The commemoration of this year’s International Women’s Day on the Floor of Ghana’s Parliament, has taken on an interesting twist where the women in the House have pitched high the boundaries against their male counterparts.
While lamenting their marginalization at the highest decision-making levels in the country as compared with other African countries, the women representative in the Legislative arm of Government have made strong points that a woman is equally up to the task of handling the economy of the country as the Finance Minister.
“Mr. Speaker, I dare to say that when women are in positions; I dare to say that they do better than men at times. Mr. Speaker, I also dare to say that if the Finance Minister were a woman, we would not find ourselves in this situation that we find ourselves. I dare to say that, Mr. Speaker,”
Hellen Adjoa Ntoso said this in her Contribution to a statement made on the Floor of the House by the Chairperson of the Women Caucus and Member of Parliament for the Ayawaso West Wuogon constituency, Lydia Seyram Alhassan.
This seemed to be a direct referral to the difficulties the Ghana economy in going through under the current Finance Minister, Ken Ofori Atta.
According to her, a woman can perform better than their male counterparts in many of the sensitive positions in the leadership of the nation if they are given the opportunity. She is therefore advocating for the next NDC government to raise high the bar in the appointment of women.
“So, in short what I am saying is that women we can perform; we can do better at times; when we are put in certain positions. So, in the next NDC Government, I am advocating that the Defense Minister should be a woman; the Minister for Education should be a woman; the Minister Interior should be a woman; the Finance Minister should be a woman so that Ghana would move forward in the right direction,” she observed.
The three-term member of Parliament for Krachi West, emphasized the need for Ghana to do something about the 30 percent women representation in leadership recommended by the United Nations since Ghana’s 14 percent representation is not encouraging at all.
She mentioned that women representation in Africa as follows: Rwanda 61.3%; Burundi 38.2%; Senegal 43%; Cameroon 33.9%; Ethiopia 38.8%; Namibia 44.2%; Tanzania 36.7%; Uganda 34.9%; Zimbabwe 31.9%; South Africa 45.8%.
Source: Clement Akoloh||parliamentnews360.com
