With the damning reports of violence, murder, arson from last weekend’s election in Bayelsa and Kogi States, one cannot help but join the late music legend, Sunny Okosun, to ask “Which Way Nigeria?”
Seeing the quantum of problem facing the nation – corruption, poverty, inflation, inefficiency and many more, the Ozzidi band leader released the hit song in 1984, asking where the country was headed and calling on all and sundry to join hands to save it from dying.
Sorrowfully, 35 years later, the story has not changed. Some even say the situation is worse now. The gap between the rich and the poor keeps widening, a few people have everything while many have nothing. The ruling class is dominated by greedy, selfish politicians who will do anything to get into power or remain in power. They have turned elections in the country to war where innocent people’s blood are spilled with reckless abandon and members of opposition political parties intimidated and molested.
Around the world, the issue of underrepresentation of women in politics and decision making is receiving considerable attention because it has been recognized that inclusion in political participation is a fundamental aspect of modern democracy. Improved representation of women has been shown to have benefits such as economic change, improved policy changes, peace building and others.
Many countries are, therefore, working hard to bridge the gap between male and female participation in politics with some African countries like Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, and Namibia, making the list of top 15 countries in the world with highest number of female representation in politics. They are said to have 64, 42.7, 41.7, 41.3, and 39.6 per cent female representation in politics, respectively.
In Nigeria, however, the reverse seems to be the case. The number of female law makers and top politicians is still a far cry from the affirmative action principle.  In the current National Assembly, for instance, out of 406 lawmakers, we have only 18 women (seven senators and eleven House of Representatives members). In the immediate past 8th Assembly, women occupied eight out of 109 Senate seats and 22 out of 360 seats in the House of Representatives. The story was not different in the preceding years, where minute percentages of the lawmakers both at the federal and state levels were women.
In the 59 years of existence of the country as an independent entity, only one woman, Dame Virgy Etiaba, has occupied the position of a governor, an authority she assumed following the impeachment of the then Governor of Anambra State, Mr Peter Obi, by the state Assembly in 2007. She was on the seat for only three months before going back to being the Deputy Governor following Obi’s re-instatement after the Court of Appeal nullified his impeachment.
It is, therefore, saddening to hear or read reports about women who are making efforts to participate in politics despite the high cost of electioneering campaigns and other logistics, being molested, abused or even killed. In the just concluded Kogi State election, a female governorship candidate of the Social Democratic Party, Natasha Akpoti, was allegedly attacked and molested by thugs believed to be loyal to the incumbent governor, Yahaya Bello, at the venue of INEC stakeholders’ meeting in Lokoja  in the full glare of police officers and other security agencies.
Watching her narrate her ordeal on a national television drew tears to my eyes. She was called all kinds of unprintable names just because she is a woman trying to exercise her legal rights. In the end, she had to leave the venue and did not take part in the meeting. Earlier, her party’s secretariat was reportedly razed and valuable properties and documents destroyed.
Also in Kogi, the PDP Women Leader, Mrs  Acheju Salome Abuh, was on Monday murdered in cold blood in her home by suspected political thugs. They were said to have poured petrol on the building and set it ablaze and waited, shooting and watching with relish while Mrs Abuh cried from inside the inferno until her voice died out. The blood thirty thugs reportedly left only when the victim and the entire house had been burnt to ashes.
Now tell me, how many women will be bold to participate in politics, particularly in that community, after such dastardly act? How many women, and even men, will be willing to stick out their necks in our war-like elections where anybody’s life could be taken at any time? Many of us must have watched the heart-rending video of the burial of a youth corps member whose life was cut short during the Kogi election. Every election increases the number of people killed in election violence in the country.
The most worrisome thing is that perpetrators of these heinous crimes are never apprehended nor punished. At most, we hear the police announce that some of them have been arrested and will be brought to book but we hardly see that happen. After the initial “noise”, mostly by civil society groups and other concerned bodies and individuals, we carry on as if nothing happened.
And one continues to wonder how the nation can move forward in this manner. Former President Goodluck Jonathan once declared that his political ambition was not worth the blood of any citizen but our current leaders think otherwise. They don’t care even if all the people perish for them to win an election.
As many concerned individuals have suggested, we truly need a whole lot of value reorientation. We need to be reminded that violence does not pay and that peace is paramount in life. Political positions should also be made less attractive to reduce the clamour for them. It is also important that the Electoral Law Amendment Bill be re-introduced at the National Assembly, with all the necessary amendments made so that it can hopefully receive Mr. President’s assent. This will possibly make room for electronic voting as well as address most of the anomalies we have in our current electoral system.

By: Calista Ezeaku