Imo women under the umbrella of “Imo Women Frontier (IWF)” have demanded inclusion of female folks in leadership positions in the State and have called on the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to address the seeming political imbalance.
Addressing Newsmen in Owerri over the weekend, the President of the group who doubles as director of program, Women and Children welfare initiative (WCWI), High Chief Maria Nwadialu lamented the deliberate exclusion of women in the affairs of the state; a development she said is not healthy for the growth of the state and nation at large.
According to her, women have always played key roles, as expected in the democratic process but are often shortchanged or outrightly excluded and abandoned when it is time to share offices or dividends of democracy.
She stated that the hardship and frustration occasioned by this level of conspiracy against women do not only affect the women but the children.”From all indications, it may get worse under the incoming PDP administration if not checked. How do you explain a situation where we agitated for 35 percent for women but PDP never considered it worthwhile as obtainable in other states.
“Today, PDP didn’t give us even one percent but we managed to have two of our women, namely; Hon Ngozi Obiefule of Isu and Hon Uju Mbadiwe of Njaba state constituency elected on the platform of Action Alliance. We want them to compensate Imo women with leadership positions in the 9th Imo Assembly having failed to knowledge our presence before the elections. That will be the only way PDP can claim to have regard for Imo women who voted massively for them.
Anambra is reputed for this and you can see how developed the state is. Their Speaker, Rt. Hon Rita Maduagwu is adjudged to have done better than all the speakers that have served the state”, Mrs Nwadialu reiterated.
Speaking further, she said, “interestingly, out of the 8 ranking members of the 9th Assembly, we have two women who are eminently qualified to steer the ship.PDP should therefore consider any of them for the speakership position even though we would have insisted on Hon Obiefule who has been quite close to us (Imo Women) but at worse, let any of them go.
We sincerely feel sad that Imo PDP didn’t offer any of us House of Assembly or National Assembly tickets. This portrays the party in bad light especially at a time like this when the world over appreciates the roles women play in building Nations and society”, she fumed.
Finally, Nwadialu assured that her group will mobilize Imo women to achieve this noble agenda of having a woman occupy speakership position. She hinted on their plans to write Her Excellency, the wife of the governor-elect of Imo State on this issue.
