CHOGM: What Jega Told Commonwealth Leaders

Professor Attahiru Jega, at the Commonwealth Women Forum in Westminster on Tuesday, called for the ranking of countries based on electoral violence committed against women.

Jega, who was the Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), proposed the creation of the Violence Against Women In Election (VAWIE), saying the index will help to rank countries in accordance with their electoral violence against women.

“From the presentations, we have listened to about what other organisations are doing globally, it means that whatever framework the Commonwealth will be developing… first of all, you can’t reinvent the wheel, so you have to learn from the experiences of others,” Jega said.

“There is also scope for partnership. How can international organisations collaborate and work together in order to expand some of the specific things that are being done or in order to explore new areas together?

“I also think that there may be the need to establish index. We know, for example, there is Mo Ibrahim Index for governance in Africa, where every year you rank countries in accordance to whether they are high achievers or low achievers.

“We know that there is electoral integrity index about the general integrity of elections. So I think there is scope for establishing an index with regards to the ratings of countries in the commonwealth or globally with regards to violence against women in elections. I think it will be excellent.

“I think the point needs to be made; even though our focus is on violence against women in elections, we need to recognise that generalised violence in elections actually constrains women’s participation in politics,” he said.

Meanwhile, Bill Gates, at a joint session of the Commonwealth Head of Government Meeting (CHOGM), named Nigeria amongst the most difficult countries in the world to eradicate polio from.