Category: Round Table

“When legislative and executive powers are united in the same person, or in the same body of magistrates, there can be no liberty; because apprehensions may arise, lest the same monarch or senate enact tyrannical laws, to execute them in tyrannical manner”.
-Baron De Montesquieu

Ahead of the May 29th inauguration of President-elect Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu and state governors-elect, another fierce form of post-election campaign is going on in the National and state  houses of assembly newly elected and returning members. The battle for the leadership of the 10th National Assembly has been as fierce as it has been interesting coming with all the Nigerian political fireworks that include but not limited to regional and religious sentiments.

The 2023 elections has come and gone but left in its trail a very intriguing cocktail of membership of the legislature. Unlike in the past especially in the last eight years where the National Assembly was  between two political parties, the All Progressives Congress  (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the 10th Assembly  would see an additional major political player, the Labour Party (LP).

The 109 senators is made up of 59 APC senators-elect, the PDP has 36 senators-elect up from its 33 in the out-going 9th assembly. The Labour Party secured 8 senatorial seats, the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and the New Nigerian Peoples Party (NNPP) each has 2 seats while the Young Progressives Party (YPP) and All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) each has one senatorial seat.

For the House of Representatives, it’s an interesting development as opposition parties now have a majority with 182 members-elect that enhances their chance of electing the leadership and which obviously they seem poised to take. The APC seems to have won 175 seats, the PDP 118 seats, LP 35 seats, NNPP 19 seats, APGA has 5 seats, SDP and ADC each won two seats while YPP as one while three seats seem to be pending.

So as the preparation for the inauguration of the 10th National Assembly in June hot up, political horse-trading seems to be at its peak. The ruling APC is working very hard to clinch the leadership of the two chambers but the opposition parties seem to be working hard to make their presence felt too. It has been an interesting political chessboard game so far.

At the apex of the political chess board is of course is the regional and religious voices. The President-elect is from the South-West geo-political zone, his Vice-President-elect is from the North East. Both are Muslims. The permutations for the leadership of the Senate is that for balancing and equity, a zone with no representation at the  two most vital elective positions, the Senate presidency and House Speaker positions ought to go to other zones in the national political setting. However, the South-East and South-South regions are equally insisting that their regions ought to be considered. They claim that the out-going President Buhari is from the North-West and as such other zones can have some prime positions.

On the other hand, while most political watchers would assume that the position of the North is already being occupied by Senator Kashim Shettima the Vice-President elect, the North Central feels that they too can have a slice of the cake. However, given the house rules of the senate, being a ranking member is one of the prerequisites for leadership. The South-East has former governor Orji Uzor Kalu and Senator Osita Izunaso as ranking members returning to the 10th senate. Governor David Umahi of Ebonyi state seems equally ready to try his luck at clinching the leadership position. He feels that having been a former member of the Anambra State University of Technology students Senate and as chairman of the South-East governor’s forum, he is qualified to lead his colleagues in the senate.

From the South-South zone, Senator Goodswill Akpabio and his supporters equally believe he fits the bill to be elected Senate President.  In politics, nothing is cast in iron. Interest is the driving force, whether for self, group or nation. How the leadership struggle plays out would be interesting to watch given the very intriguing incidents that led to the Bukola Saraki-led 8th assembly that introduced high-wire drama to his emergence or that of governor Tambuwal as the Speaker of the House of Representatives and Emeka ihedioha as Deputy Speaker in 2011.

However while the struggle goes on, the Roundtable Conversation feels that more often than not, elected legislators either ranking or new do not appreciate the full import of legislative duties. Being representatives of their constituencies, their role in any democracy cannot be over-emphasized. Their three core roles are; law-making, Oversight functions and  lobbyists for their constituencies. In America that Nigeria seems to have borrowed their democratic style, the Senate and the Congress are serious game changers after every election.

The legislature is very important in every democracy not for the individuals elected but for the profound role thrust on members by the constitution. In America for instance, the mid-term elections often define a lot of political roadmaps and is often a subtle verdict on the incumbent administration and the personalities of the candidates vying for seats. There is more accountability because the voters hold each candidate elected to their promises individually and for their allegiance to the very definite party political ideologies.  The two major political parties, the Democratic and Republican Parties have well-defined ideological positions on issues of the economy, immigration and other social issues.

Legislators are held to account because a lot of the success or failure of democracy  depends on how well they play their roles in upholding the democratic tenets for the welfare of their constituencies that add up to the whole national development.  Constituents in developed democracies do not spare legislators when they get indolent or shirk responsibilities. The people take a direct hit and revolt at the polls or even vote for a recall midway into a candidate’s tenure. Legislators are equally recognized for how steadfast they are in upholding their duties in the interest of the people whether on a partisan or bi-partisan basis.

The legislators in Nigeria on the contrary still need a lot of learning to do about their position in a democracy. Is it a question of self, party or national interest? Is the Nigerian legislature truly independent or are they an appendage of the executive at all levels? Where does the duties to the people clash with individual or party interests?

The election of legislative leadership must be taken very seriously. It must be about the choice of the legislators because the leadership are of more firsts amongst equals and not necessarily an election of superior humans in the circumstance. Each arm of the National Assembly must assemble and evaluate the qualities of all those vying for leadership positions either in the House of Representatives or the Senate.  Competence must be key criteria and the legislators must have leadership qualities like integrity, wisdom and social qualities that define good leaders.

