By Nnedinso Ogaziechi 

Leadership has always been a collaborative effort between the leader and the led. Problems of development come when a particular gender attempts to do a solo job. In all creeds and cultures, the gender question is never a competitive sport but a complimentary one. It is evidently strange however that in most developing countries especially Nigeria, there is no gender parity in the political space.

Nothing illustrates the idea of gender disparity than the existence and flourishing of Women Leaders in Nigerian political parties. In a very funny way, there is no male equivalent of this group which sort of appears very funny because it then illustrates the fact that in the political house, women are not in the main living room literally. They are confined to a situation where they are mainly empowered to cheer the men to electoral success.

The irony of the Nigerian political demographics is that women constitute at least half if not more of the voting population but are often systemically consigned to the fringes of political party events in a twenty first century world. The men often feel that women can only dance and clap and vote for them.

Even though a former President Obasanjo broke the seeming jinx by appointing the first female finance, Transport, Trade and Investment and into key ministries, the gender parity has not been achieved both in appointive and elective positions.  Consequently, the RoundTable Conversation tends to see the nexus between the lack  of gender parity especially at the legislative arms at both state and federal levels and the poverty in the land. The men are seemingly overburdened and in some instances less competent men in comparison to women take up both elective and appointive positions.

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The RoundTable Conversation is therefore pleased that the push and shove by various individuals, development agencies women groups are lobbying and creating more awareness towards increasing the number of women in the legislative houses across party lines. It is a progressive move in a country like Nigeria with the lowest global, continental and sub-regional ratio of women in parliament.

The All Progressives Congress (APC)  women have for some time now intensified their lobby to get at least 108 female representatives to the National Assembly ahead of the 2023 general elections. They are working with all stake holders to achieve this objective in a country with just seven female senators out of 109 members and a paltry 11 females in the House of Representatives with 360 members.

In all democracies, the voice of the people is in their representatives. It is not surprising that most bills sponsored by the few women in both houses of the National Assembly and even states do not see the light of day as democracy is about numbers. It would be to the benefit of national development to have at least a reasonable percentage of women in the legislative houses. It is very sad that most states do not have even one woman in their state houses of assembly.

The RoundTable Conversation caught up with Hon. Stella Okotete the APC National Women Representative Caretaker Committee who said that in the last twelve months, the party leadership  has been working very hard to create more visibility for women in the party and also organizing mentorship sessions for women between the ages of 18-35. The leadership is also working hard to create awareness at the grassroots level so that more women can access leadership at the wards, local governments and National Working Committees.

To Okotete, with the massive awareness campaigns more women would be involved in party administrations more than ever before and more people even in the cities would begin to understand that no one would come and offer you political posts if you do not step out and join political parties. Most women want to participate but have no ideas how to go about it.  The Progressive Young Women Forum floated by the party is especially focused on enlightenment and empowerment for the young women who feel they have the call to offer service. The Forum has some holistic approach that would make a great difference. The forum would, as women are created to do, nurture these young ones and assist them find their feet politically. The young women would be mentored by older politicians who they now have a platform to understudy and in turn become mentors to others. The projection will have a chain effect that would be beneficial to democratic progress as is seen in other world democracies.

To Hon. Okotete, the APC women are not just working alone for better gender parity, most other parties and women affairs ministry seem to agree that together, more can be achieved as the lobbying is multifaceted. The amendment of the constitution is one aspect the whole groups are seeking the help of the National Assembly because it is important certain needs of the women are backed by the constitution.

The aim of all the moves by the APC and other groups is basically for national growth because leadership is more productive when the best hands are chosen across genders. Luckily most of the men are realizing the value of shared leadership because some of them are supportive of their spouses and daughters taking part in politics. The governors have also agreed to the 35% affirmative action but women must equally be on ground and ready to present themselves to claim that percentage for a start.

So the APC Women are ready to assist qualified women to access leadership through various efforts especially for those who are capable but financially challenged. More women are being encouraged to be more politically involved at the party administration levels. Women must realize that politics is people-based and the people  must know you so they can vote for you. We also lobby the party leadership to give the women a percentage of the capital budget so they too can be empowered to sort out some financial issues and be very effective politically without being beggarly from the men

Happily the efforts are paying off as the idea is gaining momentum across the country with many  women winning positions and influencing changes. We just pray other parties can join in helping more women too.

The RoundTable Conversation sat with Hon. Iquo Inyang Minima, a lawyer, real estate developer and an experienced politician who  represented her Ikono/Ini federal constituency of Akwa Ibom state between 1999-2007. As a member of the APC Women Lobby group for the increased number of women at the National assembly, she is coming with a vast experience about what is achievable when a woman has a voice in the political space especially at the legislative level.

Coming from an constituency  that lacked quality representation and a pathetic absence of infrastructure, she ventured into politics and her constituency is better for it. Before her, her constituency had no good roads, no water, electricity and no state airport. So she was happy to have gone to the House of Reps. and as one of the tripods of legislative duties – lobbying for your constituency, she was able to achieve most of her goals through effective lobbying for her community.

The climax and most fulfilling was the Akwa Ibom Airport that  the license was granted during the time of Isa Yuguda as Minister of Aviation. It was the hallmark of a coalition of forces especially the former governors of the state, Obong Victor Attah and Godswill Akpabio. It is a thing of joy to see some infrastructure that your people need but never had springing up through your efforts and easing the stress of life and adding socio-economic value.

To her, more women should be allowed to raise their voices at the legislative houses because they always bring with them the building and nurturing spirit that many men lack but access power all the same. To Hon. Iquo women must be out there and they need to be approachable role models and mentors. Most of the younger ones feel that certain things are unachievable because of their backgrounds and must be mentored and educated.

So to her, intelligence is evenly distributed and as such all children must be given educational opportunities so that their talents can be horned and they will in turn contribute to the development of the country. More female politicians are needed to mentor the younger ladies and that is what the women in APC are doing with the party leadership. Nigerian politics must be able to accommodate more partnership in leadership between men and women if Nigeria must make progress.

To her, the older female politician must be in a position to bring up more women who have leadership qualities through formal and informal education to help them be up to date politically learning and adjusting their minds to the leadership possibilities for national growth. Investing in the education of younger girls is one area that more women have to look at because education empowers so even if you cannot attract any infrastructure, you can assist even if it’s one girl to get an education because an educated girl is an asset to the nation.

The major handicap to women in the pursuit of political offices is finance so women groups like ours are aware and working towards finding ways to financially assist women who are capable and ready for partisan politics. As older politicians, we get women to have more financial muscle through the groups where we expose them  to opportunities to get financial stability. Women are part of the human capital needed to contribute to development and Nigerians must know that and help women in all areas.

The dialogue continues…