Former Nigerian president, Olusegun Obasanjo, has advised Nigerians to consider electing a female president for the growth and development of the country.
Sahel Standard gathered that Obasanjo gave the charge at the 5th edition of the Egba Dialect Debate and Choral Competition for Secondary Schools in Ogun state.
“From my own view, if we want the country to grow, we should consider both genders, because a hand can’t carry a load to the head alone,” Obasanjo said.
“You can do it as you want, but it should be done as it is supposed to be, we can gain experience from both genders, what’s the difference between the genders? Only that the female can get pregnant for nine months and a male can’t. That’s the only difference in us.
“As for me, there’s nothing preventing the female gender to be the president of our country.” the former president added.
On her part, the deputy governor of Ogun state, Naimot Salako-Oyedele, decried the poor representation of women in governance.
“In Ogun state, we have 236 councillors but only 18 are females, we have 20 chairmen, only two are females among them, we have 26 seats in the house of Assembly, only two are females, house of representatives, we have nine, one is female, we have three senators, no female and we have the deputy governor who is also a female,” she said.
Oyedele advised women to join politics at the grassroot level in order to gain the necessary experience needed for them to scale to top elective positions.