Female candidates vying for political offices have been remarked low due to their inability to engage the media for positive projection.
This position was reached after a two-day media engagement forum with female candidates in the Southwest held in Ibadan on January 24 and 25. The forum was set to deepen understanding and improve the use of conventional and new media for campaigns and other electoral activities
The media engagement had in attendance female candidates contesting for governorship, Senatorial, House of Representatives and State House of Assembly seats on different political party platforms in the Southwest and also Editors and Reporters from the print, broadcast and online media.
Some of the observations made by the participants at the forum include:
- Most female candidates lack adequate knowledge about relating with and engaging the media for positive projection;
- Most female politicians lack adequate knowledge of their rights as political party members and candidates under relevant electoral institutional and legislative frameworks;
- The society especially its major institutions like the media, the political parties, the civil society etc, are not doing enough to encourage women participation in governance and election into political offices;
- The tendency of women tend to be more development focused and less corrupt should serve as justification to vote them into political offices;
- Women politicians and women groups are not doing enough to demand for the implementation of gender affirmative policies;
- Activities of female candidates are not being adequately covered and reported by the media;
- The demand for payment for news or coverage and high costs of political advertorials sometimes discourage female candidates from reaching out to the media; and
- Female and male candidates should have equal rights and opportunities to use the media to disseminate information on their electoral activities.
Following these observations, participants therefore recommended that Female candidates should strive to overcome gender inhibitions and devise constructive and engaging ways to present themselves to voters through the media.
It was also recommended that female candidates should develop enduring relations with the media; they should freely grant interviews, issue press statements and request media coverage of their activities including briefings, campaigns, rallies.
Also, the media was called upon to do more for female candidates by creating dedicated news space/programmes that advance women’s rights and promote female candidates;
Among speakers at the forum were: Director, International Press Centre (IPC) , Mr. Lanre Arogundade; Associate Editor( News), Nigerian Tribune Newspaper, Mrs. Tinuola Ayanniyi; Mr. Diji Akinhanmi, Director News/Current Affairs, Ogun State Television (OGTV); Mr. Qasim Akinreti, Social Media Expert and News Manager, Voice of Nigeria (VON) and Mr. Sanmi Falobi, Online Editor, Nigerian Democratic Report (NDR) @www.ndr.org.ng.
The forum was organized by the International Press Centre (IPC), Lagos-Nigeria, with the support of the United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP) Democratic Governance for Development (DGD lll) Project and its partners including the European Union (EU).
