Bernadette Lahai, the newly elected parliamentary leader of the opposition Sierra Leone People’s Party and the only woman to ever hold the post has urged the government to emulate Rwanda which is leading the continent in political equality with 56% of women in parliament.
“Current women’s representation in parliament reduced drastically instead of improving. If this decrease continues, it will not only impede gender equality but will also affect the development of the country,” she noted.
She noted that in 2002, the 124-seat parliament had 19 women lawmakers. This dropped to 17 in 2007 and at the moment, there are only 15.
As President Ernest Koroma, who was re-elected for a second term, puts together his new cabinet, she urged him to increase the number of women.
His last cabinet included only two women in the health and tourism portfolios.
“The president would be fed up seeing 24 male faces. He should at least see 12 females and 12 males,” she said.
Leave a Reply