Ondo Election: Women NGO Set Standard For INEC, Security Agencies, Political Parties 

By Joseph Sunday 

A Non-Governmental Organization known as the Nigerian Women Trust Fund, NWTF, has set a standard for the major actors in the Ondo State Governorship Election which include the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC; the security agencies and political parties.

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The women election observer group gave the counsel in its post election statement made available to Treasure Newspaper on the 2024 Ondo State off-cycle governorship election held on Saturday, 16th November.

In the post election statement, the NWTF called on the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, under the leadership of its Chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu “to empower the gender department in the collection of gender-disaggregated data that will aid the tracking of female involvements during elections and helped identifying the challenges they faced, thereby developing strategies to increase participation in the political process.

It also called on the country’s electoral umpire to provide gender – sensitive voter education, create and spread voter educative materials, empathizing the importance of gender equality in politics, focusing on both male and female roles in leadership, by engaging in campaigns promoting the value of voting for women candidates. 

Adding that the INEC should strengthen it’s logistics management systems to reduce challenges including having solid contingencies plan in case of any disruptions. “INEC should continue to strengthen it’s efforts engendering the deployment of personnel for its operations to promote inclusivity and keep a public register of electoral offenders”. 

Members Of The Nigerian Women Trust Fund

The women Non-Governmental Organization in a bid to improve security during elections, advocated for a continuous training of security personnel on the roles and rights to avoid unnecessary harassment of observers while carrying their mandate on election day. 

The NGO expressed the need to improve welfare and logistics of security agencies deployed for elections to eliminate possibilty of compromise during elections and stressed the essence of complementing the efforts of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, towards ensuring the arrest and prosecution of persons who engage in vote buying and selling. 

In their advice to the political parties, the women NGO called on them to continue to preach and promote the culture of peaceful elections and discourage followers whose major business is violence and interference with the electoral process. 

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They called on INEC and Civil Society organization effort towards expanding voter education and sensitization effort to increase participation. “Political parties should institutionalize gender quotas to ensure women’s representation at all levels of the party, by setting aside a percentage of leadership positions, candidacy slots and internal committees for women. Training programmes focusing on preparing women for leadership roles, within the parties and in public offices, and learning the ropes of public speaking, policy development, negotiation and electoral strategies.

They also called on the political parties to strengthen their women wings and ensure women occupy senior leadership positions within the party. 

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