As the jostling for leadership hots up, the political parties and the returning and newly elected legislators prepare for their inauguration, the Roundtable Conversation must remind them that the political landscape of Nigeria has changed. The awareness about democracy is on the high, the people have learnt to hold leaders accountable and it might be hardly business as usual.

The accountability project seems to have started with the last election. Many legislators were not re-elected, even seven former governors failed in their bid to go to the Senate. This ironically has never happened since 1999 that a sitting governor lost a senatorial election. The big political parties, the APC and PDP lost their former strongholds, APC lost Lagos, Katsina and Osun,  PDP lost Abia, Benue and Sokoto in the presidential elections. Many ranking national assembly members lost their elections.

Invariably, the people seem to be paying attention. They equally now understand the value of an active legislator. The fact that a new Labour party gained some seats in both state and national assemblies must be instructive and as such those with the mandate must be very careful and focused. The derogatory term, ‘rubber stamp’ senate must be taken seriously. What did the 9th assembly do wrong? Why has that tag joined the political lexicon of Nigeria? These are questions every legislator at state and national levels must sincerely answer.

The people are the centerpiece of democracy and as such their interest must be the focal point of every elected official. Technology and the internet have made assessment very easy for the people. People now trace their representatives and document their activities on a daily basis. Legislative duties are well cut-out and each elected person must understand fully that it is a very important job.

All eyes would be on the legislature at state and federal levels. The state governors either newly elected or second term governors must realize that the separation of powers is what energizes democracy. They must seize operating like emperors by interfering with the legislators in their states. The legislators must on their part try to earn the respect of the people by weaning themselves off the undue influence of the executive.

Nigeria is in dire straits at the moment with huge debt burden, mass poverty, insecurity and infrastructural decay. The oversight functions of the legislature at all levels have never been more crucial. Our legislators must look beyond the euphoria of electoral victory and the scramble for leadership of state and national assemblies and stand up to be counted as being on the side of the people and democracy through their active and committed adherence to their duties. The coming years would expose each individual political actor and when the chips are down, the difference will not be about who gets what at the leadership level or which party has what but the sum total of the dividends that the people get. The die would be cast after the inauguration.

The dialogue continues…

The 2023 elections in Nigeria have been concluded and the country now has a Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the President-elect. The governors of about twenty eight states were also elected. The legislative elections at both state and national levels have also been concluded.  The winners are all getting ready for the inauguration on the 29th of May. Post-election litigations would however go on because the Nigerian constitution has not been amended to make it compulsory for all electoral petitions to be concluded  before winners are inaugurated into offices like in other jurisdictions.

However, the Adamawa state gubernatorial election stood out for all the wrong reasons. Some of the March 18th election that were declared inconclusive by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) included Adamawa and  the April 15th scheduled for supplementary elections. However, less than twenty four hours after the election, one of the most scandalous electoral incidents went viral. The Resident, Electoral Commissioner  (REC) for Adamawa, Hudu Yunusa Ari suddenly worked into the election collation center ahead of the 11am scheduled time for final collation and announcement of the winner armed with a piece of paper in his pocket.

Tne Adamawa REC, accompanied by the state Police Commissioner, Mohammed Barde and a staff of the Directorate of State Security (DSS) suddenly announced the candidate of the All Progressive Congress (APC), Senator Aisha Dahiru Binani as the winner of an election that as at the time of the announcement had not been fully collated given that results from some wards in about ten local governments were yet to be collated. Legally, the REC is not empowered by law to announce election results so Yudu had usurped the duties of the state Returning Officer by prematurely announcing a winner.

This singular action by the Adamawa REC and the fact that Senator Binani actually read a prepared ‘acceptance speech’ sequel to an illegal declaration of an inconclusive collation is an obvious aberration and a blight on Nigeria’s democracy. It had all the qualities of a civilian coup and many are worried that if not properly handled in terms of suspect punished according to the law, that singular incident might set an odious precedence in Nigeria’s democracy.

However, while the Roundtable Conversation finds the actions of the participants in the scandal very disappointing to say the least, it amounts to patriarchal arrogance and egoistic irresponsibility for some male commentators to credit Nigerian women with the actions of those in Adamawa state. Many women have vociferously condemned the whole charade and the involvement of a female Senator Binani in the whole scandal owing to her ‘accepting’ an illegal declaration of a fake election result, the women refuse to take the stereotyping of Nigerian women as electoral offenders owing to the action or inaction of one single woman.

It is instructive to note that Nigeria’s politics by both the military and civilians have been predominantly a male affair. The recent elections show that women are still systematically excluded from leadership. In fact the recent election pathetically shows that the number of women in elective positions has dwindled drastically. There is a progressive exclusion of women. The four frontline political parties, the APC, PDP, Labor Party and the NNPP all had male Presidential and Vice –Presidential candidates. There is no elected female governor. The National Assembly presents a more pathetic case. Of the 360 House of Representative Members, less than 18 are women. Only three women were elected to the Senate of 109 members.

Most of the state Houses of Assembly have less than five women and some have no woman at all. What this means is that not enough women’s voices would  be heard in those states. Democracy is operated and validated by plurality of numbers. Women are almost half of the population, they are the bedrock of the informal sector that contributes greatly to the country’s GDP,  yet, they are structurally excluded  from policy-making in governance. The result is that the democracy in Nigeria is almost an all-male affair except for very few women whose voices are often drowned in legislative houses where laws are made.

