THE 2019 election has come and almost gone as the battles have shifted to the legal front. But a look at the race has shown that women are significantly few in the number of candidates and winners in the election. Except for a few of them that were elected into legislative houses, there were little gains for the women folks in the Nigerian political system.
Truth be told, the two major political parties in the country – All Progressives Congress (APC) and the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) – claim to love the womenfolk dearly. They wax lyrical tunes and political messages to show their interest in advancing the political interest of women in the country, but unfortunately, this is where it ends.
In the last general election, no woman was nominated governorship candidate of both parties and none was elected. Instead, the best they did was to nominate a few of them as deputy governorship candidates – and like deputy governors all over the country, they do not have any political influence, and their relevance is negligible.
According to statistics, women and youth make up almost 80 percent of eligible voters in the country; yet, they have been ignored politically, except during elections when their votes count.
During the 2015 election circle, due to pressure put up by women’s right organisations who used Dame Patience Jonathan as their anchor person, the government of President Goodluck Jonathan, realising it needed the women’s votes, proposed to reserve 35% of all appointive positions for women and youth. This has somewhat become the official policy of the two parties.
Early last year, President Muhammadu Buhari signed into law, the Not too Young to Rule policy which significantly reduced the age that people need to attain before vying for some positions, and also giving greater opportunities and inclusion for women and youth. This was done to curry the votes of the women and youth.
But has this come to any advantage? The outcome of the 2019 general election has proved the contrary.
No doubt, politically, the Nigerian woman has made political progress. From the days of the Aba women riot to Mrs. Olufunmilayo Ransome-Kuti to Mrs. Margaret Ekpo to Hajia Sambo Sawaba, there has been gradual inclusion of women in the political system.
Not surprisingly also, along with their children they make up the bulk of victims of political violence in the country. Despite these, they are hardly compensated with positions in government commensurate with their qualification apart from being given such politically irrelevant posts.
But in the last few years, some of them have however taken on such sensitive positions like the Ministry of Finance and Education where they have performed creditably well. However this is significantly low.
In numbers, in the current political system, women’s representation in the House of Representatives is 5.5%; In the Senate: 5.8%. Only 5 out of 73 candidates that ran for President in 2019 are women. 1668 men and 232 women vied for 109 senatorial seats while 4,139 men and 560 women competed for 360 seats in the House of Representatives.
Mrs. Pauline Tallen, a former minister and the first woman to be nominated a deputy governor under the 4th Republic, said at a capacity building workshop for budding women politicians, “I advise [young] women to believe in themselves. Be prepared because it’s not easy.”
Not easy indeed. Three decades have passed since Tallen joined politics, but the state of women’s political participation in Nigeria remains abysmally low, with less than 6 per cent women in the parliament. Today, Nigeria has one of the lowest rates of female representation in parliament across Africa, and globally, it ranks 181st out of 193 countries, according to the International Parliamentary Union.
“We have a whole lot of women across Nigeria who can do so much better than what we are offered now,” explains Joy Ada Onyesoh, National Coordinator of Nigeria’s Women Situation Room and Country Director for the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF). “The issue is that we are not given the opportunity…”
Since 2006, Nigeria’s National Gender Policy highlights women’s right to equality in economic, social and political life, with provisions to increase women in elected and appointed positions to 35 per centbut that hasn’t happened.
“There have been so many protocols, conventions, amendments of the Nigerian Constitution, which support providing a quota system, but in reality, women are excluded in politics,” says Blessing Obidiegwu, Head of the Gender Division for the Independent National Electoral Commission.
In 2016, a Gender and Equal Opportunities Bill was tabled, calling for the adoption of Temporary Special Measures to eliminate discrimination in political and public life. UN Women supported the Bill’s passage in five states (Anambra, Ekiti, Imo, Kogi and Plateau) and is currently advocating, alongside partners, for its adoption at the National Assembly.
Although Mrs. Oby Ezekwesili was just one of the six females among the 73 presidential candidates, before she withdrew her candidacy, her role was significant insofar as she was a direct repudiation of the gendered narratives that portray women candidates as incompetent and unable to compete in the world of politics.
While women make up 47 percent of registered voters for the 2019 elections, only eight percent were cleared to vie for electoral positions in the presidential elections.
In the federal elections Presidency, Senate and House of Representatives women’s candidature was unimpressive. For the presidential elections, men swamp women by a 12:1 ratio. Women’s presidential candidature stood at eight per cent.
At the National Assembly, women’s candidature was only 12 percent of the total seats available, given that a total of 763 women vied for seats for the Senate and House of Representatives out of 6,563 places available.
Women’s minimal participation in Nigeria has multi-dimensional implications for the democratic project in Nigeria and for the continuing quest for gender equality in Africa’s biggest economy.
The role of First Ladies in political inclusion in the country
The first of the wife of Nigerian to play significant roles in advancing the course of women was Mrs. Maryam Babangida. With her Better Life for Women programme, she significantly brought to the fore, the woman’s cause. This was followed by Mrs. Maryam Abacha, Mrs. Stella Obasanjo and Mrs. Patience Jonathan each in their individual ways.
In the present dispensation, the Wife of the President, Dr. Mrs. Aisha Buhari, has been very outspoken in her resolve for political inclusiveness for women. Earlier, she openly said to her husband and the political leadership that she would not mobilise the women for him if there are no political changes in the system.
During the 2019 election she and the wife of the Vice President, Mrs. Dolapo Osinbajo, introduced and ran the Women and Youth Presidential Campaign for the APC. The success of this was clear through the door-to-door campaign members embarked upon across the country. This is an indelible new introduction into the political lexicon of Nigeria.
Before the elections, President Muhammadu Buhari has repeatedly announced that he will engage more women when he wins his second term. We wait to see whether he will follow his words with action now that he has won his second term.
Progress
Liberia’s former Head of State, Ellen Johnson Sir-leaf, has made history as Africa’s first female President. In the United States, Senator Hillary Clinton has made a positive impact in America’s politics. Also the Republican Party’s presidential candidate, John McCain, picked a woman – Sarah Palin, the Governor of Alaska, as his running mate for the U.S election. This could be seen as the strong factor women constitute in the political parlance of any nation.
Today, many countries of the world are making efforts to bridge the gap between men and women in politics. But in Nigeria, the representation of women in government, though it has improved, is still very low compared to what obtains in other nations of the world, particularly in the developed nations. As it were, the number of serving female ministers is still very few.
A greater inclusion of women in the parties’ permutations in order to win future elections has become a reality. Whereas the exclusion of the women folks has been maintained by successive governments without repercussions, just as it happened in the last elections, the implication of neglecting women may prove costly in 2023.
There is no doubt that women have some potentials and rights to contribute meaningfully to the development of their country. Therefore, the Nigerian government should work towards achieving gender equality in democratic governance, increase women participation and access to politics. It must be realised that the role of women as home makers cannot be down played in that it equally has an extended impact on their responsibility in service, the feminine touch they say, cannot be wished away.
-Ayomo is a rights advocate and media consultant.
