Nigeria

Senator Helen Esuene was  Minister of State for Health and later Minister of Environment in the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo. In this interview with Omololu Ogunmade, Esuene who currently represents Akwa Ibom South senatorial district in the Senate, speaks on a wide range of issues including oversight function of the legislature, executive-legislative conflicts and male and female relationship in the Senate,among others

"Men are the decision makers; women should be cooking in the kitchen while men play politics."
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Minister for Women Affairs and Social Development, Mrs Inna Maryam Ciroma, yesterday expressed dismay that eight years after the end of military dictatorship and return of democratic governance in Nigeria, women participation in politics was still inconsequential, despite their numerical strength.
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Comesa First Ladies round table conference opened yesterday in Nairobi amid calls for increased financial allocation to empower women in the region.
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Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the former Finance Minister of Nigeria, talked about the real needs of Africa. In her speech, Ms. Okonjo-Iweala passionately described her efforts to promote economic development in Nigeria by fighting corruption, stimulating privatization, strengthening the national banking system, and restructuring the oil sector. Ms. Okonjo-Iweala assured the audience that there were fewer wars and conflicts in Africa and more democratic developments. She posed an important question on what would help the continent to stay on this curve of positive changes.

One of the long-identified strategies for the advancement of women is increasing the number of women in politics and governance. Only a few countries such as Norway can parade a gendered legislature where 50 percent of the members are women. The Beijing Platform for Action recommends that countries that have gender imbalance in political representation should adopt an affirmative action whereby 33 percent of positions are reserved for women.
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