Women in Politics (WIP) including the Commissioner for Human Services and Social Development in Kaduna State, Hajiya Hafsat Baba have commended Governor Nasir El-Rufai for appointing six women out of his 14 commissioners but demanded for more elective positions.

The six sensitive Ministries currently headed by women in Kaduna Stat are Human Services and Social Development, Housing and Urban development, Public Works and Infrastructure, Justice, Health and Agriculture and Forestry.

Hajiya Hafsat Baba, who stated this at the weekend during the reflection meeting on the implementation of Gender Equity and Social Inclusion (GESI) policy facilitated by Legal Awareness for Nigerian Women (LANW) supported by National Democratic Institute (NDI) said, efforts are ongoing to support more women to vie for elective positions even before 2023.

She said, “We thank LANW and NDI for the good work they are doing especially with regard to issue of gender inclusion in Kaduna State. Definitely we may not be there yet, but we are not where we were years back. We are making progress in this course.

“In elective positions, we are not doing well. But as a government, we are talking to ourselves, the Governor and party officials because we need to respect party’s constitution and that will help us to make headway. We are also talking about quota system which will also help.

“One of the challenges we have identified is in the area of delegates who will get the tickets and all that. We have already started working towards 2023 to ensure we have women at all levels both at the state and national assemblies. Very soon, we are going to have local government election and we hope more women will come out and contest the chairmanship and counsellorship positions. We are ready to support and help anyone that shows interest so we can have more women in elective positions.

“Malam El-Rufai is an excellent governor because we have many women in his cabinet and one in elective position and I mean the deputy governor. He took her as running mate and they won the election. We have more than 35 percent we are asking for. We have six women out of 14 commissioners in the State, we also have head of service, accountant general, director general heading departments and agencies. He is somebody that believes in women, that gives women opportunity and believes in their education,” she said.

Elsewhere, Vice President, Inter Party Women Network (IPWN), Hon Lanti H. Waziri called on the political parties to look inward and give women the opportunity to contest for other positions other than that of “women leader.”

“We want more than women leader. Let start with delegates, can we beginning to have for example, two men and two women. This will attract women into politics. I know this will not be too much because our Governor believes in women. He has tested some and we have not disappointed him which is more reason women in politics should be supported to actively involved in moving the state and the country at large forward,” she added. (Saturday Sun)

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