The only female member in the 7th Session of the Adamawa State House of Assembly, Hon Mamuno Kate Raymon, has blamed the ‘under-representation of women’ in the Assembly, other state houses of assembly, and the National Assembly, to ‘suppression and marginalization’ of women by their male counterparts.
Mamuno who represents Demsa constituency in the 25-member Adamawa House of Assembly, told DAILY POST in an interview that she got to the House a lonely woman, although no less than 50 women sought the office in the course of the 2019 election. She said that men in their characteristic “macho” ways, edged out the women.
Recall that Adamawa in 2015 produced the only woman, Binta Masi Garba, who went to the Senate from the North, and although she lost her return bid to the now embattled Sen Ishaku Abbo, another woman, Aishatu Binani (Adamawa Central), is today in the Senate as the only sitting northern female senator; but at the State House of Assembly, the fortune of women decreased in the 7th Assembly with only one woman (Mamuno), as against two in the previous 6th Assembly.
Hon Mamuno Raymond reiterated her opinion, which she said was based on her personal experience, that men routinely marginalise women in politics and frustrate them from reaching their targets, saying, “It is obvious from the 2019 general elections that women are marginalised. Look at how many people came out to contest in Adamawa. For the House of Assembly, we were 52. Four came out for the governorship. What happened in the end? You people (men) marched on us.”
She added, “It was the political gimmicks of men. You make us to be so scared when it comes to so many issues. But we are not giving up. Buhari said women belong to the kitchen. We disagree. Women are made for many significant roles, certainly not just the kitchen. We are working towards producing Nigeria’s first female president in 2023.”
The lawmaker who is of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), is leading a vanguard of women groups in Adamawa State, under the banner of the International Republican Institute (IRI), in a campaign to make the Adamawa State Governor, Rt Hon Ahmadu Fintiri, include a good number of women in his cabinet and in other government offices.
Comments