The 9th National Assembly would go down in history for throwing out five gender equity bills that would have seen more women elected into the legislative houses thereby making it possible for women to be at the table enough to make their input as law makers. The male-dominated National Assembly threw out the bill without considering the short, medium and long term implications for development and women welfare and invariably that of men as well.

In the light of the Adamawa electoral scandal, even though a woman was involved, about 99% of the actions that culminated in the illegality were performed by men. The REC, the Police Commissioner and the DSS staff are all male. Just these principal actors makes it a 3:1 ratio so one begins to wonder how the actions of these men and many others who are yet to be named pending investigations can be credited to women beyond the Senator.

Granted that being a senator who was part of the passage of the 2022 Electoral Act bill, the Senator ought to have performed more creditably, that cannot excuse the REC who is said to be a lawyer who erred in law. The Commissioner of Police, Mohammed Barde is supposed to enforce the law, how did he get involved in the scandalous outing? The DSS staff is supposed to be a security agent too but was allegedly caught aiding and abetting electoral illegality.

The mischievous blaming of women for the Adamawa electoral scandal is a familiar narrative and shows how some men in Nigeria often feign ignorance of the roles men have perennially played in the often flawed elections since 1999.The late former Deputy Senate President, Ibrahim Mantu had on a TV interview before his death narrated how his political party, the PDP bribed INEC electoral officials and security agents so as to rig elections not just in the party’s favour but even for others. The PDP is a metaphor for the political parties here. Not much was done to investigate that seeming confession by the once number six-man in Nigeria.

The deeper implication of finding alibis for electoral infractions is that it continues to blight the Nigerian democratic journey. Playing the Ostrich and finding scape goats cannot solve the problem. There has to be the national decision to cleanse the Aegean stable if the country’s democracy can function for development. It is a well-documented fact that male violence and financial power are weapons used during elections that are often tools for excluding women who obviously cannot keep up.

In a veiled conspiratorial way by the majority of men in politics, mum is often the word when issues of electoral offences are brought up. Most times policemen who work during elections do not do enough to arrest electoral offenders and even when some are arrested, there are allegations of complicity with politicians to release the suspects and this still boils down to complicity of the male gender.

Make no mistake about it, the Roundtable Conversation is not in any way canonizing women in politics who like Senator Binani have been caught in the middle or indicted but alleging that every woman in politics behaves in the same way is as fallacious as it is mischievous and diversionary. There must be introspection and an attempt to clean up the political field.

There are key points to note from the chaos that happened in Adamawa, more has to be done in reappraising the ways that appointments of electoral officers are made. The Nigerian Information minister, Lai Mohammed in the heat of the scandal in Adamawa insisted that it is for INEC not for  President  Buhari to discipline an electoral commissioner, hours later, the president approved  that Yudu the REC be suspended.

There are some schools of thought that believe that appointment of electoral commissioners and even the INEC chairman must be removed from the presidency to give the body a better independence and subject them to institutional sanitization processes. There should be devolution of power that empowers either a committee or an agency to make these appointments more functional. There ought to be a deeper integrity scrutiny to weed out characters without the requisite pedigree to be like Caesar’s wife, above reproach.

Democracy is about the people and as such, the Roundtable believes that the employment of technology is not a cure-all remedy for electoral success. The human element must be carefully chosen in ways that even though perfection is not human and humans are not perfect, there are still individuals whose character traits must naturally exclude them from holding sensitive offices that exposes them to taking actions that impact on the whole system.

Given that Nigeria is presently the poverty capital of the world with 133million people living in multi-dimensional poverty, it should take more than organizing elections for development to happen.  The system must be rejigged to give a level playing field to every citizen irrespective of gender. The patriarchal arrogance of monopolizing power and victimizing already victimized women through  flimsy criminalization like the one under review must stop. Nigeria should think deeper about inclusive politics and better electoral processes because in the real sense, a predominant male governance has not given the nation development. Inclusiveness and elections  are at the core of democracy.

●The dialogue continues…

THE 2023 elections in Nigeria has come and gone and winners have emerged. Plans are in top gear to swear in the President-elect, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and other elected candidates across the country on the 29th of May, 2023. For women in Nigerian politics, it’s still a far cry from gender justice on the political field.  The number of women elected into positions seems to have dwindled especially at the national assembly. There is not a single female governor-elect yet but there are certainly a number of female deputy governors.

The history of Nigerian elections has been replete with pre and post-election petitions and legal judgments some of which had lasted for years and disrupted governance and prevented the people from enjoying the full dividends of democracy. In fact, some analysts insist that Nigerian elections are the most litigious in the world. The reasons are not far-fetched, the Nigerian political party structure seems very flawed in ways that internal party democracy seems a herculean task in most cases. This has led to the emergence of some wrong candidates either due to personal flaws or due to non-adherence to electoral laws.

When political parties flout the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) guidelines or the constitution, the courts are often called in and this has led to some candidates being disqualified either before elections  or legally sacked from office. Most of the post-election litigations derail and distract the litigants on both sides. The losers are always the people who become the axiomatic grasses that suffer when two elephants fight.

