Buhari Won't Give Women Special Preference – Aide

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The Presidency has insisted that the President Muhammadu Buhari administration will not give special preference to women.

Senior Special Assistant on National Assembly Matters (Senate) to the president, Ita Enang, made this known while speaking to participants at the interface with media executives organised by the National Institute for Legislative Studies (NILS) at the National Assembly.

Enang, who said it would be discriminatory to give women special preference, noted that women have occupied key positions in the last three administrations.

He said: "On the issue of opening up the political space for women, I want to say that we respect women. But I have my personal views which is legal and constitutional.

"One, my daughters and sons are equal. God gave them to me equally and they are expected to be treated by me equally. To give extra advantage to women will be unconstitutional because it will be discriminatory against men.

"In Akwa Ibom state, in the last administration, we had a situation where men were even struggling for 35 percent. Only the governor was a man, the deputy governor was a woman, the Chief Judge, a woman.

The Deputy Speaker, a woman, the Head of Service was a woman and even the Vice-Chancellor of the university. So, men were struggling for 35 percent in Akwa Ibom. We were begging them to appoint more men into government.

"If you go to the judiciary today, especially in the Ministry of Justice and most ministries, men were struggling to get 35 percent because most of the people holding sensitive positions in key ministries are women.”