Former President Olusegun Obasanjo
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has advised women to mobilise girls and the youth to register as voters and obtain voter card to enable them vote in 2019 elections.
He stated that participating in the electoral process was the only way women would not be consigned to “the other room” or the kitchen.
Obasanjo, who stated this in a keynote address on Friday in Ibadan, said he was the first president to appoint nine women into government.
“No nation will become great when half of her population ends up only in the kitchen and the other room or get disproportionately discriminated against in the higher echelon of corporate management and in governance.
“The women represent a tool for positive change, depending on how they are treated and the levels of opportunities given to them to actualise their potential.
“The progress and development of any nation, I must say, is equal to the quality of women in that society,” he said.
He, however, blamed women for self-exclusion in the governance structure and processes.
Obasanjo charged women to take a quick look at history and understand how they had marginalized themselves, especially as the 2019 elections gathered steam.