However, the 2023 elections had its problems but in many ways the Nigerian democracy is the better for it. There was evidently better awareness by voters. Every voting demographic had ample time to make their choices. The Independent National Electoral Commission through the improvement in technology surreptitiously created more awareness amongst the voting public. The Permanent Voter Card (PVC) gained the pride of place as the golden ‘passport’ to a voter’s right to vote. The publicity around voter registration, biometrics capture and actual collection of the PVCs and the promise that the employment of the new Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) would be a game-changer galvanized voters who had hitherto shown apathy during past elections. Many first time voters were excited. There was a pre-election frenzy that almost seemed very addictive and most voters keyed into the moment.

Despite the difficulty voters encountered in the process of registering for their PVC and even the collections, voters showed tremendous resilience. The social and orthodox media were awash with pictures and videos of prospective voters spending productive hours to collect their PVCs but despite some disappointments, most of them persevered and even though not everyone succeeded, those who did were able to cast their votes in areas where there were no violence or clear suppression of voters. In some areas too, voters stood their grounds and defended their votes by fighting off intruders or refusing to let some INEC staff to flout the electoral laws.

This year’s election campaigns seemed to have been very exciting because for the first time in the country’s democratic journey since 1999, the Presidential election was a three-horse race involving the All Progressive Congress (APC), the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Labour Party (LP). Iin 2015 and 2019, it was largely a two horse race between the APC and the PDP. The entrance of the LP changed the campaign strategies of the two former contenders in ways that were not predicted by book keepers either within the political parties or by the media.

So the Nigerian voters suddenly became the proverbial beautiful bride being wooed by the three main contenders given that the other fifteen political parties seemed very lethargic in soliciting for votes or as some people comically suggested, were either intimidated by the three major parties or lacked the financial muscle to pull through. At the end, it was really a tripartite contest and the voters were wooed with all the political strategies in the books.

While winners have emerged and despite the myriad of election petitions at the different tribunals, the Nigerian voters seem not to have in the public space been given the credit they deserve.  Given the experiences of the Nigeria voters since 1999 at all levels of governance in the country, the 2023 elections produced very interesting results. There were many upsets in many states as new political blocs emerged. It was also evident that despite the efforts of some politicians across the country to divide the people along ethnic and religious lines, we still saw a people taking their destinies in their own hands.

Some voters in some states defied the political elite conspiracy and realized that even when they were of the same ethnicity and religion with their governors and legislators, their lives were not better. Not less than seven incumbent governors lost their bid to go to the Senate which had hitherto been referred to in comical local parlance as ‘a retirement home for governors’ seeing that repeatedly many ex-governors had used the power of incumbency to manipulate both the party delegates elections to their favour and used the instruments of force and coercion to manipulate the outcomes of elections .

So before 2023 elections, it was not the norm for incumbent governors to lose elections to the senate or for their cronies to lose at other elective positions that they had used their power to almost single handedly install especially their successors in office.

Governor Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia state and Samuel Ortom of Benue state are very apt examples of those who got the lessons that the Nigerian voters are now more empowered to understand that religion or tribe has little to do with selfless service.  Both governors are of the same tribe, both are of the same religion like more than half of the population. Both lost their senatorial bids and their candidates for governorship equally lost. Their records in office especially of unpaid salaries and infrastructural decay did not escape the assessment of the people

Both the APC and the PDP lost elections in their strongholds. APC lost the presidential election in Lagos and Osun, PDP lost in Rivers and Sokoto states even when incumbent governor  Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto was the Director General of the PDP Presidential Campaign Council (PCC). The APC chairman, Abdullahi Adamu lost his home state or Nasarawa.

The Nigerian voters in many instances reminded the old politicians that service is not about them, it is not just about their welfare but the greater good. A cursory analysis of the national assembly records has not shown any outstanding former governor in the Senate since 1999. If anything, their presence in the hallowed chambers has been very insignificant in terms of their legislative contributions. Not one ex-governor has had an outstanding presence in terms of being remarkably influential in terms of any of the three pivotal duties of a legislator.

The legislature has been largely ineffectual and been a seeming appendage of the executive as they meander under the veil of executive-legislative harmony or party loyalty while shortchanging the people. The economic situation in the country with 133million people living in multi-dimensional poverty happened in part because the legislative arm at both federal and state legislative levels have failed in their strict oversight functions on the executive, government ministries and agencies.

The average Nigerian voter came out for the election wanting to tell the governors some of who exercise almost imperial powers that the mandate givers are the people. Many governors would be ordinary people after May 29. The idea of seeking a permanent ‘privileged’ life by cushioning their lives with stupendous and extravagantly vulgar pensions and gratuities from one political position to the other seems to have rubbed the voters the wrong way.   

The Nigerian voters might not shout uhuru yet but there has been steady progress. The closer engagements from politicians seen during the campaigns were clear departure from the past where politicians felt victorious after party primaries because the votes of the people didn’t really determine who won or lost the elections. It was almost always a given that the candidates of the incumbent governments at either federal or state levels were declared winners after elections. We saw a seeming grassroots engagement for whatever it was worth. There were more rallies and the candidates at both federal and state levels tried to get to the different demographics.

Despite the efforts of the various Spokespersons to divert attention of the voters through some very diversionary tactics, the voters seemed to have had their eyes on the ball. The voters seemed to focus on the antecedents of candidates and with the help of the social media, information was on the fingerstips of most voters.

