and leadership and create awareness around gender-related issues.

“So far, we have trained 300 women and mentored at least 180 for political and leadership positions,” Aya said.

She called on political parties to give special space to women as part of effort towards achieving the 35 per cent affirmative action for women in elective and appointive positions.