Legislative intervention to increase women political participation in Nigeria

Nigeria is not a gender equal society and this inequality is most glaring in the area of political participation. In March this year, the male-dominated National Assembly rejected five Gender Bills meant to address inequality between men and women. This rejection buttresses lack of empathy and will by the Nigerian male political elites to address equality. They fail to understand that such action undermines government’s efforts at economic growth, human development, peace and security, which are the greatest need of the Nigerian society today.


This action by the National Assembly attracted condemnation. Women groups protested against it. Recently, the African Press Club placed the issue back on the front burner by hosting a roundtable titled “Advancing Women Participation in Governance and Decision-making in Nigeria.”


Such events are crucial especially in this election season. Women make up half of the country’s population but world index reveals that their political participation remains abysmally low at 6.7 percent in elective and appointive positions lagging far below the global average of 22.5 per cent, Africa regional average of 23.4 percent and West African sub regional average of 15 percent.


Nigeria currently ranks 181 of 193 countries on the Gender Equality Index, for countries with low women representation in governance. There is 3.6% female representation in parliament, 9.8% of local government seats, 30.3% of managerial positions, 27.3% in the financial inclusion index.


Nigerian women must be accorded the right to equal representation in the political affairs of the nation. Their peculiar experiences are crucial to resolve diverse challenges peculiar to them. We must address myriad barriers that hinder women from achieving gender equality and progress in politics/governance. Structural barriers must be dismantled to enhance the status of women educationally, professionally, economically and socially. Negative cultural practices that promote stereotyping, patriarchy, gender profiling and gender-based violence have no place in the 21st Century.

It is pertinent to note that Nigeria’s democracy will continue to falter until strategic actions are taken to address the glaring issues of gender inequalities. Increasing women participation in politics is a crucial step towards gender parity and the advancement of women and should be considered a priority in terms of national decision-making.

Increasing political participation should necessarily be facilitated through affirmative action measures that are codified in legislation to give them force of law and impetus to judicial pronouncements. This is the global practice.

Nigeria is a signatory to many Regional and International Human Rights Instruments that advocate for women human, social, economic and political rights. These instruments recognise the need to promote and protect the rights of women and require states to take steps towards promoting gender equality through affirmative action programmes.

Article 4 of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination (CEDAW) provides that the adoption of ‘temporary special measures aimed at accelerating de facto equality between men and women’ is crucial and should not be considered as discriminatory. Article 2(2) of the International Covenant on Political and Civil Rights (ICCPR) requires state to take affirmative actions to towards redressing de facto inequalities. Article 9 of the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa particularly requires states to take ‘specific positive action’ to increase women political participation including both formal and substantive measures of redress.

The most effective way of addressing this therefore, is via laws and policies that promote substantive equality. Such steps take into account decades of gender imbalance and structures that perpetuate historical, economic and social inequalities and requires the formulation of concrete steps to restructure and redistribute resources in order to create equitable opportunities for the marginalised.

Affirmative actions are progressive steps to close this inequality gap, and quota systems are not in any way discriminatory. Women cannot compete equitably with men socially, politically and economically in Nigeria after decades of subjugation without substantive affirmative actions. Affirmative actions would usually adopt holistic approaches that terminate barriers that prevent women from their fair share of the political seats and quota system minimizes the stress often experienced by women.

Rhetoric must proceed to actions: affirmative actions should be codified and given legislative impetus. The National Assembly should as a matter of National urgency and necessity reconsider the rejected bills and pass them into law. Most essential are the Bill to create additional seats for women to increase women’s representation in the National Assembly; the Bill to ensure affirmative action of at least 35 per cent in political party administration and appointive positions across federal and state levels; and the Bill to provide a minimum of 20 per cent of ministerial or commissioner nominees for women.

Mandatory quota system works, particularly when it is codified in law. Where the quota is voluntary political parties are merely encouraged to reserve a certain percentage of seats for women through government policies/incentives or party policies. But since this type of quota system is neither binding nor enforceable, it is not subject to sanctions. This will not yield significant increases in women representation.

The Global Quota Project reports revealed that upon the adoption of mandatory quota affirmative action in Rwanda in 2003, the representation of women rose to 45.7% of the parliamentary seats. This number has been on steady rise and currently above 55%. In Tanzania the government adopted a quota for women representation following a constitutional amendment in 2000. The amendment reserved 25% of parliamentary seats for women. Women representation rose to 36% of the seats in the Tanzanian Parliament from the 6.9% prior to 2000 Constitutional amendment, which provided for mandatory quota for women.

In Uganda the amended 1995 Constitution provides for 30% mandatory representation for women. The adoption of this quota system resulted in tremendous improvement for women participation. Women currently occupy about 35.0% of the parliamentary seats, an enormous improvement over the mere 3% representation in 1986. In Senegal women currently occupy over 40% of parliamentary seats as a result of mandatory quota. These examples prove that countries which have adopted quota systems have achieved significant levels of women representation in politics more than countries that have not such as Nigeria and Ghana.

The Nigerian government must adopt coordinated actions, including law reforms and strategic enforceable affirmative action measures. The Campaign Theme for the 2022 International Women Day Celebration is ”Breaking the Bias” recognising that advancement of women must include economic inclusion and gender justice in governance. It is therefore important that Nigeria takes concrete legislative steps to address the issues of gender inequality holistically. The Gender Bills are a crucial way forward. But beyond that, the plight of the girl child in Nigeria must be addressed and her welfare improved. Empowering the girl child with solid foundation will boost her confidence towards realising her dreams and aspirations, and impacting society positively.

Oraka-Oifoghe writes from Port Harcourt, Rivers state