FIDA reveals why they are building the capacity of police officers

The International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA) Nigeria has commenced a capacity-building workshop for police officers to help prevent and respond to violence against women before, during and after the 2023 general elections.

The workshop is being held in Jos, the Plateau State capital, for 40 police officers from the Plateau State Police Command.

Declaring the workshop open, Country Vice President of FIDA Nigeria, Mrs Amina Abaje said: “Women share a common feature of marginalization in the sphere of public life, and their participation and representation in political life continues to be minimal. In participatory democracy, citizens (both women and men) have equal rights to participate in elections.

“We have observed low women participation in Nigeria’s electoral process which has limited their contribution to decision making and democratic growth despite the fact that they represent about 50% of the Nigerian population.”

According to her: “Recent data indicates that women’s rates of participation in formal decision making remain one of the lowest on the continent and across the world with women occupying an abysmal 5.6 percent (86 out of 1,534) of all elective positions at both the national and subnational levels.

“Current statistics of women in parliament in Nigeria confirm that women representation in parliament is on a steady decline, 9% in 2007, 7% in 2011, 5% in 2015 and less than 10% in the 9th National Assembly. Using 2015 figures, there are only four women deputy governors in all of Nigeria’s 36 states.

“Evidently, women constitute a powerful electorate with millions of votes in Nigeria. According to INEC, Nigerian women signaled their intentions to make their voices heard in the 2019 election, accounting for about 47.14 percent (39,598,645 million) of the 84,004,084 million registered voters nationwide.

“Comparatively in 2015, three million, six hundred and sixty seven thousand and seventy-six housewives voted in the presidential election, placing next to students (4,480,708) and civil servants (4,628,433),” she explained