Expediency of Bridging Gender Inequality in Nigeria’s Politics 

By Sandra Ijeoma Okoye
Click for Full Image Size
Sandra Ijeoma Okoye

There is no denying the fact that Statista, a research organization that has huge online presence in one of its research topic, “Gender representation in National Parliament in Nigeria 1993-2019”, published by its Research Department on February 1, 2022 speaks volumes about how politically unrepresented Nigerian women have been in each passing political dispensation since 1999 when Nigeria embraced democratic system of government. Baffling enough, the Statistics has since Nigeria embraced democratic system of government remained unspeakable.

The research has it that “Women in Nigerian politics are incredibly too few. In the National Parliament, there are since 2019 only 29 women (about six percent of the total), including both the Senate and the House of Representatives. Men, instead, are 440. Nevertheless, there was an increase compared to the cabinet 1990-2003”.

Without going too far in the bid to background this piece, this writer has resorted to the use of a recent observation made by the Minister of Women Affairs, Pauline Tallen, on the prevailing low number of women in politics, and which has been the bane of Nigeria’s development, and she is confident that the observation will suffice to do justice to this piece.

The minister who made her observation known on Friday, May 6, 2022 in Abuja at a news conference while giving an update on the status of women inclusion, participation in governance, both at the state and subnational levels, identified the low number of women in politics and other leadership positions as a major setback to the country’s development, and said inadequate number of women in decision-making positions explained the country’s low investment and slow progress in some of the crucial sectors of human development outcomes.

She stated that laughable number of women in decision-making positions explained the country’s low investment and slow progress in some of the crucial sectors of human development outcomes, and went ahead to list the sectors where there were low level of development as security and peace processes, health, education, ICT development, finance, trade and investments , among others.

According to her, the essence of the news conference was to remind the political parties and aspirants that the level of women’s representation at the various positions in states, despite their numerical population strength, is nothing to write home about.

She said the news conference was also to take stock of how political actors and gatekeepers had fared in rewarding the sacrifices of Nigerian women to further determine how best to support their ambition, and stated that over the years, there had been a sustained poor representation and gender imbalance of women in critical areas, saying that there was need to change the narrative.

“For instance, currently in the House of Representatives, out of 360 members, only18 are women, representing about 4.61 per cent; Senate has eight women out of 109 members, representing 7.34 per cent.

“The same trend, even worse, runs down all levels of governance in the states and local government areas. Available data from 12 out of 36 states are a clear demonstration of the injustice perpetuated in the election and appointment of women.

“It is evident that women have been short changed. Out of 36 states of the federation there are no female governors, only two female deputy governors.

“Statistics from the 12 states show that we do not have a female secretary to government; of 287 state assembly members in 12 states only 23 are women; of 2,050 special assistants only 425 are females.

“Of 325 local government chairmen, only 31 are females, 73 vice chairmen and 368 females out of 2,075 councilors of LGAs. This cannot continue.

“According to the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report Ranking on Women Political Participation, Nigeria is worse off in 2019 (102nd) than nine years ago when it ranked 99th worldwide. This is a growing concern to Nigerian women,” she said.

The minister said the demand for full and equitable participation of women in public life and leadership space in Nigeria had consistently dominated public discourse due to the key role they played in the political process.

Without doubt, concerns over women's marginalization and invisibility in Nigeria’s policy-making, remains a passionate national discourse. Ameliorating these quagmire-like exclusivity that are likely caused by obstructive laws, cultural diversities and practices, institutional barriers, as well as unequal access to quality education, healthcare, and resources have for age long appeared to be unachievable.

However, not few optimistic feminists have held the view that reversing these discriminatory practices is not impossible, and can be achieved by implementing the right mechanisms across the country. They are strongly of the view that process toward increasing the visibility of women in decision-making across the country, requires an understanding of the progress made so far, the challenges faced and the way forward.

In Nigeria, promotion of women is always seen with suspicion as not few people erroneously think that women who are regularly promoted are those who are wont to sleep around with top male managers. This, to me, is superficially depressing as most career women are hardworking. Even in some homes, husbands find it difficult to trust their wives that are highflyers in their chosen professions. Not few husbands become paranoid when their wives are extremely excelling in their chosen fields.

Returning to how women are treated in the realm of politics, which is even the inspiration behind this piece, it is expedient to say that extensive research shows that when women run for office, they perform just as well as men. Yet women remain severely underrepresented in our political institutions.

Just as UN Women, the UN organization delivering programmes, policies and standards that uphold women’s human rights and ensure that every woman and girl lives up to her full potential, has observed,

“From the local to the global level, women’s leadership and political participation are restricted. Women are underrepresented as voters, as well as in leading positions, whether in elected office, the civil service, the private sector or academia. This occurs despite their proven abilities as leaders and agents of change, and their right to participate equally in democratic governance.

“Women face several obstacles to participating in political life. Structural barriers through discriminatory laws and institutions still limit women’s options to run for office. Capacity gaps mean women are less likely than men to have the education, contacts and resources needed to become effective leaders.

“As the 2011 UN General Assembly resolution on women’s political participation notes, “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.”

At this juncture it is expedient to say that even if some women have overcome these obstacles with great acclaim, and often to the benefit of society at large, it is equally expedient to advocate through this write-up that women as a whole should be given equal playing field with their male counterparts in politics as there is an urgent need for the widening chasm between gender inequality in politics, particularly as 2023 general elections, and 2027 general elections beckon. Aptly put, opportunities for all should be opened with gender sensitive policies and programmes.

Disclaimer: "The views expressed on this site are those of the contributors or columnists, and do not necessarily reflect TheNigerianVoice’s position. TheNigerianVoice will not be responsible or liable for any inaccurate or incorrect statements in the contributions or columns here."