It is very important to note that Nigeria has not gotten to a desired destination politically but the just concluded elections had its flaws but we must not fail to hail the Nigerian voter that braced the odds. There were institutional and agency huddles that totally disenfranchised many voters like INEC logistics and tech challenges and the Naira change policy that further impoverished the people just weeks to the election.

The mental exhaustion from the trauma of the poorly executed financial policy made many stay away from the polling units. According to INEC, more than 93.4 million people registered to vote but just about 87.2 million collected their PVCs. A mere  29 percent turned out to vote.The good news is that democracy is work in progress and the Nigerian voters now acknowledge the power they wield.  But the system must interrogate the reason for the small percentage of voters in the last elections impactful as they appeared to have been.

The dialogue continues…   

NY place that does not make gender equality a priority, is probably getting other important things wrong too” -Paul Kagame (President of Rwanda)

The Roundtable Conversation page is an attempt to advance the conversation on the leadership evolution processes and the platform for all voting blocs and civil society to come together to find solutions to the issues of leadership in Nigeria in ways that can foster real development. Sixty one years after independence is enough time for Nigeria to move from being described as ‘nascent’ democracy to a truly viable democracy.

If the United Arab Emirate (UAE) can be the global hub for business and tourism and Rwanda can play out the admirable phoenix from the 1994 genocide to become almost a UAE African equivalent, then Nigeria must act with the urgency of now to develop and that implies that we must take our democracy more seriously and develop systems that work and guarantee progress and development.

In any democracy, the transparent conduct of elections is key as it gives voice to the people.  The type of electoral processes and the transparency or lack of same determine the viability of the democracy in any given society. This is because the voice of the people must validate the mandate being sought. If the people are not allowed to speak freely, then the soul is removed from the democratic process. This of course affects the accountability process and often advances tyranny.

The political party system was fashioned as the vehicles through which leaders emerge to drive the democratic processes. This then means that as a government of the people and by the people, the process of elections must be free and transparent at the intra-party levels. This means that all things being equal, there would be no cases of exclusion of any demographic for any reason at all. There are sociological and religious factors but we must dismantle the negative attributes of these two if they impede development.

Sadly though, the political system in Nigeria has been skewed against women for various reasons beyond finance and brawn. If the richest woman in Nigeria were to contest for the leadership of a political party, she might still not win. The lack of gender parity in Nigerian politics is traceable to some extraneous factors. We cannot say this enough. The voice must continue to ring out until there is a level playing field. The excuses of religion and culture are so jaded that we must recalibrate to meet up with development in the twenty first century global economy and beyond.

Nothing in recent memory demonstrates the male monopoly in the political space than the recent Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Convention where the women only got two positions, Women Leader and her deputy. This means that at the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the Party, only two women would be present. Ironically, there is no equivalent of men’s leadership at that level. So in essence, there is already a psychological beat down of the women and a strategic brow beating of the women to mobilize their gender for the success of the men.

The Roundtable Conversation sat with Barr. Aisha Galadima Gana, Chairperson, Law Reform Commission Niger state. She is the Jekadia Alkalai Nupe, translated to  mean the Ambassador of lawyers and judges. A title she earned from the Etsu Nupe for her contributions to society.  She is an active member of the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC). She was a patron of the Buhari Osibanjo Campaign Organization in her state. According to her, she earned recognition for the roles she has played  in mentoring and representing her constituency as a mobilizer. 

To her, women must be actively involved in politics and bring their nurturing and productive attributes into politics through a very fair process. Asked whether as a female politicians her idea of mobilization means working for the men to win electoral victories, she unbundled the real meaning of mobilization which to her goes beyond campaigns to real political education and assisting women organize and demand for their rights. The presence of women is being felt more than before. Today the women have a voice and through that, women can push for inclusion because it is when you stand up that you can be counted. The politics she believes in is that which liberates the grassroots in the sense that they can stand up for their rights and hold politicians  accountable especially to their pre- election promises and manifestoes.

Sensitizing the women has been a key factor in the politics she plays as a woman. To her, the value of education comes with what the educated does to liberate the illiterate in the political economy of any nation. Empowering women must not be limited to political participation.  When the women are sensitized, they get more empowered to question the politics men play, they get more economically liberated and can join politics too at their terms.

The Roundtable wanted to find out  about the girl child education in the Northern region. According to her, the North cannot yet shout uhuru for girl child education but there is slow but steady progress from where the region was some years back. To her, education in the region has always been paramount . Even before the advent of western education, there were the Islamiyya schools which even though in Arabic was still an education system.

There is an awakening for a balanced education. Some Northern ladies have excelled in education, recently, a lady in Gombe graduated as the best student in medicine. That is progress and she and many others stand as inspiration to many others. We have also seen the former Emir of Kano, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi use various fora to campaign not just for girl child education but for both genders too.  She thinks gradually, progress is being made. To her, girl child marriage is not as rampant as it used to be because there is massive enlightenment and most parents are encouraging their children to get basic education so they can learn a trade or acquire skills and possibly excel even if they do not get to universities.

Aisha believes that women and men must bring the same tools to leadership, honesty, empathy, diligence and patriotism. These are values that are universal and have no gender codes. In her view, men must recognize that culture and religion do not preclude women from providing leadership. Men should realize that leadership is about people who can add value. The essence of  leadership is the welfare of the people and anyone who can add value should be allowed to take part in a free and fair process.

