2011: Where Are The Women?

Since the Beijing Conference on Women in 1995, now commonly referred to as “The Beijing Declaration” on the need for at least 35 per cent of women representation in decision making, women issues have always come to the front burner.

Notable female activists and politicians have been in the vanguard of championing the cause of women, particularly in achieving the 35 per cent representation stipulated at the Beijing conference and even surpassing it.

For now, Rwanda is the only country in Africa so far known to have surpassed the target by having 50 per cent of women representation in parliament. In Nigeria, women representation in decision making is still less than 20 per cent.

Available statistics have shown that prior to the 2007 general elections, there was a total of 1,200 women aspirants to 1,532 offices, with 660 of them winning their primaries.

From the 660 that won the primaries, 93 were elected into various offices including six deputy governors; nine Senators; 27 House of Representatives members and 54 members of state Houses of Assembly.

Since the race to 2011 started, few women are known so far to have collected nomination forms, in spite of the fact that most of the political parties are giving free nomination forms to female aspirants.

However, in spite of the free forms, most of them still face difficulties in getting nominations as candidates in their political parties.

It is not surprising therefore, that Dr Joy Ezeilo, the Head, Department of Public and Private Law, Faculty of Law, University of Nigeria, Enugu Campus and Founding  Director, Womenaid Collective (WACOL), called for the abolition of free nomination forms for women.

Delivering a lecture entitled: “Closing The Gender Gap in the 2011 Elections” at an International Partners and Civil Society Organisations engagement forum, she said the waiver for women had worked against them.

The session was organised by the Democratic Governance for Development Project in Nigeria.

“It is like a double edged sword. With that also, they further marginalise the women because they don’t see them as contributors but as beneficiaries. It has further lowered the voice of women,” she said.

Ezeilo further noted that although gender issues were generally present in all the programmes of the political parties, they existed in rather broad and abstract terms and with very few specific commitments.

“My analysis of political parties with regard to gender equality recognition in party’s constitutions and manifestos shows a minimalist understanding of importance of engendering democracy.

“Less than half of the over 60 parties have constitutional safeguards for women’s representation in the party structure.

“It is a common knowledge that the only position given to women in political parties executive is that of “women or women leader” position, which smacks of tokenism and shows a reticence in promoting women to key party positions,” she said.

Ezeilo listed a number of challenges to closing the gender gap in 2011 and beyond to include poverty, low level of literacy, “hostile political environment and male engineered underhand exclusion strategies”.

According to her, others are male dominated party executive/structure, lack of awareness on constitutional rights, social, cultural and religious fundamentalism  and societal biases.

“The conceptualised public and private sphere dichotomy consigns women’s roles in the domestic sphere and sees the public space as traditional place for men.

“This perpetuates discrimination and distinctions on the basis of sex, resulting in exclusion and marginalisation of women in politics and public life in general.

“High monetisation of politics is also one of the major challenges to closing the gender gap,” she said.

The lecturer added that even the current campaign peg by the electoral process was a confirmation that huge resources were required to run for political offices which might well be beyond the reach of women.

The campaign peg by the electoral law, seen in the political circle as capable of knocking off the women, gave the ceiling of electoral spending for different categories of offiice holders.

The peg includes a staggering N1 billion for President; Governor, N200 million; Senator, N40 million and House of Representatives, N20 million.

For state Houses of Assembly, N10 million is pegged while Chairman of Local Council aspirant cannot spend beyond N1 million

In the same vein, Mr Daouda Toure, UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative, said that the Federal Government should make concerted effort to achieve the African Union target of 50 per cent of women representation in parliament.

Toure called for increased women participation in politics in 2011, noting that gender equality was critical for an all inclusive democracy.

“The current situation where you have 7 per cent of women in the House of Representatives and 8 per cent in the Senate is not acceptable. The Beijing conference calls for at least 35 per cent of women representation in decision making,” he noted.

INEC Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega, said that political parties should be put to task to declare what their policies are for women, adding that there was the need to ensure that gender issues were squarely addressed.

He also called for the mobilisation of women to participate fully in the forthcoming registration of voters as a first step towards their political empowerment.

That notwithstanding, political analysts see some merits in government’s National Gender Policy (NGP), a document containing plans towards the equal and fair treatment of men and women.

On governance, the NGP is calling for the adoption of special measures to achieve a minimum target of 35 per cent representation of women in political office, party organs and public life.

To strenghten the women’s case, observers called on the authorities to pass the National Gender Policy into law, for effective implementation by government.

Rev. Sister Rosemary Ukata, Executive Director, Centre for Women Studies and Intervention (CWSI), said that a survey carried out by the centre showed that some women nursed the fear of losing their marriages by venturing into politics.

“Bringing women from different political parties to attend meetings together has been observed to create tension between them and their political parties which view the women as engaging in anti-party activities.

“This is eventually used to sideline them from political positions,” she said.

But since the issue of women in politics has taken a center stage in Nigeria, it is observed that public attitude towards them is gradually changing.

This, political obervers tend to link to the common adage that women have come to prove that “what men can do, women can do even better”.

The likes of Dr Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, Dr Oby Ezekwesili, Prof. Dora Akunyili and Mrs Sarah Jubril among others, are often cited as examples of women making a difference in leadership positions.

Female members of the National Assembly have also proved that what their male counterparts can do, they can surpass despite the challenges they face as wives and mothers.

Political analysts are of the view that there is need to embark on continuous advocacy and engagement with political parties’ leadership, especially for improvement of internal democracy, and gender balance.

Stella Benjamin writes for NAN

Stella Benjamin