Just Like In Political Governance, Nigerian Women Are Overlooked In Corporate Governance

By Sandra Ijeoma Okoye
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Sandra Ijeoma Okoye

As the clock ticks down to 2023, it is incontrovertible that Nigeria is still far from achieving women's “equal and effective” participation in political decision-making.

“According to Ayo Baje, a distinguished columnist, in his view on a national newspaper recently, “Contrary to the campaign promise made publicly by the then presidential candidate for the All Progressives Congress (APC), Muhammadu Buhari before the 2015 election to give 35 per cent ministerial appointments to women only seven of them made it in his First Term in office. That was a paltry 16 per cent! In response, a women coalition group under the aegis of 100 Women lobby group insisted that the President must respect and adhere strictly to the 35 percent affirmative action as enshrined in the National Gender Policy of 2006. Nigeria must also respect its commitment to the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, goal 5 of which is specifically targeted at achieving gender equality and empowerment of women and girls. But their protests fell on stiff deaf ears. It would be recalled that in 2011, former President Goodluck Jonathan administration’s cabinet had women occupying 33 percent of the available political positions. The difference, as the 7-Up advert goes is now patently clear! Interestingly, the 35 percent affirmative action is being practised by some African countries. For instance, Rwanda became the first country in the world with a female majority currently in parliament, at 61.3% for the Lower House and 38.5% for the Upper House. In Senegal, 64 women make up 42.7 percent of the total 150 seats in the lower house; and South Africa’s lower house has 166 women out of 396 seats and 19 out of 54 in the upper house. These figures represent 41.9 and 35.2 percent respectively”.

In fact, from the local government level to the national level, women’s leadership and political participations seem to be restricted by men. Women are no doubt underrepresented even as voters, as well as in leading positions, whether in elected office, the civil service, the private sector or academia. This happens notwithstanding their established abilities as leaders and agents of change, and their right to participate equally in democratic governance.

As if the obstacles or biases placed before women by misogynists to participating in political life are not enough, structural barriers through discriminatory laws and institutions still limit women’s options to run for office. Without doubt, not few women are politically incapacitated as they are less likely than men to have the education, contacts and resources needed to become effective leaders.

There is no denying the fact that the challenges women are faced with was in 2011 at the UN General Assembly resolution on women’s political participation noted thus, “Women in every part of the world continue to be largely marginalized from the political sphere, often as a result of discriminatory laws, practices, attitudes and gender stereotypes, low levels of education, lack of access to health care and the disproportionate effect of poverty on women.”

Though, the fact cannot be denied that individually that women have overcome these obstacles with great acclamation, and often to the benefit of society at large. But for women as a whole, the playing field needs to be levelled so as to open doors of opportunities for all.

It is so sad that 25 years after the adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, which unarguably points, and unarguably late if affirmative action is taken for gender equality to exceed 35 per cent target for appointing women into key positions leaves much to be desired, too late. This is a dishonour to the women folk because government’s dithering not only disdains the Nigerian National Gender Policy (NGP), it demonstrates official waste of human and material resources, which undoubtedly slows down the pace of national development. To me, the President should stop rhetoric on women inclusion in governance, and simply walk his talk”.

On the other hand, it cannot be wrong to say that as it is in political governance so also it has been in corporate governance when equal attention is supposed to be devoted to both genders in ensuring that boards are truly representative of their shareholders. Of course, having independent directors and transparent voting procedures is key even as securing the right of women to have a say in how companies are governed is equally important, but unfortunately, it is often overlooked.

Without embarking on research, it is not an exaggeration to say that women representation on the boards of companies across urban areas of the country remains unequal. Though, the fact that women are in the recent years breaking the glass ceiling, the fact that the percentage of such women is far less cannot be disputed in this context as the percentage of women is rather low across the country, except in the banking and finance sector of the economy where there are obvious evidences to show that women are truly shattering the glass ceilings.

Just as women on the heels of the recently celebrated International Women’s Day (IWD) few days ago, when women called for appreciable representative in political governance, it would not be a misnomer to call on the government to institute quotas for women’s representation on boards, As it is done in developed countries, women should be appointed to equitably sit on the boards of companies; whether for publicly listed companies of certain size, state-owned enterprises, or a combination of both. In the same vein, regulators should also mount pressure on companies to diversify beyond imposing quotas. In a similar vein, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), for example, should compel companies to disclose how they deal with issue of diversity on the board.

It would be recalled that a report in 2021 titled, "The 2021 PWR NGX Top 20 Gender Diversity Scorecard," showed that the number of female board chairpersons decreased from three in 2020, to two in 2021, adding that none of the top 20 companies were led by a female CEO during the period under review.

The Report revealed that less than a quarter of board positions in companies quoted on the Nigerian Exchange Limited's (NGX) top 20 quoted companies are occupied by women, and added that 56 seats (23.4 per cent) out of 239 board seats available in the top 20 companies were held by women, while 183 seats (76.6 per cent) were held by men during the period under review. Saying that the represented a marginal increase of 2.5 per cent, compared with the 20.9 per cent recorded the previous year.

Permit me to say in this piece to urge women groups and NGOs to rev up the advocacies to the lawmakers to institutionalise accountability mechanisms and give women a chance. To me, the president can still do things for Nigerian women as it will tantamount to redeeming his promise of exceeding 35 per cent involvement of women in governance, by appointing women into positions of leadership and write his name in gold as this is long overdue but achievable.