A former Chairperson of the Convention People’s Party (CPP), Samia Nkrumah, has identified a lack of foresight, as far as national development is concerned, as one of the reasons militating against women’s participation in politics in the country.
“It could be attributed to a lack of vision in the way we approach our development and motivation of women,” she told Class FM’s Zainab Ayesha, on the ‘Women Manifesto’ on Wednesday.
The former Member of Parliament (MP) for Jomoro Constituency in the Western Region said: “if you have a vision for development, which is people-centred, you are bound to factor in women issues, which will lead to having more women at the decision making level and this will make a difference”.
Ms Nkrumah further elaborated that women are likely to make more impact on society “because women serve the community and go beyond their own individual ambitions, so, their mission is focused on both individual and collective” good.
She condemned the extravagant use of money by politicians in the country and pointed out that “few women are seeking leadership positions due to many reasons like monetisation of politics and indicated that politics is becoming increasingly expensive”.
According to her, the country “needs more women if we genuinely want to see change in the way we manage our affairs. I’m pretty sure that if we had more women, we would have done things differently”.
She said the role of women is important at all levels and encouraged more women to take up politics and leadership positions “not only in parliament but at all levels from the local assembly”.