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IWD2018: Nigerian women clamour for more participation in politics

Women

Jesusegun Alagbe

On Thursday, March 8, 2018, the world celebrated the International Women’s Day, a day set aside to recognise the achievements of women without regard to national, ethnic, linguistic, cultural, economic or political division.The first Women’s Day had held on February 28, 1909 in New York, United States, which the Socialist Party of America designated in honour of the 1908 garment workers’ strike in New York, where women protested against harsh working conditions.

March 8 was then suggested by the 1910 International Socialist Women’s Conference to become an “International Women’s Day.” The day had then been predominantly celebrated by the socialist movement and communist countries until it was adopted in 1975 by the United Nations.

Since then, the International Women’s Day has assumed a new global dimension for women in both the developed and developing countries. With the growing international women’s movement, strengthened by the UN, the day’s commemoration has become a rallying point to build support for women’s rights and participation in the political and economic arenas.

By 1995, 189 countries signed the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action — a historic road map which focusses on 12 critical areas of concern and envisions a world whereby every woman and girl could exercise their choices, such as participating in politics, getting an education, having an income, and living in societies free from violence and discrimination.

However, 22 years later, in its 2017 Global Gender Gap Report, the World Economic Forum said gender parity was still over 200 years away, prompting the theme for the 2018 International Women’s Day celebration to be: “#PressforProgress.”

The call, which echoed around the world on Thursday, saw women making a strong call-to-action to press forward and progress gender parity.

Meanwhile, women in Nigeria were not left behind in the call-to-action, with the 2015 presidential candidate of the KOWA Party, Prof. Remi Sonaiya, calling on the Federal Government to fulfil the 35 per cent Affirmative Action for women in government.

The don, who spoke at an event — with the theme, “Mobilising women for politics” — organised by the Media Women Forum at WFM91.7, Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, Ogun State, to commemorate the International Women’s Day on Thursday, further called on women to show more interest in politics.

The essence of the 35 per cent Affirmative Action for women, though yet to be implemented to a significant level, is to encourage women participation in governance by having 35 per cent women as ministers, as well as 20 per cent as commissioners in states.

The Affirmative Action Bill was, however, rejected by the Senate in July 2017 in the constitution amendment exercise, though the senator representing Anambra North Senatorial District and former Minister of Aviation, Stella Oduah, has said it would soon be reintroduced and forwarded to the 36 state assemblies for endorsement.

Currently, there are five female ministers in President Muhammadu Buhari’s cabinet, making only 13 per cent of women participation in his government.

Be that as it may, Sonaiya said it was high time every barrier hindering women from assuming leadership positions, especially political leadership, was removed.

She said, “Globally, the subject of women participating and being significantly represented at the highest level in various spheres of social life is receiving considerable attention. The reason is that research has shown that having women in leadership positions confers great benefits to organisations, institutions and communities.

“In business, it has been shown that firms with women in top management positions were found to have experienced as much as 35 per cent higher returns on equity, according to a study of 343 Fortune 500 companies.

“It has also been shown that having more women in low and middle income countries ensures that more resources will be invested in public infrastructure such as health care services, roads, water, sanitation and violence reduction efforts. This is in line with general knowledge that women tend to invest more of their personal resources in caring for their families. So, they will tend to do the same if they get to public office. Thus, women are increasingly becoming the focus in development initiatives.”

Quoting a former Faculty Director of the Yale University Global Health Leadership Institute, Prof. Elizabeth Bradley, who said in a Huffington Post article that college classrooms today were now consisting of more women than men, Sonaiya lamented that women’s achievement in the classroom had, however, not been translated into gains in the boardroom and government.

She also maintained that some citizens had poisoned the minds of Nigerians that should they vote women in government, they would make no better difference than men.

She noted, “A reality that is often cited is the fact that some of the women who have occupied leadership positions have equally been embroiled in scandals just like their male counterparts, for instance, the Patricia Etteh case. [Etteh was a Speaker of the House of Representatives from June to October 2007, before bowing to pressure and resigning after she was accused of financial misappropriation to the tune of N628m.]

