Natasha: Stakeholders highlight need for more women representation

…Say only 20 women in 469-member National Assembly is no democracy

The ordeal of Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, a senator representing Kogi Central after an altercation with the Senate President Godwin Akpabio over seating arrangement has brought to the fore the difficult terrain female politicians operate within Nigeria.

Perhaps, the situation mirrors a wider problem, which despite Nigerian women constituting about half of the population of the country and are known to play vital roles in the electoral process, they have over the years become targets of attacks of diverse forms based on their positions in promoting transformative politics and good governance.

Many Nigerians including stakeholders believe that with the major roles women play in the electioneering process and their population, the society and successive administrations have not given due recognition to them, arguing that female gender is discriminated against.

Across Nigeria, the situation seems to be getting worse from the advent of the fourth republic in 1999 till now, there is dwindling number of women in elective or appointive positions.

This is despite the exceptional success achieved by women who have occupied public positions, either through elective or appointments.

Hammed Muritala, development expert, said that having more women in public office can aid the attainment of good governance and accountability in leadership in Nigeria.

“I think it is a patriarchal thing, we don’t give them more chance or voice, but more women vote and we use them more in the electioneering process,” Muritala said.

“There is no doubt that women would give Nigeria good leadership and accountability and we saw that with Dora Akunyili and co. Nigeria stands to gain a lot from opening up the space for more women.”

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Ordeals of Nigerian women in politics

The lack of inclusion of women in the political system is a source of concern to many citizens and political stakeholders in Nigeria.

Though initial progress was made, the last one decade has seen progress receding and the socio-economic disparity in gender remains wide.

Women’s representation in Nigerian politics has been on a downward slide since 2011, and the 2023 election in the Africa’s largest democracy confirmed the expectations of poor outcomes for women.

The number of women in Nigeria’s National Assembly has fallen by 19 percent compared to the last assembly, with women now occupying 3 percent of seats in the Senate and 4 percent in the House of Representatives after the 2023 poll.

Currently, the country ranks in the bottom ten globally in women’s representation in national parliaments, according to the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU).

Only six states have female deputy governors and most state legislatures have less than five women. Only four women were elected into the Lagos State House of Assembly in the 2023 general election.

Experts have attributed many reasons for the challenge, especially for the recent poor outing in elections by Nigerian women in the 2023 polls.

Many female politicians say the monetisation of the electoral process, violence and unbalanced party structure had affected their participation in politics and emerged victorious in elections.

“I think we need a complete overhaul of the electoral system, I was a candidate in the last election apart from competing in a small unpopular party, the largest parties bought votes in my area and there was massive intimidation that many people could not come out due the violence that ensued,” a former candidate who did not want her name mentioned said.

The candidate further said that she has female friends and colleagues that want to go into politics, but the monetisation of the electoral process and violence associated with elections in Nigeria was scaring them.

Elor Nkereuwem, a gender expert, said the challenge of representation persists in spite of the near parity of voter registration between men and women in past election cycles.

Nkereuwem stressed that part of the problem was that structures of political parties do not favour women as most of them are led by men who take decisions to favour their gender.

She called for a special quota for women in elective positions in the country as a solution.

“A lot of us dropped out of the race in 2019 because even though they gave us form for free or reduced rate, we did not have money to campaign across the state and constituencies like the men,” Tolani Balogun, a female politician, said.

Culture of violence scaring women

Experts believe that part of the reasons why there are reduced numbers of women in elective positions is because of the large-scale violence which has characterised elections in Nigeria over the last two decades.

Nigeria, Africa’s largest democracy, has a lengthy history of election violence. This violence is a serious impediment to full political involvement, particularly among women. This was the case in the 2019 and 2023 general elections.

Figures from the World Bank development indicators show that women make up 49.32% of Nigeria’s population, meaning that almost half of the Nigerian people are women.

Experts say electoral violence aims to disrupt the process and physically harm election materials and participants.

“It also includes destroying property with the intention of causing emotional or psychological harm and financial damage to others,” Abdulazeez Alao, a political scientist, said.

Alao added that it also includes destroying property with the intention of causing emotional or psychological harm and financial damage to others.

“I could not stand the violence on the 2023 presidential election day and had to run to take cover as a female, but even the male also ran, but the guys were armed with dangerous weapons,” Elizabeth Ekanem, a former candidate, said.

Ekanem added that some of the electoral gender-based violence were perpetrated deliberately to scare women away from the electoral process.

Quota system solution

In recent time stakeholders have canvassed for a quota system of elective positions for women in the country as solution to the problem, if the declining number of elective women in public office is to be checked in 2027.

They said it was imperative that the National Assembly gives constitutional backing to the demand to help solve the problem.

Many female politicians have called for the implementation of the Fourth World Conference on Women and adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (1995), noting that Nigeria is nowhere near the 35% affirmative action.

“Quota system would solve the problem. We are in a patriarchal society where women are only to be seen and not heard, unfortunately; this is still the truth about the Nigerian society,” Tope Musowo, public policy expert, said.

“Interestingly, the trend is changing in some African countries like Rwanda, Senegal and so on. Not to talk of the Scandinavian countries where the ratio of male representation and female representation in government are equal,” he further said.

Many gender experts say the situation is slowing down gender inclusion in Nigeria’s politics, especially efforts to address the violence and patriarchy women experience in political parties over the years in Africa’s biggest economy.

Perception of women politicians as sex toys

Some observers have also said that part of the limitation for women is the perception that women politicians are people of ease virtue. The perception is also not limited to those watching from the outside, it is the same eye male colleagues see them.

“In our part of world, principal officers hardly give women politicians reasonable roles, even when they merit such roles without asking for something in return. It is a crazy world. It is only very few women that openly speak about their experience.

“Are the female politicians treated the same way as male politicians? If there were say, 40 female senators in the Senate of 109 members, there would have been more respect than what we are witnessing now. When you have only 20 females in a 469-member National Assembly, then, there is problem. There is an urgent need to deliberately address the imbalance in the overall interest of Nigeria,” Lilian Odor, a psychologist, said.