Agora Policy, an Abuja-based think tank has revealed that the continued and systematic exclusion of women, and youths among others from social, economic and political opportunities in Nigeria severely limits the country in achieving its full potential.
In a report put together by a group of experts on gender, political and social inclusion and produced with the support of MacArthur Foundation, the Agora Policy examines the reasons why women, youths, people living with disabilities (PWDs), and ethnic/religious minorities are excluded from economic and political opportunities in the country.
The report titled; ‘How to Deepen Gender, Social and Political inclusion in Nigeria’, states that low level of inclusion in Nigeria incapacitates not just the excluded groups but the country itself.
According to the report, while women and girls constitute about half of the population and citizens under 35 years account for at least seven in ten Nigerians, the capacities of women and youths for full actualisation are constrained by unequal access to power and resources as well as exclusionary norms, practices, laws and policies.
This in turn, the report states, negatively impacts development outcomes for the country as a whole.
“Nigeria undermines itself by limiting the potentials of significant segments of its population. Continuing on this path amounts to Nigeria shooting itself in the foot or punching grossly below its weight.
“Deepening inclusion is thus not a favour to the excluded groups but a sensible route to overall national development. It is in Nigeria’s self-interest to be a more inclusive society.”
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Waziri Adio, the founder and executive director of Agora Policy reiterated that the best time to discuss and implement inclusive policy is during the electioneering like this.
“There is no better time than this critical electioneering and transition period to discuss the need to make Nigeria a more inclusive society. “Most of the issues causing friction in the country today are rooted in the exclusion of a substantial part of the population. This is also a major subtext of the 2023 general election.
“It is therefore important to use the period before, during and after the elections to discuss and exact commitments on how to improve the participation, representation and agency of a significant number of Nigerians who have been alienated, locked out or left behind,” Adio said.
The recommendations range from expanding access to marketable skills, job opportunities, credits and markets to making and enforcing more sensitive and more inclusive laws and policies, providing dedicated fundings, greater implementation-coordination and budget-tracking mechanisms, re-orientation campaigns, and increasing political representations for the excluded through greater devolution and constitutionally-backed power rotation and affirmative actions.
According to the Agora Policy report, Nigeria’s gender policies of 2006 and 2020 which respectively assign 35percent and 50 percent of appointments to women have been observed largely in the breach. Though females constitute 49.3 percent of the population, women amount to only 4.26 percent of the members of the national parliament.
In Nigeria, 15 states, (41.66 percent) of the 36 states, have no female legislators, according to data from Invictus Africa. The 15 states, which have a combined 410 state legislators, are: Abia, Bauchi, Borno, Edo, Jigawa, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Kogi, Kwara, Nasarawa, Sokoto, Taraba, Yobe and Zamfara. Beyond the political arena, the exclusion of women is equally pronounced in areas such as financial inclusion, ownership of landed property, access to education, health, ICT and wealth creation opportunities and others.
Besides, the report indicated that despite the numerical advantage of youths, they occupy only 6 percent of elective and appointive offices in Nigeria.
“Some of the politicians that have been holding political offices since the 1970s have continued to dominate the political space,” the Agora Policy reported.
According to the report, some structural and cultural issues (even some laws and policies) enable the exclusion of women from opportunities in Nigeria. The enablers of gender exclusion include: patriarchy, socio-cultural and religious norms that promote unequal economic and power relations, practices around indigene-ship, and the patronage and collusive network nature of Nigerian politics.
Hence, the report advocates enhancing the capacity of women and girls through better access to health and education (especially Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics, STEM); embracing gender-responsive budgeting and activating gender management systems; passing the five Gender Equality Bills turned down by the National Assembly during the ongoing constitutional amendment process; introducing and implementing laws that tackle inequality; and increasing female representation in politics through voluntary and legal quotas as is the practice in other African countries like Kenya, Rwanda and Senegal
To reduce exclusion of PWDs, the report recommends: passing new laws and effectively implementing existing ones, such as the Discrimination against Persons with Disability Prohibition Act 2018; advocating for the adopting of the Disability Act by more states; investing more in the education and health of PWDs; making public transportation and buildings more accessible to PWDs; expanding access to learning aids and providing interpreters for PWDs in places like hospitals; adopting quotas for PWDs in elective and appointive offices; and expanding access to markets and credits for PWDs.
