One of President Buhari's aides has spoken on the inclusion of female folks in his government as he has been criticized for excluding them in the past.
Ita Enang
The Presidency has said the President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration will not give special preference to women because it would be discriminatory.
Buhari’s Senior Special Assistant on National Assembly matters (Senate), Ita Enang made the disclosure while fielding questions from participants at the interface with media executives organised by the National Institute for Legislative Studies, NILS, at the National Assembly.
The Presidential aide noted that women have occupied key positions in the country in the last three administrations.
According to Enang, “On the issue of opening up the political space for women, I want to say that we respect women. But I have my personal views which is legal and constitutional”.
“One, my daughters and sons are equal. God gave them to me equally and they are expected to be treated by me equally. To give extra advantage to women will be unconstitutional because it will be discriminatory against men.
“In Akwa Ibom state in the last administration, we had a situation where men were even struggling for 35 percent. Only the governor was a man, the deputy governor was a woman, the Chief Judge, a woman. The Deputy Speaker, a woman, the Head of Service was a woman and even the Vice- Chancellor of the university. So, men were struggling for 35 percent in Akwa Ibom. We were begging them to appoint more men into government.
“If you go to the judiciary today, especially in the Ministry of Justice and most ministries, men were struggling to get 35 percent because most of the people holding sensitive positions in key ministries are women.
“If you come to the last two, three administrations in this country, women have always been Ministers of Finance. So, it is not by way of zoning. Currently, we have another woman as a Minister of Finance. Don’t also forget, in the last administration, it was Diezani, a woman that was the Minister of Finance.”