Apolitical women group needed to push empowerment drive – Ursula

Communication Minister Ursula Owusu-Ekuful has said lack of apolitical women movement to push the agenda of women is to blame for the woefully low number of women in frontline politics.

“There is no women’s movement in Ghana. Those sitting there speaking big English, they have no idea what they are talking about. We wasted our time, fought in the trenches and we are where we are,” Mrs Owusu-Ekuful said on Thursday on Accra-based Oman FM.

“But for me we should be last generation of female frontline politicians to go through such struggles. We should start and speak a different language,” she added.

Mrs Owusu-Ekuful’s comments come on the back of massive criticism of President Akufo-Addo’s controversial comments about Ghanaian women in Canada.

The President in his contribution at the Women Deliver Conference in Canada, said he is yet to see dynamism in Ghanaian women.

What did Akufo-Addo say?

President Akufo-Addo said during the conference in spite of women dominating the country’s population not much political action had been witnessed in their push for greater inclusion in Ghana’s political administration.

“We are not seeing enough dynamism and activism on the part of those who are seeking. I am talking about dynamism where it matters…electing people to Parliament, controlling political parties because they are the instruments by which our societies make decisions.

“We are talking about decisions, not wishes and hopes, we are talking about decisions that are going to make the difference,” President Akufo-Addo added.

The president’s submission did not go down well with gender activists at the Women Deliver Conference in Canada.

One of the female panellists, Dr Alaa Murabit, the UN’s High Commissioner on Health Employment and Economic Growth, appeared disheveled by the president’s position and could be seen interrupting the president spontaneously.

The way forward

Addressing the backlash from the conference, Mrs Owusu-Ekuful said women need to be united under one big umbrella irrespective of their political affiliation to push for greater inclusion in Ghana’s political administration.

“We should all identify one issue and say this time, it doesn’t matter what our political background is.

We should all come together and identify the issue that from primaries to the Election Day all parties should make arrangements that will help get more women in parliament,” she stated.