According to her, mentorship as a vital tool for inclusion in governance would help to create spaces for women and youth participation in political and entrepreneurial domains.
Marwa-Abubakar, daughter of a former Military Administrator of Lagos State and Chairman/CEO of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, Brigadier General Mohammed Buba Marwa (retd.), stated this in her address on the strength of her advocacy for women empowerment which held at the ECOWAS parliament in Abuja on Friday.
According to her, the gender inclusion gap in Africa was yet to be overcome, adding that more needed to be done to achieve parity in youth and women’s access to governance and other political systems.
She said, “We are conversant with the problem of the systematic and institutionalised marginalization of women and youth based solely on their age, gender, limited opportunities, and assumed lack of political experience.
“I put it to you that mentorship is the single most important tool for creating a space of inclusivity for women and youth in both the political and entrepreneurial domain.”
She also stated that the women and youths could no longer continue to wait for the right time, the right government or the right economy to press for political inclusion.
“Across all strata of society and transcending all borders, the same rings true. In the interest of the quantum leap of inclusion we seek and the paradigm shift to a culture of more subsumption of women and youth to occur, we must start with our very own selves and create those systems of mentorship in our own lives which will ultimately cascade down to create the wave of change that we so fervently crave. For the desired inclusivity, you will first have to include them at your level”, the AWF President stated.