As a woman she believes that all women with good pedigree must step out and help, Sitting and complaining cannot help the system. Women must be patient but build bridges of understanding with each other and even the men too. To her, consistency in the push for inclusion would pay off ultimately but there must be perseverance.

The roundtable wanted to find out what the likes of Aisha intend to do to hold politicians who have not delivered on their promises in the past . To her, experience is the best teacher and as such, the people, especially the women must be ready to hold the people to account. There must be well spelt out agreements about  the demands of the people. There is a multiplier effect of inclusiveness that has a chain effect. Every negotiation must be all inclusive and make sure development trickles down to the grassroots.

Asked about the lack of ideological leanings amongst the major political parties, she said that should not be reason for stagnation, the democracy is growing and people given the improved transparency in the electoral processes would be ready to reject people at the polls. Integrity of candidates is going to matter more. People are going to be held accountable for their past.

She believes that transparency in electoral processes would be an advantage for the inclusion of women. It would happen naturally because most women stay off politics in Nigeria because of unfair and unspoken rules. The Anambra and Edo state elections are signs that women can mobilize to empower candidates with their votes. The new electoral laws and technology can now ensure that votes count and are counted. The system must be made to empower women. When there is fairness the normal cause of events would change.

The Roundtable Conversation wishes in a special way to point to the quote above by the President of Rwanda, Paul Kagame whose country is now the modern phoenix in Africa rising from the ashes of genocide to become a tourism and business hub in Africa. It is not surprising that they have the global highest number of women in parliament at more than 60%. While the unfortunate war was regrettable, to rise and make the country what it is today is all thanks to leadership at all levels and a citizenry that is alert and functional.

Nigerian political parties must move out of the parochial monopoly based on gender. The leadership that works around the world is one that is based on merit and readiness to serve rather than the use of brawn and financial muscle. The political parties must realize that development and poverty have no political parties. Merit and capacity ought to be the watchword rather than gender . To exclude the gender that is almost half of the population is almost akin to cutting one’s nose to spite the face.

Being the poverty capital of the world would need the best brains in all sectors to work together to make the country more prosperous and return to the giant in the real sense with complimentary leadership style between men and women.

The dialogue continues…

The Nigerian elections have come and gone. The country has elected a President, members of the National Assembly, governors and state house of assembly members (there are few reruns for some polling units to be fixed by INEC and two yet to be declared governorship results). A lot of developments have trailed the elections across the country. It does seem that the same old stories played out during the campaigns and during the election days across the country.

Religious and ethnic sentiments were again issues in the just concluded elections. However, the two major religions, Christianity and Islam were not just the focus this time. In some states, even different Christian denominations have been issues. In a state like Enugu, Catholicism and Anglican denomination at some point became an issues during the campaigns as some party members accused each other of exploiting their membership of either denomination for political interests. Some party members peddled false information against opponents through church members.

The idea of zoning of Presidential party tickets by the major political parties, the All Progressive Congress (APC) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) were issues during the party primaries. However, while the APC were able to arrive at a consensus by picking a Southern candidate now President-elect, Bola Tinubu, the PDP in a way suffered the collateral damage of deviating from their previous zoning of offices to the different regions.

The emergence of Atiku Abubakar as the party presidential ticket in a way divided the party as some governors headed by the governor of Rivers state, Nyesom Wike led four the governors of Enugu, Benue, Oyo and Abia state to form the G-5 (integrity group) that decided not to support the presidential candidate of the PDP. Ultimately, only governors Wike of Rivers state, Makinde of Oyo state and Ugwuanyi of Enugu were able to work and win their states for the governorships and some legislative seats.

In some states, certain clans and ethnic sentiments were whipped up. In a place like Rivers, Lagos, Kaduna  and Abia among others, intra-ethnic differences were played  up by politicians and their supporters  that often led to very tense  verbal and physical attacks before, during and after the elections. In a country with no clear and implementable electoral offences laws, most of the perpetrators of the recorded electoral offences may never face justice. But the victims are across the nation.

However, while elections have been won and lost, Nigeria must decide the route to follow for development. No election in Nigeria’s history must again remind or take the people back to the 1983 or 2011 post-election violence that claimed lives. Post-election violence does not happen out of the blues. They are normally products of pre-election rhetoric that fan the embers of division. Nigeria cannot develop when there is no unity, justice and peace.

The essence of democracy is for the people to choose among themselves those that should lead them. The needs of any group of people are the same and divisions and conflicts come when the proponents want to have undue advantages. But we must understand that elections are not supposed to divide in a democracy, they are supposed to unite the people even if they don’t vote for same candidates.

The Roundtable Conversation believes that conversations are valuable tools for unity and understanding so we must have serious conversations as a people. Nigeria is not where it ought to be politically and economically. The country is too blessed to have 133 million people living in multi-dimensional poverty. Poverty and illiteracy cannot power development. We must question our inability to harvest the potentials of our people both in Nigeria and the diaspora.

Nigerians are some of the best educated and most talented in the world. The country has become a brain bank literarily for global economies that target our people for their own growth. Nigerians excel in all human fields across the globe and most of our citizens are elected in other countries where they have all the rights of citizenship. Nigerians are always quick to congratulate Nigerians in diaspora when they win elections, achieve professional excellence or get appointed to multi-national organizations.

