Continued.

Politicizing Constitutional Reforms from a Gender Perspective: With Support from Heinrich Boll Foundation (HBF)

Goodwill Message

HBF Representative, Uju Obiora presented a goodwill message from her organisation and also briefed the forum on the Organisation, Heinrich Boll Foundation  (HBF), a political foundation with its headquarters in Berlin, Germany.

Presentation

Toro Oladapo (Resource Person) presented a paper on, ‘The Role of the Media in Constitution Reform’. According to her the agitations on engendering the constitution are not yet intense as to cause a drastic change. She regarded the media roundtable as a takeoff to sensitise participants on their role as media practitioners, to effectively report gender issues in the Constitution. She decried the disagreement between the Senate and the House of Representatives on the leadership of the Joint Committee on Constitutional Reforms (JCRC).
 
She described the media as an integral part of the people’s lives because they serve as powerful socialization agents, adding that the role of the media is magnified in the context of Constitution Reform. “They must stimulate discussion and guide the flow of proceedings as well as monitor the whole process”, she said. Admonishing media practitioners at the roundtable she said they must uphold the ethics of the profession by shunning every form of corruption through bribery or taking of incentives to influence proceedings and debate of the reform process.

She suggested that GADA in collaboration with HBF should start planning towards sensitizing the media on their role to ensure the success of the Constitution Reform. “How best can gender issues be reported to assure that gender gaps in the 1999 Constitution are addressed? Constitution reform process must be taken seriously if we are to make any progress. Organisations should go beyond mere discussions and begin to sponsor media training by donors in collaboration with non-governmental organisations”, she said as a final note.

Mr. Okeke Anya (Programme Coordinator, GADA) thanked and commended Mrs. Oladapo’s presentation.

Discussion
Participants dwelt on the deficiencies and strengths of women in public office. For instance women in power such as Ms. Femi Tejuosho (Lagos House of Assembly) had done a lot on Violence Against Women and Child Health, but more still needs to be done. They cited the case of the Minister of Women Affairs who called on her representative to talk on her behalf, the incident really goes to show the caliber of women put in sensitive positions, and this makes women’s issues insignificant and quite harrowing to make positive change.

Recommendations at the Roundtable
1.         Reporters should feature human angle stories on gender issues and relate it with particular sections in the Constitution to effectively pass across their message to the members of the public.
2.         Raise issues concerning women and the Constitution on their pages and even in Church magazines
3.         GADA should partner more with the media i.e. plan intensified advocacy visits to media houses to actively involve them in every aspect of their project.
4.         Training for women in public positions to build their capacity so that they can better represent women matters
5.         Sensitization of men and women on the importance of allowing the latter occupy more public positions if really we are to make any change
6.         Donors like HBF should give grants to Organisations such as GADA to propel changes on the status of women in the country with adequate media involvement
7.         Sponsorship of media programmes
8.         Submission of memorandum to the review committee

Conclusion
From the turnout, flow of events and the responses of the participants, the Media Roundtable was a huge success. It was also given due publicity as participants reported the Roundtable at their various Stations (TV and Radio) and Papers. Reports show that not less than four TV Stations carried the story.

Advocacy Visit
The Advocacy visit was scheduled to come up before the Media Roundtable but was postponed because of the disagreement between the Upper and Lower Houses of the National Assembly.

 Arrangements are already in place with civil society liaison office at Abuja to facilitate the visit scheduled for next month (March).

 Current Work
GADA has continued to pursue gender issues, women’s rights and empowerment through engagement with policy makers, and fostering alliances with government and non government change agents. Our current projects are in the areas of gender and Constitutional Reform, women’s political participation, gender and macroeconomics, and international trade. We are working in collaboration with the Global Fund for Women on the production of our newsletter, Women in Public Life.

Currently our work includes but is not limited to:

GADA ADMINISTRATION
GADA, Lagos office is still headed by Ada Agina-Ude who is now the Executive Director. She took over from co founder Nkoyo Toyo who we are happy to announce, has been appointed an Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.  The HBF-GADA project on constitutional reform will be handled by Okenwa Chidinma with effect from 1st March, 2009. GADA recently engaged a new Accountant, Mr. Emmanuel Onwukwe Offor to replace our former Accountant, Eunice Banigo. The Accountant handles all accounts related to GADA projects including the HBF project in Lagos.