Ebere Ifendu is a Lawyer, Chartered Mediator and Conciliator and Gender Advocate. She is the Director at Centre for Gender Education and Rights, Gregory University, Uturu Abia State. She served as a member of the Presidential Constitution and Electoral Reform Committee. She was the National publicity secretary of labour party, Nigeria.
She is the first woman to be elected to the position in Nigeria. She was the National Women Leader of the Labour Party before she took the bold step to contest for the post of Publicity Secretary, a position reserved for men.
She is presently, the President, Women in Politics Forum, WIPF. A multi-party Organisation of Women in politics who are members of Parliament, Women Executive officeholders, Women in civil Society and other Organizations that engage and develop strategies to achieve the mission of WIPF.
She is a member of the African Women Leadership Network AWLN, a Special Assistant to the Senate Minority Leader on Diaspora, Gender and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Her dream for Nigerian and indeed African Women in general is to see that they are appreciated and given their rightful place as strong, intelligent and hard-working women, who have been key players in nation-building.
She is a passionate advocate for gender equality and human rights. Her motivation is knowing that her little contribution towards Women Empowerment is yielding result and being able to support the less privileged in the society. The lawyer and chartered mediator and conciliator among other things is also a dedicated and loving mother of two sons.
Ebere Ifendu was born in Abiriba, Ohafia LGA of Abia State to Agwu and Mercy Ifendu. She attended Library Avenue Primary School Umuahia Abia State, Holy Rosary Girls’ Secondary school Umuahia, Abia State, Federal School of Arts and Science Ondo, Ondo State before proceeding to M D University, Rohtak, India for her Bachelor Degree. She attended University of Lagos, Akoka for her LL. B and later to the Nigeria Law School. Bwari, Abuja for her BL.
Ebere is a member of several professional bodies and NGO’s, namely: Institute of Chartered Mediators and Conciliators, ICMC; Institute of Corporate Administration, International Bar Association, IBA; African Bar Association AFBA, International Federation of Women Lawyers, FIDA; Global Association of Female Lawyers, GAFA; and Nigeria Bar Association, NBA.
She is a member of UN women Consultative Group and member Nigeria 100 Women Lobby group. She is the principal partner of E A IFENDU & Co. Executive Director, Imperial Finance and Securities Ltd, Lagos and Director, Wall Worth Nigeria Limited.
To further her desire to be a good leader, she embarked on the following courses to enhance her capacity: Women’s Academy for Political Party Leadership in Berlin Germany, Legislative Advocacy, Project Management, Networking and Strategic Alliance and Proposal and Report writing. She is an IPAS trained program officer on reproductive health and rights of women.
Ebere has been at the fore of encouraging female participation in politics. She has often expressed her dissatisfaction at the poor representation of women and has consistently called for it to be addressed, noting that other nations of the world have embraced the idea and those who have lagged behind are fast-changing, which she sees as very encouraging.
“The overall level of representation of women in politics in Nigeria is not encouraging, as the number of women elected into the National and state assemblies have experienced a downward trend. Nigeria is below the table in this regards”.
According to her, “67 out of 2,970 women that contested elections into various positions were elected, which amount to 4.17% of elected officials. This is a decline from the 2015 general election in which elected women constituted 5.6%.”
Ebere is a recipient of many Awards for her work in supporting women’s participation in politics and her hobbies include travelling, reading and watching documentary films.
Source: businessday