In essence, Nigeria has not got its democracy right. If we have chosen that system of government then we must be prepared to dig fully into its core essence. If it is about the people, then we must be a people first in the real sense of the world. Development must be seen as holistic. Development is not about one individual group, region, state or nation. It is about a people coming together to define the vision they have. The 2023 elections speak to the very divisions that have made it impossible for Nigeria to achieve its full potentials.

The just concluded elections must tell the country that it is still a long road to development as the political parties seem to be a mere gathering of people with no defined ideological leanings even if they claim otherwise on paper. There must be some real constitutional reviews to make the country’s political party structure more functional than being a mere vehicle that ferries candidates into political offices. Political parties like in other democracies must be ideologically identifiable and must be visionary enough to have clear roadmaps to the development of the country with a good and deep appreciation of the socio-religious nuances that define us.

The political parties must redefine their roles in nation-building. The running of political parties must be transparent and leadership more altruistic and varied. The male monopoly of political leadership in Nigeria is an albatross. There is no reason why women should have a Women’s Wing while top executive positions in parties are the exclusive of men. More often than not, women leadership in political parties starts and ends with ‘Women leader’ or ‘Welfare Officers’.  Party leadership must be open and more competitive than what exists at the moment.

Women’s voices are muted and so is their participation. The legislative arm of government and the executive are male dominated. Nigeria has one of the lowest ratios of women in parliament and it is even worse now after the elections. The declared election results show that elected males make up more than 95% as against women with a paltry 3.5%. For a nation of 200m people with almost half made up of women, this is recipe for disaster. The world is leaving us behind. Nigerian women are some of the world’s most educated and capable.

The Nigerian political space is very discriminatory on a lot of grounds mainly because most often capacity is not the only criteria for political parties to nominate candidates. The five gender equity bills that were thrown out by the 9th  National Assembly happened because more than 90% of the legislators were men and they interpreted democratic tenets on the basis of mundane issues like religion and culture which by the way are male creations for political expediencies.

Kenya just elected its seventh governor. This happened because there was a constitutional amendment in 2010 that made it unlawful for any gender to occupy more than two third of elective positions. That has given women more chances at the political table. That is however not equity but it is better than where Nigeria is at the moment. Women are under-represented and it is due to the structure of the political parties where women are seemingly absent at the party decision making table.

Nigeria cannot develop if Nigerians continue to play the same type of divisive politics that ignores equity and justice. It might appear as a jaded cliché but things are not changing. It might be politically expedient for the men in politics to resort to cheap blackmail that women do not support women because they always vote for men. That  too is very laughable because the socio-religious institutions always nurture women to believe that leadership is a male prerogative even when women in Africa had always provided leadership in pre-colonial times.

The outcome of the elections must also teach politicians that it may not be business as usual. The emergence of Labour Party (LP) and the New Nigeria peoples Party (NNPP) has changed the power dynamics. PDP and APC lost a few of their former strongholds while LP and NNPP made inroads into a few areas. Veteran politicians lost to new entrants and those that might never have won elections in the past.

Countries are built by citizens and Nigerians must make conscious efforts to build the nation and benefit from the human and material resources that the country has and continues to nurture. The political structure must be functional enough to push development. The poverty in the country must be unacceptable to political players. Political elite must rise above self to be more patriotic. It is only citizens that can develop nations and that may never happen if certain constitutional amendments don’t happen.

While some politicians revel in the euphoria of victory and others mourn their defeat, there must be introspection across the land. What is the future we want to see? What future can bring the prosperity we seek? Who would chaos and division profit? How can we have a more functional political structure that can be as inclusive as it is functional? Would we benefit from division or unity? Can inclusivity hurt our nation or can it prosper us? These are the conversations we must have as a nation desirous of development. We must have a functional constitution made by the people.

The dialogue continues…

The last Presidential and National Assembly elections in Nigeria has shown again that the most populous black nation on earth is still deeply rooted in patriarchal sentiments. None of the four major political parties had either a female presidential or vice presidential candidate.  Only the All Progressive Congress (APC as a major political party) has a female governorship candidate in Adamawa state. Even though the Labour party has a female governorship candidate in Rivers state, the active participation of the LP as a political party cannot be compared with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the APC.

The National Assembly, the apex legislative body in the country has been in global focus due to the glaring near exclusion of women. Prior to the 2023 elections, the Nigerian House of Representatives of three hundred and sixty legislators (360) had only 22 women. The Senate of one hundred and nine senators had only seven women.  Nigeria has never elected any female governor. The only woman that had become governor was purely accidental as she was elected as deputy to Peter Obi in Anambra state but only acted as governor when her principal was impeached by the state house of assembly. Her name is Dame Virgy Etiaba.

Of the 423 national assembly seat results that have been released by the Independent National electoral Commission (INEC) so far, only 15 seats have been won by women. This amounts to a paltry 3.5 percent  for the 10th national assembly. So the men as usual takes the greated portion of a whopping 96.5 percent.

Of the already declared results, only three women have been elected as senators to the 10th assembly. According to INEC, 3,840 men contested for national assembly seats, 380 women contested for seats at the national assembly. Of this number, only 3.9 percent of the number of women who contested was successful. In the 9th national assembly, 6.42 percent of women were elected into the senate and 3.05 percent into the House of Representatives. 

