WELCOME REMARKS BY MR. LANRE AROGUNDADE,
DIRECTOR, INTERNATIONAL PRESS CENTRE (IPC) AT THE MEDIA TWEET-A-THON HELD
ON OCTOBER 16, 2014
We
are pleased to welcome you to the third edition of the International Press
Centre’s (IPC) tweet-a-thon series on promoting active media
engagement and active citizens’ participation in the electoral process ahead of
2015 elections.
As
you may be aware, the tweet-a-thon is a monthly activity
supported by United Nation Development Programme (UNDP) Democratic Governance
for Development (DGD) lll Project and its international partners including the
EU.
The theme “2015: Promoting female
participation in elections” has been chosen for today’s discussion because of
the myriad of challenges that the women folk continue to face in the difficult
terrain of politics.
Despite the many campaigns for
increased women participation in governance and elections in Nigeria as a step
towards attaining the 35 percent affirmative action, their participation
remains abysmally low. For instance, the 2011 general election recorded a lower
percentage of women voted into elective offices with women occupying only 9
seats out of the 109 senate seats while out of the 352 seats in the house of
representative, only 24 seats are occupied by women. This unfortunate turn of
event earned Nigeria 118th position out 192 countries in terms of gender
parity.
It is our conviction however, that
the media can do more and better. The how is what we are gathered here to
discuss. Fortunately, we are privileged to have a senior journalist, Mrs.
Ifeoma Oti, Head, News and Current Affairs, African Independent Television
(AIT) and a prolific scholar, Mrs. Adeyinka Olarinmoye, Politician and
Lecturer, Lagos State University, both of whom will lead us in the
discussions. We appreciate their commitment to the course of the female gender
by agreeing to serve as lead speakers at very short notice.
We also appreciate the presence of
everyone here. We urge you all to participate actively in this exercise using
your twitter handles even as we look forward to your reports on this important
event.
No comments:
Post a Comment