Women are still seeking a new lease of life for public office as statistics shows a slight improvement. ENE OSANG writes.
Since Nigeria returned to democratic governance in 1999 after years of military rule, no woman has been elected as president, vice president or governor in any of the country’s 36 states.
Sadly, today’s women constitute about 49.4% of the nearly 200 million-strong population with records of women occupying only the position of deputy governor. The only female governor the country has ever had was not elected. Currently, there are only four female deputy governors, eight in the 109 Senate and 12 of the 360 members in the House of Representatives. Due to stereotype, female politicians are often reminded of their cultural and religious obligations which require they cede governance to men while they concentrate on the home front.The chief executive officer AUDA-NEPAD, Ms Gloria Akobundu, said the dialogue was put together to look at gender activities positively from a constructive manner adding that men and government are not the problem.
Akobondu blamed women partly for their situation, stressing that more action needs to be taken than continuous lamentations.”I say so because it is time to move forward and stop apportioning blames. The men are not the problem; women should learn to appreciate their fellow women and be more serious in pursuing their goals.”Women in politics should spearhead the collaboration among various women groups to galvanise instead of going negatively; they should give more support to gender and I think with that, women can move forward not just in politics but in development, agriculture empowerment. However, women can be strong and look after their family that is what is more important to us,” she said.
Women knocked out of politics?Delivering the keynote address, Senator Binta Masi Garba expressed concern on the retrogression in the number of women representatives, lamenting that the stereotypical gender role on women has provided the basis for their marginalisation in politics while the men are often perceived to be the experts in politics. “I will not say women are locked up and being denied in their participation but we know what most women are going through when it comes to political participation it’s becoming unbearable, the financial implications is another thing, but women are the ones that bring in the elected the National Assembly members, state governors and even the president as most of the population are women.”I came in through the Parliament when I was barely 32 in 1999. It is for us to stand as a woman and say we need to have a twinning system.”If a man is coming out as governor a female must be out as a deputy; if the president is coming in as a man, then the vice must be a woman; if our voices be harnessed into one cogent voice, definitely it would be a voice that nobody can stop,” she said.”I think all this crisis we are having now will stop when women are in positions because we are the mothers to these children that are called Boko Haram or drug addict.The national president, Women In Politics Forum (WIPF) Ebere Ifendu, maintained that women have kept the struggle on against all odds.”We have done so much; we have come up with several strategies and as much as we come up with something new, it’s like the men are also going back to the drawing board to counter our effort; so we discovered that the only thing that will give us our affirmation is through legislation.”Until there is a legislation that there is 35% or that there is gender equality in the true sense of it because equality means 50/50. We are half of the population if not slightly more so we need a strong legislation that would put that to effect,” she said.
History of struggle for women participation
From 1999, there was hope for a new dawn in the struggle for more participation of women in politics. There have been five administrations between 1999 and 2015 from President Olusegun Obasanjo who served from 1999-2007 until the present. Despite all efforts put in place, Nigeria is yet to meet the 30% and 35% affirmation as contained in the Beijing declaration.
Effort to enhance female participation in politics.Masi noted that several efforts have been made to address the low representation of women in elective and appointive positions in Nigeria. Among such efforts, she said include the establishment of Women Political empowerment Office, National Centre for Women Development, Women in Politics Forum (WIPF), Nigeria Women Trust Funds, Women Lobby Groupincluding INEC gender policy, the national multi stakeholder dialogue organised by women-led groups and partners.
What women should do
Binta lauded the recent increase in women’s political participation, noting that for the first time in Nigeria’s history, six women ran for the presidency compared to the last elections in 2015 when Professor Remi Sonaiya was the only one female presidential candidate.”Over 230 women ran to become senators in 2019, more than 500 female candidates vied for the House of Representatives, 74 took a shot at the governorship position and nearly 2,000 sought seats at the state assemblies, an indication that things are changing gradually. Out of more than 84 million registered voters, about 47.14 percent are female,” she said.She therefore called for constitutional review that would visibly mention gender inclusion in the federal character clause, adding that there should be the visibility of gender sensitive interventions in the nation’s electoral acts.
“While we continue to hold seminars, workshops and public events, if we cannot get the affirmative action principles in the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, these efforts may fail as the previous intervention with good intention, let me say that good intention is not good enough, but good effort is good enough. Law is the good effort we must all pursue,” she stressed.
FG’s positionThe minister of women affairs and social development, Dame Paulin Tallen, who was represented by her special assistant on technical matters, Princess Jumai Idonije, stressed the importance of the enrollment of more girls into school, saying this would avert future women the agony of continuous struggle in the polity.
“The Ministry of Women Affairs is basically an advocacy ministry and a national machinery for gender mainstreaming to drive the process of ensuring that more women are enlightened and educated about what they need to do to make them get to the positon of leadership.
“The honorable minister is doing a lot of community mobilisation to ensure that women also get on. One of the basic issues that she is focusing on is the girl child education because education is the fulcrum for solving a lot of issues in our society,” Princess Idonnije said.
“So a woman who is educated is already empowered because you educate a girl child, you already empower a whole nation; so education is one of the basic strategies the minister is using to drive the process to ensure that more women get into position of leadership,” she added.
