April 1, 2021
By Mohamed M. Sesay
During her keynote address of the ECOWAS Female Parliamentarians Association (ECOFEPA) Panel discussion, the First Lady of the Republic of Sierra Leone Her Excellency Madam Fatima Jabbie Bio has yesterday the 31st of March, called on females to forge formidable forces in achieving female representation across all levels of governance within the sub-region. She especially decried the pervasive Pulling Down Syndrome that has the tendency to undermine the laudable efforts in fostering female representation across the board.
First Lady Madam Fatima Bio encouraged the youth especially the female youth, to see the need for participating in politics, adding that radical change for the Africa Continent must start with young people.
She however noted that there is a perennial problem in their effort to promote female empowerment describing most females as being their own very enemies. She negates the lethargy among women to support geared towards inclusivity and gender equality.
“It is only women that are still fighting for gender equality since the beginning of the United Nations. I don’t think any first lady in this country has faced the kind of inequalities such as abuse, intimidation, and pulling down syndrome as I have faced. So it is a collective effort for all of us to support a woman who has the desire of vying for elected office or position”, she appealed.
Madam Fatima Bio also appealed to members of the ECOWAS Parliament to ensure that school going pupils are supplied free sanitary pads adding that the lack of sanitary pads has prevented so many school going girls from going to school.
She divulged experience wherein school going girls have missed a whole school term because they don’t have the sanitary pads which precipitated her nationwide sanitary pads distribution campaign. She further intimated that school going girls sometimes use the papers in the books as sanitary pads in order to protect themselves during the uncomfortable periods.
On his part, the Speaker of the ECOWAS Parliament Hon. Sidi Mohamed Tunis also re-emphasized the need for women and youth in the political space of the Africa Continent to be accorded high priority. He noted the capability of women especially when they are given a task to execute. He reaffirmed that women are builders of a nation and therefore subscribed to the argument of e inclusion of women and the youth in positions of trust.
He said this therefore a priority to ECOWAS adding that, the Fifth Legislature of the ECOWAS Parliament has made a commitment to support and enhance the powers for inclusion of youth and women in governance.
He continued that why most countries in the sub-region are not developed as compared to other continent is because; the youth and women are not given the open space in governance.
He however acknowledged that representation of women and the youth in governance within the ECOWAS Sub-region is appallingly low and therefore urged all member states to push back the trend. He added that it is their collective responsibility to ensure that the youth and women are visible and seriously engaged in policy making processes at governance level. He concluded by thanking the ECOFEPA for organizing the 4th panel discussion on the women and youth empowerment. He said at the end of the ECOFEPA town hall meeting, strategic steps will be taken by political stakeholders to ensure that women and youth are mainstreamed in politics.