Skip to main content

Liberia vice President seeks ECOWAS Support for women in Politics 


Ifeanyi Valentine, Monrovia 


The Vice President of the Republic of Liberia has called on the Economic Community of West Africa States (ECOWAS) to support women in politics.


Speaking at the conference for ECOWAS Female Parliamentarians (ECOFEPA) and other women political and civil society leaders held in Monrovia, Dr. Jewel Howard Taylor said that the stories of women being intimidated and victimized for seeking public office have become a trend.


She said ECOWAS have a unique role to play in uplifting the politics of women as they hope for a sub-regional framework for protecting women seeking to get involved in business and national level politics.


“We hope to see you propose an ECOWAS protocol stating norms for the protection for women in politics. We also want to see you establish effective monitoring systems and interventions to protect genuine cases of women politicians in danger” Taylor said.


She continued “ECOWAS should be swift and robust in their response to threats and violence against women in politics. With the assertiveness of ECOWAS, other state actors will follow suit and do what is necessary to protect women from these abuses.


Speaking also on the need for female activeness in politics, Honourable fatoumata Njai, a Gambia delegation to the ECOWAS Parliament encouraged women to be focus and active in the political struggle.


“While we are tackling the presentation of women in leadership and to strengthen the female leadership pipeline, women also need to start taking charge of their careers” Njai said.


She added that it is also time for men to embrace female leadership and empower the women around them.


“Though organizations have begun to take steps to support and treat women equally, women too need to take their own place in society. As women, we need to proactively step up, turn every experience into an opportunity and every opportunity into experience so as to maximize our access to leadership position and never ever doubt our abilities” she said.


Njai called for more women in the work place to be ready to meet and raise their quota. “We need to not only ask for a quota, we need to talk about our capabilities and increase our abilities, she said.


Furthermore, Honourable Biodun Olujimi of Nigeria emphasized on the need for women across the region to get involved in the activities of other women.

“The time has come for us to start believing in ourselves and in our capacity, because if we don’t believe, we cannot get others to believe in us” Biodun concluded.     

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Benin Republic set to review Constitution on terms of Political Office. In a year when many countries on the continent and in West Africa are changing their constitutions to allow for incumbent presidents to run yet again, the Beninese National Assembly has approved a major constitutional reform to discuss the precision on the two terms of office of the President of the Republic among other issues. Detailing the political situation of Benin at the floor of the ECOWAS Parliament, the country report presented contained that the constitutions review was to address the current political situation of the country marking a new Republic following two unsuccessful attempts. The report stated that “Benin Republic has after the April 2019 Legislative elections experienced a tense atmosphere following the frustrating feelings from political group who were unable to participate in the legislative elections, due to the inability to meet the requirement on the law on the constit...
Post a Comment
Read more

ECOWAS Parliament, others strategize on food security, fight against Covid-19

Speaker of the Parliament of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS Parliament) Sidie Mohammed Tunis, has been joined by  experts in the sub region and other stakeholders to strategize on how to improve food security and  agricultural production in order to ameliorate the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on the region. This is the crux of the ECOWAS Parliament Delocalised meeting with the theme " Agricultural Production and Food Security in ECOWAS region under Covid-19 pandemic" scheduled to begin on Tuesday November 10 in Bissau, Guinea Bissau. Speaker Tunis, who led a delegation of members of Parliament for a courtesy visit on the President of Guinea Bissau, Umaro Embalo, at the Presidential Villa in Bissau on Monday ahead of Tuesday's opening ceremony, said Guinea Bissau was chosen for the meeting because it is believed to be stable. The Speaker said :  "As you all are aware, Covid-19 has had very negative effects on food production, which is threat...
Post a Comment
Read more

25 Years After Beijing Declaration, It's time for action, not rhetorics_ECOWAS Speaker

The Speaker of the ECOWAS Parliament, Mohamed Sidie Tunis has reiterated the need for concrete and deliberate actions on Women Empowerment, 25 years after Beijing Declaration, Speaker Tunis, who was on his way to Liberia for the Delocalised meeting on Women’s Empowerment, made this declaration on Monday 12 April, 2021 at the Mano River Bridge, when he was received by a delegation, consisting of ECOWAS staff and journalists. He said there couldn't have been a better venue for the Delocalised meeting than Liberia. This he said is against the backdrop of Liberia’s serial feats of electing women into prominent political positions. "Liberia is the most suitable country to host the Delocalised meeting on Women Empowerment because it was Liberia that blaised the trail in 2015, with the election of Africa's First Female President, Ellen Sirleaf Johnson. "Few years later, another woman was elected Vice President by Liberians." According to the Speaker, this is...
Post a Comment
Read more