NAN-F-24
Discrimination
By Emmanuel Mogbede
Niamey, Oct. 6, 2017 (NAN) Mr Saka Azimazi, former Executive Secretary, Network of National Human Rights Institution in West Africa, says high rate of violence and female discrimination in West Africa countries is inimical to development.
He said this while speaking with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Friday in Niamey, at the ongoing ECOWAS Parliament Fourth Legislature De-localised meeting.
Azimazi said that violence and women discrimination had remained high in the sub-region, especially in Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Cote d´Ivoire, The Gambia, Guinea Bissau, Mali and Nigeria.
He said that discrimination against women was supposed to have been outlawed in Nigeria, but that it was common in reality and reinforced by culture and religion.
According to him, this is especially so as harmful widowhood and inheritance practices have been the order of the day in most parts of the country.
Azimazi said that discrimination was in different forms and intensity and was usually based on certain culture and specific laws in some countries.
“For instance, in Nigeria, the police law does not allow a police woman to marry until after three years of her enlistment.
“Even when she wants to marry, the Commissioner of Police has to approve her husband to-be.
“If he does not approve, that is the end of the planned marriage but this does not apply to policemen.
“Though it is not constitutional, this is still the practice in all military and para-military formations in Nigeria,’’ Azimazi said.
He added that there was statutory discrimination in many countries, adding that some discriminatory practices had been entrenched in the people.
He said that the biggest problem of ensuring gender equity in the ECOWAS region was political will among governments of member-states.
Azimazi noted that most countries in the sub-region were comfortable with status quo and do not want any change.
He said that if progress must be made, governments must carry women along and give them equal share of the system.
This, Azimazi said, was critical to ensure complete contribution of all citizens to the development of the region.
He decried a situation where politicians deliberately did not want women to be part of government by continuing to hold political meetings at mid-night when it was impossible for most women to attend.
Azimazi stressed that governments in the region must have the political will to liberalise the system of political participation and should be able to enforce laws designed to enforce gender equity.
He also said that Nigeria and other countries in West Africa were signatories to many international instruments which had legal obligations on gender equity, but were yet to be domesticated.
He described the development as unfortunate as most countries in the region were not prepared to enforce international laws they signed.
Azimazi added that achieving gender equity in Nigeria and other countries in the region was beyond political will, saying that there were entrenched cultural and religious practices that should be dismantled.
“There are cultures that had been engraved in women that make them to accept that they are inferior, we need to dismantle those cultures.
“There are also some religious tenets both in Islam and Christianity that tend to demean and lower the statues of women, those are structures that need to be dismantled.
“It is not just political will; there are also social issues around it. For instance, a woman who goes to attend a political meeting at mid-night is looked at as a loose woman.
“Some people will even call her a prostitute,’’ he said.
He said that there was need to destroy such social structures, while people should be made to understand that women in politics and public assignments were not different from others or men who were there.
Azimazi stated that such women should be seen as being there on behalf of the public, stressing that a lot needed to be done to address issues of gender injustice in the world generally.
On the poor approach of governments to issues of gender equity and equality, he said that a monitoring mechanism should be put in place to ensure that member countries adhered to the obligations.
Azimazi added that such mechanism was key to dealing with issues of gender equity and equality in the region.
The Fourth Legislature ECOWAS Parliament de-localised meeting with the theme: “Harmonisation of Gender Policies within the region”, is focusing on gender, women’s rights and empowerment, child and social protection and the vulnerable groups.
The Parliament is made up of 15-member countries – Nigeria, Niger, Togo, Gambia and Benin.
Others are Guinea Bissau, Guinea, Liberia, Mali, Senegal and Sierra Leone, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Cote d´Ivoire and Ghana. (NAN)
EEM/COO/OPI
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Edited by Cecilia Odey and Olisa Ifeajika