"The outcome of the 2023 elections, and the dismal outcome of having scandalously reduced percentage of women in elective positions, makes it necessary for development partners to rethink the engagement of political parties in the post-election era."
The Westminster Foundation Democracy (WFD) has called for a review of strategies for achieving women's inclusion following the "scandalous" reduction in number of women elected during the last general election.
Adebowale Olorunmola, the country director of WFD, stated this on Tuesday during the Political Parties Support dialogue held in Abuja.
The dialogue was on developing modalities for making support to political parties more efficient in the post-2023 elections period.
It was also for development partners to collaborate to improve the performance of political parties and also not duplicate efforts by working in isolation.
Mr Olorunmola said development partners must rethink their strategy in engaging with political parties on women's inclusion in the post-election era.
"The outcome of the 2023 elections, and the dismal outcome of having scandalously reduced percentage of women in elective positions, makes it necessary for development partners to rethink the engagement of political parties in the post-election era," he said.
In the 2023 National Assembly elections held on 25 February, 11 women ran for Senate seats while 35 ran for seats in the House of Representatives. At the end of the polls, 14 women were elected into the lower chamber while three others were elected into the upper chamber.
Mr Olorunmola said since 1999, donors and organisations have been giving political parties support but that despite the support the development of political parties has been slow.
"Since the return to democratic governance in 1999, stakeholders - civil society groups, implementing partners, and donor agencies - have provided political parties with technical support to improve their operations.
"Nonetheless, the development of the political parties has been slow, and has become a source of concern, as citizens dutifully expect better results and democratic dividends," he said.
Speaking on improving political parties, Mr Olorunmola said political parties must shift from tokenism to ideologically driven platforms.
He added that political parties must be opened to attract mass membership and also ensure that they serve the interest of the masses, not the selected few.
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"Political parties must move from being tokenistic in their commitments towards positive actions to enable internal party democracy, as well as the inclusion of underrepresented groups, specifically women, youths and persons with disabilities.
"They must shift from being largely exclusive - and begin to take positive action to become an open platform to attract mass membership, while conducting activities that would ensure that party decisions are taken by members, and in the interest of members, and not a few cliques such that the parties become less personality and money-driven, but driven by what they stand for," he said.
WFD is working with political parties with representation in government, NILDS, and others to improve their inclusive practices, thereby ensuring more effective participation of underprivileged groups in decisions that affect them.
WFD is running the Inclusive and Accountability Programme (IAP) on enlightening political parties in Nigeria.
