Put women in key positions to reduce corruption – Minister

Appointing women to positions of trust can help to reduce corruption in the country, Alhaji Mohammed-Muniru Limuna, Northern Regional Minister has said.

He said women by their nature, detested acts of corruption, therefore when put in positions of trust, would help fight corruption in the country.

Alhaji Limuna said this when he received a position paper developed from the maiden Northern Regional Assembly Women’s Conference at his office in Tamale on Thursday.

The position paper was developed by participants of the maiden Northern Regional Assembly Women’s Conference organized by NORSAAC, a non-governmental organization, with sponsorship from IBIS in Ghana, in Tamale a fortnight ago, to serve as a networking platform for the elected and appointed assembly women in the Region.

Alhaji Limuna said women did not have the inordinate taste to amass wealth at all cost, and unlike their male counterparts, would also not waste money on frivolities such as buying expensive gifts for their concubines therefore sparing the public purse.

He, therefore, advocated the need to appoint more women to decision making levels in society asking women to be willing to accept such appointments since the government was doing all it could to increase women’s representation at decision making levels.

He was not happy that some districts in the Region failed to have more than one woman as assembly member and promised to audit the appointment to include more women.

Madam Adu Zina, Presiding Member of Nanumba North District Assembly, who was led by officials of NORSAAC, IBIS in Ghana, and some assembly women, presented the position paper to the Minister, calling for measures to address the low representation of women in key decision making levels in the country.

The position paper recommended that “The Local Government Ministry through the Regional Minister should sanction districts that have failed to appoint women assembly members like Mamprugu/Moaduri or have only one woman assembly member, and award districts that have ensured the appointment of a reasonable number of women”.

It also recommended that “Government must fast track measures to ensure that the Affirmative Action Bill is passed into law in the shortest possible time to aid legislative backing for 40 per cent government appointees to districts as women”.