Since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, there’s been a lot of attention on the roles women play across the globe and specifically in Nigeria ; ENE OSANG writes
The leaders of countries such as Germany, New Zealand, and Taiwan among others have been commended for the great roles they have played as women leaders in containing the Covid-19 Pandemic.
This is unlike countries like Nigeria where women have not been deliberately included in the efforts to contain the virus but women have continued to organise, mobilise and have contributed immensely towards providing support at different levels to alleviate the challenges.
However, there is less visibility on the challenges women have faced as well as the efforts women are making to respond to the situation and their contributions towards recovery from the pandemic.
It was against this background that the Nigerian Women Trust Fund (NWTF) recently organised a webinar titled “Covid-19 Response and Recovery: The Role of Women Politicians” to explore the contributions of women the gaps and the need to mainstream gender into the recovery process.
Moderating the webinar, the chief executive officer (CEO) of the trust fund, Mufuliat Fijabi, said the webinar was organised to provide a space for women political leaders in Nigeria to highlight their experiences and roles in the crisis as well as provide key strategies for women’s inclusion in the recovery process.
Issues
It was stated that women are playing significant roles in the response and recovery to Covid-19. A lot of women politicians have devoted more time to care giving, support to frontline health workers who are women, initiated and provided support in the form of palliatives.
The webinar noted that there is an exacerbated increase in poverty, gender-based violence, burden on women and challenges with access to health care especially for pregnant women and nursing mothers, adding that many women now work longer hours, while juggling domestic responsibilities such as childcare.
One of the speakers, a former House of Representatives member, Janet Adeyemi, noted that the Covid-19 pandemic actually exposed the resilience of women as most men who go out on a daily basis can no longer and so are not paid.
“Women are the ones selling akara and pepper by the roadside to feed the family even in my estate they started cooking from home and people were ordering so they are creative and innovative because they won’t watch the family go hungry and that is why they device different means and strategy to keep family going,” she said.
She noted further the absence of statistics on the impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic generally and in particular from a gender perspective to enable adequate assessment of the impact.
“If you look at the educational sector children want to go back to school but there is no plans for that, but had women been well involved in the Presidential committee on Covid-19 they would have been able to think through the process and know how to go about it. Men keep planning for women and that has been the issue.”
President of Women in Politics Forum Ebere Ifendu said women politicians are on alert on the recovery process and acknowledge the fact the full recovery from the economic impact of Covd-19 should be all involving and include women from all professional backgrounds and who have contributed significantly to the response and recovery process.
She acknowledged that there are gender equality gaps in the response and recovery to Covid-19, saying this is only a reflection of the existing absence of women in leadership and decision-making positions.
“We also have challenges in the documentation of efforts and contributions of women amid the pandemic. Women are not recognised and accommodated in the structure of covid 19. For me, I think there is a gap outrightly and this is unfortunate because when the committee was up the composition didn’t involve women in a country where there population is over 50%,” Adeyemi said.
WIPF
In another development, Ifendu further expressed deep concerns over the inadequate representation of women in leadership positions in the country, citing the most recently constituted Care Taker Committee and the Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee of the All Progressives Congress (APC), as an example.
Ifendu stated the grievances of the organisation in letters which was presented to the Minister of Women Affairs, Dame Pauline Tallen, at the Ministry’s headquarters in Abuja for onward delivery to President Mohammadu Buhari and the Chairman, Care Taker Committee of the APC, Governor Mai Bala Buni.
She said the organisation had demanded the inclusion of more women in the caretaker committee of the APC and 35 per cent of women representation in the sub committees of the Convention Planning Committee of the party.
“We, however, wish to take this opportunity to express our deep concerns over the abysmal composition of the All Progressives Congress Extraordinary Planning Committee Membership which had just one woman. We know that the APC have great respect for equal participation, this has not been demonstrated in this composition.”
She disclosed that the organisation also recommended to President Muhammadu Buhari to support a proposal for an affirmation action clause in the constitution of the APC to include 30 per cent of women as members in the National working Committee and other party offices.
“The composition of officers of the party from ward to National level only have the position of Women Leader reserved for women in a working Committee of 21 members. This is a huge injustice to women and a clear lack of internal party democracy.”
According to her, the organisation had identified the method of Indirect Primaries in the selection of candidates as a major setback for women and demanded the singular adoption of Direct primaries to ensure a level playing ground for women.
“We are demanding that the mode of candidate selection be only direct primary as indirect primaries have proven to affect women disproportionately. The structure of indirect primaries system requires delegates who are mostly men and often beholding to political God fathers.”
The President of Women in politics expressed confidence in President Buhari’s firm belief in gender representation that would make Nigeria a gender conscious nation and the APC a leading gender focus party for other political parties to emulate.
Other recommendations
Speakers at the webinar unanimously recommended that recovery process must be gender-responsive and that should impact on all areas of the economy and the governance process.
The webinar stressed the need for government at all levels to accept the fact that the gender gap is a necessity that must be addressed especially because it has remained a lingering challenge since Independence and Nigeria at 60 should be better off in terms of gender equality.
It stated further that the Economic recovery process to Covid-19 needs gender responsive policies that will address the challenges from a gender perspective.
“It is imperative to ensure that women are well represented in the scheme of things because their absence affects adequate and appropriate planning. Because they are omitted lots of things in the course of putting palliatives in place didn’t go well.
“I believe that government should always ensure women are involved in planning because the gap was obvious. The presidential committee should have involved women from diverse background.”
Continuing, the webinar said, “Women working in the informal employment sector in Nigeria must be included in the recovery process as women constitute most of the workforce in this sector. There is a need to ensure that compensatory social support packages are delivered to them.
“The needs of frontline female health workers, including doctors, nurses, midwives, as well as medical facilities support staff must be integrated into every aspect of the response and recovery effort.
“Women should sufficiently engage in consistent advocacy either through the traditional media or the social media for visibility on key areas around the response and recovery from Covid-19 and the contributions of women. Efforts should be intensified on data gathering to buttress facts. Data can be used to validate claims and advocacy efforts.
“A multi-faceted approach is needed to change the narrative of women in Nigeria. While it is critical to get in more women into politics, there is also a need for legal reform, advocacy, lobbying, and getting more women into leadership structures of the private sector.
“As the Covid-19 recovery process progresses, there is a need for adequate documentation to ensure that women are sufficiently covered as key players in the recovery process,’ it noted.
“I am a Christian and I’m not laying a curse, but with all that is going on there would be several other pandemics just as it has been said that the virus will take a long time before it can be eradicated.
“The numbers keep increasing; it doesn’t respect one’s status, gender and that is why it is important to involve the different diversities in the response and structure because this is inimical to planning.”
