Lets listen to our women

On Friday last week, we carried a plea by Women commissioners at the various tertiary institutions in the country to the political parties to field more women as their parliamentary candidates. This plea could not have come at the most opportune and timely period, when the country has barely five months to go to the polls.

There is no doubt that the country has seen slight improvement of women participation in our local politics. We can now talk about the Chief Justice Georgina Wood, the Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice's boss, Anna Bosman and a host of others who are occupying responsible positions in both government and other areas.

Since the country returned to democratic rule in 1992, efforts have been made towards this direction and it is yielding good results. We also have the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs, which has worked to improve the course of women and their development in the country, especially on human right abuses against our women.

Despite this good news, The Chronicle thinks women are not fairly represented when it comes to the politics of this country. They constitute more than 51% of the population, but when it comes to the holding of political positions, they are in the minority. Women like Mrs Gladys Asmah, Ama Benyiwa Doe, Frances Essiam, Christine Churcher and the late Hawa Yakubu among many others have demonstrated that when it comes to politics, women also have a role to play.

The Chronicle therefore supports the plea for the representation of more women in parliament to rub shoulders with their male counterparts. The political parties must field women candidates in their strongholds to guarantee them easy passage to parliament. Readers would agree that the women in parliament have made meaningful contributions to the Domestic Violence Bill, which has now been passed into law. But for their resilience, the male dominated house would have pushed the bill through without considering most of issues raised by the women.

The political parties must note that the days when women were consigned to the kitchen is past and gone. We are in a modern world and therefore our politicians must also try to adopt changes that would suit the system. The call by the women for fair representation is definitely a genuine one and the political parties must embrace it.