As the month of March comes to an end and a lot of awareness about women rights and empowerment winds down, the conversations need not stop. The theme for the 2021 International Women’s Day was Choose to Challenge; a call to action for everyone (irrespective of gender) who is pro-female to lend their voices to confront and bring down limiting forces against women in all spheres of life. As a movement vested in leadership, One Million Leaders Africa OMLA held a conversation around the global theme of Choose to Challenge: Gender Gaps in Governance. With participants joining the virtual session from across Africa, the conversation which was anchored by the Project Director had Chief Mrs Olamide Falana; an activist for good governance in Ondo State, Nigeria grace the session as the guest.
Chief Mrs. Falana is a seasoned development professional with over ten years’ experience in community development, social care, youth empowerment, gender development, media and community advocacy at local, regional, national and international levels. Chief Mrs. Olamide shared her journey into governance and experiences that have shaped her outlook on governance in Nigeria. According to Mrs. Falana, governance should be local; and if it is to be local, then more women need to be actively involved. Citing statistics, Mrs. Falana pointed out that a meagre 23% of women are involved in governance in sub-Saharan Africa. While the numbers differ from one region to the other across the continent, the representation is still quite poor as compared to the population of women in each country and region. It is obvious that the gender gap in governance in Africa is quite wide and so conscious and deliberate efforts must be made to bridge the gap.
Whether in the civic space or cooperative world, women must prove themselves as skilful, reliable and excellent team players if they want to make an impact in their communities. While these requirements are not necessarily the selection criteria for men, the present state of repression of women globally requires that they fight for what is theirs; including their seat in governance. In closing, the guest speaker charged men to not just support women who are lending their voice in governance based on capacity, they should also always let the rule of law prevail especially when there is a need for change of power. In the same vein, she encouraged women to be continually committed to pursuing better governance as their civic responsibilities.
