Gender Inequality in politics is sadly still very much a reality in Nigeria. Africa’s most populous country, continues to lag its African peers in women inclusion in both elective and appointive political positions.
Of the 43 ministerial nominees recently submitted by President Muhammadu Buhari and cleared by the National Assembly, only seven are women, representing only 16.2 percent of the total number.
Even though this is a 2.4 percentage increase from the five female ministers (or 13.5 percent of the total) in Buhari’s first term (2015), it is still 25 percentage points lower than the 41.2 percent of female ministers appointed by former President Goodluck Jonathan in 2011.
This is coming at a time that Rwanda, Ethiopia and South Africa have made an unprecedented push for gender parity in politics by ensuring that women made up half of their countries’ ministerial cabinet.
On October 16, 2018, Ethiopia became the first country in Africa to have gender-balanced cabinet with 50 percent of its members being women. Out of a total of 20 members, 10 were female. Two days after Ethiopia followed suit by also announcing 50 percent of its cabinet to be women. And in June 2019, South Africa also made such announcement too.
Motunrayo Alaka, centre coordinator, Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ), said that this just shows that the government is behaving unintentional towards gender balance and that African countries like Rwanda, Ethiopia and South Africa have become curious of the quality and importance of women to the growth and development of their society.
While Amina Oyagbola, founder, Amina Oyagbola, Women in Successful Careers (WISCAR) said: “It is quite disappointing that Nigeria the self-acclaimed ‘Giant of Africa’ is lagging so far behind. Countries like Rwanda and Ethiopia realised the importance of having fair representation of women in governance and have taken decisive steps to address it.”
“Nigerian women are grossly underrepresented in government even though they make up 50 percent of Nigeria’s population. This underrepresentation of women in political life contributes to exacerbate inequality in the country. It is quite alarming that the situation seems to be retrogressing, going by the last election which held in February, where only 62 women were elected to the legislature- a mere 4.14 percent, which is a significant decrease from the 2015 election when women comprised 5.65 percent of lawmakers,” Oyagbola further said.
The importance of women in the scheme of things, governance inclusive, can never be over-emphasised, as witnessed in the many roles they take on at the immediate and extended family levels.
Generally, it is believed that women around the world work more than men in total (including both paid and unpaid work), they earn one quarter less, on average, hold only one quarter of executive positions in the private sector, and occupy less than one quarter of all seats in national parliaments.
Tinu Mabadeje, a nonviolence training consultant, said: “I was actually looking forward to the list but unfortunately, it was not impressive enough and like we know politics in Nigeria is all about money and most women have not been able to play politics with money because we don’t have money. We can’t compete with the male gender.”
Great women who have played significant role in the society have not only all proved their mettle but also strengthened the case for making gender inequality in politics a thing of the past. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, for instance, served as finance minister under both the Olusegun Obasanjo presidency and the Goodluck Jonathan presidency. Under the Obasanjo presidency, Okonjo-Iweala was at the forefront of the negotiations that led to debt relief granted to Nigeria by the Paris Club.
Others are Oby Ezekwesili, who served first as minister of solid minerals and later as minister of education under Obasanjo; Esther Nenadi Usman, served as finance minister under Obasanjo; Kema Chikwe, a topnotch member of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), served as aviation minister; Ndi Okereke-Onyiuke headed the Nigerian Stock Exchange; Omobola Johnson served as minister of communication technology in the Jonathan presidency and others.
“There are qualified women in Nigeria who can hold their own and are technocrats and people in government who understand the issues in the country. So, for a government to do 7 out of 43 is totally unbelievable. It shows that the government lacks the intention to make things right,” Alaka said.
For close to eight years, the gender equality bill which is designed to eradicate gender inequality in politics, education and employment has been sitting in the Nigerian Senate. And so far, nothing has been done about it. According to the 2018 Global Gender Gap report by the World Economic Forum (WEF), Nigeria ranked 139th position out of a total of 149 countries in political empowerment.
“I believe that the President deliberately, chose his cabinet with a low representation of women. This is his 2nd term; so, it isn’t that he is unaware of the implications of his actions,” Edobong Akpabio, executive director, Living Green Farms and Garden Foundation, said.
“Unfortunately, the nation is bedevilled with many difficulties at the moment, from a struggling economy to a high level of insecurity and criminality. A gender-rich cabinet, made up of competent people would be in a position to guide Nigeria out of this mess. When our decisions are political instead of patriotic, the nation loses,” Akpabio further added.
Women advocates have said that if they were represented more in political positions or ministerial ones, it would lead to greater investments in education, increase a country’s GDP growth and help foster the overall quality of governance in terms of boosting accountability and transparency, reducing corruption, and protecting the interest of marginalised sections of Nigeria.
In order to ensure and build a well-established, quality political or governance system, Oyagbola suggested that government should protect the rights of women to make them active participants in the economic, social, political, cultural, and other arenas of the country, thereby bringing about development.
“Empower women and providing them with fair representation across different decision-making levels of the government structure to better protect women’s interests and to achieve quality governance,” she advocated.
BUNMI BAILEY
