A former Minister of Science and Technology, Mrs. Paullen Tallen has commended former President Olusegun Obasanjo for engaging more women in governance by giving them good leverage during his administration.

The former president was said to have involved women at every level of governance during his eight years tenure by emphasising the inclusion of women in nomination of political appointees from states.

Tallen made the commendation while setting the tone of an inclusive stakeholders dialogue on governance, policy development and political participation organised by the Gender Agenda Initiative in conjunction with Women’s Situation Room Nigeria, United Nations Women, the National Assembly and Women Converging for National Development, held in Abuja recently.

However, she said as good as Obasanjo’s gesture was, only two states (Ogun and Plateau) complied with the former president’s directive of including a woman in the list of three ministerial nominees from each state. This, she said, was one of the conspiracies against women participation in politics and governance, while she called for active response against male-dominated politics.

The former deputy governor of Plateau State said “women must be in the mainstream of politics and governance at all times. They must be relevant because women’s roles are divine roles”.

She suggested that it should be mandatory that at least a woman must be among elected councilors in each of the 774 local governments across the country, as a way of further enhancing women involvement in governance.

Tallen as well applauded a former first lady, the late Mrs. Maryam Babangida for playing an active role in creating awareness for women participation through her pet project, ’Better Life for Rural Women’.

The initiator of Gender Agenda Initiative, Adaora Onyechere, in her address said the dialogue was meant to “enhance holistically, look critically, deliberate and make implementable recommendations in the areas of programming, policy development, political participation, empowerment, advocacy, capacity building, mentoring and the economy, towards mainstreaming Gender and achieving the 2030 deadline goal.”

She said the conveners consider integrating young female fellowship for leadership preparedness to encourage those who aspire and solidarise with those who occupy political space “especially as we approach the 2019 elections and beyond.”

To achieve this, she said the body was going to set up mentoring/ leadership clinic for women especially to engage young girls and women alike on having access and a relative platform for learning and capacity scouting which will in effect create the Gender Mentoring Index Database.

To open the minds of political parties to the need for giving more women leadership role, she said a Gender Capacity and Development Debate would be established among all political parties.

The Country Director of the United Nations Women, Mrs. Comfort Lamptey said the numerical strength of women in Nigeria should be an advantage for involving more women in politics.

She said Senegal has 49 per cent women participation, the highest in the African continent, arguing that religion should not be a barrier to involvement of Nigeria women in politics.

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Her Excellency, Dame Pauline Tallen Commends Obasanjo for Engaging More Women in Governance