Nigeria trails behind most African nations less than 10 percent representation by women. Rwanda has the global highest with more than 60 percent, Ethiopia has 38.8 percent, Senegal with 42.79 percent, Namibia with 41.3 percent, Mozambique has 39.6 percent etc. Kenya just recently elected seven female governors, up from four in their previous election. This was achievable because of 2010 constitutional amendment that makes it illegal for any gender to occupy more than two thirds of any elective post.

The implication of the muted voice of women in the legislative arm of government is dire. What it means is that the male voices would continue to drown that of the women and there are and would be consequences when the voice of almost half of the population cannot be heard in the highest law making body in the land.

The result of the last election amounts to the nation shooting itself on the foot. Development in a country with 133 million people living in multi-dimensional poverty might just be more difficult. Betty Wilkinson, a financial analyst and some global bodies like the United Nations, IMF and World Bank all believe that the lack of gender inclusion continues to create more poverty and less development for any nation. He who wears the shoe knows where it pinches.

The Roundtable Conversation has over the years x-rayed the roots of the exclusion of women, youth and persons living with disabilities in the Nigerian electoral processes. While the Nigerian democracy is fashioned after the American model, in real practice, the Nigerian brand of democracy is structurally flawed and a patriarchal enterprise. Sociologically, girls in Nigeria are raised as second class citizens whose place is in the kitchen and bearing children.

What that does is that from the cradle, the orientation of children empowers the boy child as the one with leadership skills and more value to the society. So the girl child grows up feeling a sense of submissiveness to the inferred authority of the men. Even from primary schools, class leadership is ceded to the males in most instances. Even though this seems to be changing, it is still very pervasive. On the religious angle, the preaching by all religions including the African traditional religion is that women are not spiritually empowered to preside over some religious rituals. This is often transferred to life outside the religious enclaves.

The burden of socio-religious issues lays a perfect background for the experiences women have in the political field. The male political elite often transfer their socio-cultural orientation to the political field. The assumption is that men are born to lead. In addition to this flawed narrative is the character of the Nigerian political party structure. The men often dominate the political party structure that is the decision making body of the political parties.

When political parties are dominated by the men, very little presence is seen of women who are often pushed to the peripheral ‘Women Wings’ of the parties with little executive influence. Most times their mandate is to organize fellow women to vote for men during elections. The political party leadership structure excludes most women and as such their influence in decision-making is often non-existent.  The reasons are multi-faceted. Running political parties in Nigeria is often not a structured system in the sense that political party finances are neither strictly regulated nor monitored to ensure a level-playing field.

Economic strength often determines the level of influence in political parties and women are often not financially strong to play along on equal terms. No matter how much players pretend that money does not matter, a close scrutiny of the political party system shows that financial muscle is always an issue. The women are often at a disadvantage.  Perhaps by the time the political parties are run in ways that the finances are centralized and used to run the system, may be more women would begin to participate like in other countries.

The level of literacy and knowledge of economic variables and their implications  in the country is still very low. Not many of the men across the country understand the implication of gender injustice on development. To exclude almost half of the population both economically and politically is reason Nigeria suddenly became the poverty capital of the world. Researches have shown that countries with the least empowered women are always the most underdeveloped.

The ignorance and illiteracy of most men in the parliament for instance is reason why five gender equity bills in the last assembly were thrown out. Most of the men who opposed the bills were citing socio-religious reasons why they believe women should not have equal opportunity with men. There was an instance in the senate when a female senator stood up to present a bill and a male senator stood up to say that he opposes the bill because in his religion, women are not supposed to be equal to men. There are a few things that can be less astounding.

A member of the House of Representatives had once brought his four wives to plenary to show that he is a powerful man with four wives and the nation was shocked as the presiding officer and most of the House members laughed and hailed him. Another House member once stood up in the house to oppose any gender equity bill because in his words, more women in the national assembly would run most men out of the chambers especially if they are very knowledgeable. The house members again laughed but these otherwise simple acts of indiscretion are played out even outside the national assembly. Those are sentiments most men act out in political parties.

The use of violence to intimidate women is another weapon that scares many women away from partisan politics. Many women like the PDP women leader in kogi state and the one for Labour party in Kaduna state have been killed by political opponents for just daring to be politically active. Many other women are either nursing wounds or scared off the political field because largely most of the offenders are often never brought to justice. The justice system in thecountry often just focus of election litigations rather than pre or post electoral violence largely because the security agencies often never conclusively prosecute offenders.

It must be noted however that the gender inequity in Nigerian politics is an ill-wind that blows no one any good. Since 1999 that men have monopolized the political space, the Nigerian economy has been wobbly and with 133 million today living in multi-dimensional poverty, that is an eloquent testimony of the effects of male-dominated leadership. Curiously, in sectors that merit is the criteria for engagement, Nigerian women have excelled. In the academia, sports, entertainment, media, corporate world etc., Nigerian women have excelled both nationally and internationally.

An Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, an Amina Mohammed, an Arunma Oteh and many other well-educated Nigerian women are making global impact. Paradoxically, all three were vilified in different forms by some male politicians  when they were in the country as political appointees who have distinguished themselves in different fields. There are many capable women that can give the country good leadership but will patriarchal nuances ever  give way?

The dialogue continues…