Popular Nigerian journalist, Kadaria Ahmed, has said that Nigeria has competent women ready to occupy leadership positions, adding that the country didn’t have an equal lovwl playing-field for them to showcase themelves.
Ahmed said that despite the overwhelming population of women which she noted was half the size of the entire statistics, she lamented that most of them were bedevilled by lack of education and poverty.
She made this disclosure on Saturday in Gombe, during North East Open Square organised by Daria Media, with support from Mac Arthur Foundation.
Ahmed said, “It’s not a straightforward black and white issue. It is a little bit more complex nuance than that.
“Affirmative action is normally important where you have a playing field that is not leveled. In Nigeria for example, women are among the poorest and least educated.
“So, what happens is that at times, you need to help them. We have seen that happen across the world even in the most developed countries.”
She clarified that merit should never be jettisoned in the country’s question for leadership, adding that women have shown tendency to provide better leadership than their counterpart.
Ahmed added, “We are not saying gender should be the only decider when you want to vote for people in office, merit has to matter. I’m convinced that there are women who are qualified.
“What we are saying is, where you have women who are qualified but due to situation of things, men have the money and women can’t compete.
“Why does it matter? We have half the population. If we are not represented, that means half of the population is not represented.
“There are scientific evidence that countries where women are fully engaged tend to do better, look at the Nordic countries, the Scandinavian countries.”
Also Speaking, lawmaker representing Yalmatu Deba in the House of Representatives Yunusa Abubakar said women were only required to understand their strength, adding that they could attain over 100 percent of their aspiration following their number.
“Women, you are 60 percent more while men are 40 percent. If they understand the system they will use it to their advantage, you can get 100 percent,” Abubakar said.
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