Women should participate more in politics say Dogara on Women’s Day.

Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr Yakubu Dogara has called for more women participation in politics to enable them to contribute meaningfully to the development of the country.

Dogara made the call on Wednesday in Abuja to mark the 2017 International Women’s Day.

The speaker also pledged to be bold for change, adding that it was in line with the theme for 2017 celebration.

He stressed the importance of women inclusion in all fields of endeavour in the country, saying that anything short of that was unhealthy for nation building.

According to him, a status quo that relegates women to the background is unhealthy for national development.

“Women make up approximately half of the Nigerian population, and it is extremely important that an environment that brings out the best in them and enables them to reach their full potential is provided.

“We can’t have half of our people unable to attain their goals or contribute meaningfully to the economy and expect development.

“The House of Representatives have a history of placing women in strategic positions culminating in the election of the first female Speaker of the House of Representatives in Nigeria.

“We have continued this tradition of Gender parity in the 8th House by placing our female colleagues in strategic positions of leadership in the House.’’

The speaker stressed the need to invest in girl-child education to bridge the gap in the school enrolment statistics.

According to him, Nigeria as a country must invest heavily on the girl-child education as a means of bridging the gap in school enrolment statistics between boys and girls and disparity in literacy levels.

“No child should be left behind in our society. We must resolve to do away with all laws and practices that encourage violence against women in our society.

“Gender should not restrict the dreams and aspirations of millions of our daughters, so we all must be bold for change and support the women around us to achieve their goals and maximise their potentials and talents.

“Recent studies show that Nigerian women are some of the best entrepreneurs in the world.

“As a nation, we must enact and implement laws and policies to further nurture this entrepreneurial spirit and empower our women,’’ he said.

Dogara, therefore, urged his colleagues to be bold for change to support, respect, desist from and speak against all actions that endangered women.

The theme of this year’s celebration is “Be Bold for Change’’.

It is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women International Women’s Day (IWD), which has been observed since the early 1900’s.

The day also marks a call to action for accelerating gender parity.