International Women’s Day: Nigeria in focus

As the world marks International Women’s Day (IWD), which draws attention to matters relating to women and girls, women in Nigeria have been called upon to continually up-skill themselves, network actively, and put themselves forward confidently for greater roles in society.
Some prominent Nigerian women who spoke with BusinessDay also called for gender balance, women empowerment, and inclusion of more women in governance in the country for economic development.

The calls are in tandem with this year’s theme, ‘Think equal, build smart, innovate for change’, as well the campaign hash-tag, ‘#Balance for better’. Both aim to find innovative ways to advance gender equality and the empowerment of women, particularly in the areas of social protection systems, access to public services and sustainable infrastructure.

“Gender imbalance as a critical issue has never been more challenging for us. The prospect of growth for women in business and the labour force generally is already hampered by norms and stereotypes which form a big part of our culture today,” said Osayi Alile, CEO, Aspire Coronation Trust Foundation.

“However, this is the time for women to rise above their mental barriers. A woman’s journey to success begins from harnessing the power of her mind,” she said.
Toyin Sanni, CEO, Emerging Africa Group, said the gender divide is a global problem, even though it is a bigger problem in certain areas than in others.

“The solution is not what the women are doing or what they are not doing. It’s a collective responsibility. Yes, women should up-skill themselves, network actively, and should put themselves forward confidently and project themselves,” she said.

Sanni said women also need to know that they make up about 50 percent of the population, and so, ideally, should be found in 50 percent of the leadership positions.

“I see the gap as an opportunity for all of us to continually upscale ourselves, for us to put ourselves forward even for leadership positions and not to be discouraged if we don’t get it at all, first try until we get there,” she said.

Organisations and countries, Sanni said, should set deliberate targets for inclusiveness because everybody loses when some are excluded.

“Nigeria cannot continue to underestimate the role women play in advancing our national interests and our country’s goals of peace, stability, and prosperity,” Precious Ozemoya, a sustainable development enthusiast, said.

“We recognise that what makes us diverse makes us strong and no nation can get ahead if about half its population is left behind,” she said.

Ozemoya said if Nigeria truly supports the Sustainable Development Goals, then gender equality should govern not only the ranks of its defence service but its philosophy to advance true equality and equity around the globe.

Nigeria has very poor records of gender-based violence, with many cases of exploitation, rape, and verbal and physical abuse of women and girls. Trafficking in women and girls for forced labour or prostitution is also on the rise.

In addition, young girls suffer from unhealthy traditional practices, such as female genital mutilation and early child marriage, which deprive them of their childhood and education and expose them to vesico vaginal fistula (VVF) as their frail bodies are poorly developed for marital ‘responsibilities’ like pregnancy.

“Having a law against female genital mutilation is a major step but ensuring that people are aware of its existence is very important in our new resolve to rid Edo State of the practice,” Godwin Obaseki, Edo State governor, said regarding gender-based violence.

The state recently passed a new law, Violence Against Persons Prohibition (VAP) Act, providing for life imprisonment without an option of fine for perpetrators of female genital mutilation (FGM) in the state.

Experts have said there are twice as many women below the poverty line than men, and up to 19 times as many men in executive positions than women. In the corporate world, women struggle to be heard, as only few make it to the boardrooms. They battle unequal payment, and in some cases, sexual harassment.

In politics, men generally dominate, even though women show up as candidates, voters, politicians, activists, and in most cases in Nigeria, as praise-singers. Again, women tend to be treated very differently from their male counterparts, and the results of every election year tell the story.

For instance, despite women constituting 49.5 percent of Nigeria’s population, according to National Population Commission (NPC) figures, no woman has emerged president or vice president in the country’s nearly 60-year history. Similarly, no woman has emerged governor in an election. Elections conducted between 1999 and 2015 produced only 16 female deputy governors. While there were more female deputy governors in 2007, only four women became deputy governors in 2015.

“We definitely do not want to have women in politics just to meet the gender diversity requirement and these women end up as flower pots or showpieces in the political scenes; we need to have dynamic, tenacious, confident women,” Imomoemi Ibisiki, divisional head, human capital management, Heritage Bank plc, said.

“Women with history of transformational leadership need to engage strategically in progressive politics. Gladly, Nigeria doesn’t lack women with these qualities,” she said.
Elishama Ideh, a former presidential candidate and founder, Partnership For A New Nigeria, lamented that there are not enough women in politics in the country.
“We have a society that is predominantly patriarchal and also very gender-biased, where the women have been programmed into a mindset that they cannot aspire beyond a certain limit. Also, politics in this clime is very dangerous and it is all about money. These issues have boxed women into a corner,” Ideh said.

“The solution is that women should be encouraged to step out boldly and more. Women should rise up to support aspiring women and not further castigate them because it takes a lot of boldness and courage for any woman to rise up in our society to say they want to run for any public office,” she said.

Omolara Adesanya, governorship candidate of Providence People’s Congress (PPC) in Lagos State, said many women were not coming out because of fear and because of the mindset that women belong to the kitchen.

“Women are already aligning with governance but their full potential is not being harvested. There are so many intelligent women out there with the tenacity to do something for their country but they are not being encouraged,” Adesanya said in an exclusive interview with BusinessDay.

“Violence is also another reason why women don’t put themselves forward. Politics can only be dirty if you make it dirty, so you can just do it the right way if you don’t want it to be dirty,” she said.

KEMI AJUMOBI, DESMOND OKON & RUTH UDEMBA