“People then wonder what difference women in government would make, after all. But I believe this is a skewed perspective. It is important to bear in mind that appointments by successive administrations have often been based not on considerations of merit and competence but rather on factors like political connections, personal interests, religion and ethnicity.

“There is no doubt that age-old cultural and traditional practices which have put women down will be difficult to overcome. Some men will equally imagine that having women in leadership position will be achieved at their own expense and that is sure to cause a certain degree of resistance. However, that need not be the case.

“When viewed in total well-being of the society, we should be aware that a bird which wants to fly with only one of its wings will not go far. Women have specific abilities different from men’s, which ought to be contributed for the development of the society.

“It simply doesn’t make sense for any nation aspiring towards development to confine half of its population to the backyard or the kitchen, the living room and the ‘other room.’ [President Buhari had made the slogan popular after his wife, Aisha, criticised him in 2016 and he responded by saying she belonged only to the kitchen and the ‘other room,’ believed by many to be referring to his bedroom.]”

Sonaiya finally called on political parties to give more offices to women so that it could translate into more participation of women in governance.

She said, “What is important is that we cannot have a nation where women will continue to remain as mere spectators in the business of politics, which was why I left the university system. We simply would not develop as we should if that situation continues.”

While speaking on the occasion of the International Women’s Day, the Chairperson of the Women Political Leaders, Mrs. Hadiza Umoru, bemoaned the challenges facing the participation of women in politics.

However, she encouraged women to develop passion for it to be able to overlook the challenges.

She said, “There is the challenge of finance, but if the passion is there, you will do it. Women should be bold. Some are afraid of politics, complaining of their husbands. Agreed that men are the head, they cannot survive without the neck.

“Political parties are not also helping matters; men aren’t easily convinced to vote for a woman. Some women too don’t support their fellow women. Let us come together as women and support one another. We must encourage ourselves.

“The 35 per cent Affirmative Action agreed in Beijing is not even being acted upon. We should raise more awareness and have a voice while we appeal to the Federal Government to implement the 35 per cent Affirmative Action.”

Speaking of lack of support for women in politics, a businesswoman and former Lagos State governorship aspirant on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party, Chief (Mrs.) Oluremi Adiukwu-Bakare, said, “When I was contesting elections, my challenge was not finance, but the leadership of the party would always say I couldn’t do it. They believed a woman shouldn’t be there.2

“To overcome this challenge, party executives should include women, otherwise we would have no one to fight for us. Then, some women say politics is dirty. Which game is not dirty? Every profession has its own merits and demerits. Women should join politics and husbands should learn to support them.”

Also speaking at the Media Women Forum event, the 19th and first female President of the Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture, Chief Alaba Lawson, represented by Mrs. Afolake Jimoh, said women should learn to raise their voices together and see how they could positively affect the society.

She said, “There are factors peculiar to Nigeria which make women unable to assume political leadership, such as lack of education, lack of financial capacity, patriarchal nature of our society, and so on.

“But today, we see men moving into women’s arena as we now have male chefs. Women too should come forward. Let us come together and have a coalition of women activists.

“Women can mobilise and sponsor a woman president and they can achieve it. Women can also lobby men who support women’s causes. We just have to hone our advocacy tactics. We have to be out there. We have to create awareness among women to join politics.”

On the occasion of the International Women’s Day, the Founding Director, Women Advocates Research and Documentation Centre, Dr. Abiola Akiyode-Afolabi, noted that there were several factors that had the potency of constraining the effectiveness of gender parity and gender sensitive policies and programmes and, as a consequence, “the actualisation of gender equality and women empowerment in Nigeria is a mirage.”

She said the country should take a bold step in achieving gender equality, which she said would lead to various positive outcomes, including poverty reduction and economic empowerment, and empowerment of women in politics.

She added, “Also, traditional structures which exclude women from participating in decision-making should be reformed.”

Meanwhile, drawing inspiration for Nigerian women from the suffragette movement in the US, the Public Affairs Officer, United States Consulate General, Lagos, Ms Darcy Zotter, said American women in politics had primarily played two roles, “first as influencers or activists and second, as delegates.”

She said of the achievements of the American women, “If you go as far back to the American revolution, you would find out that it was in fact women who were behind the Boston Tea Party. It was women who said they were not going to buy any more tea from the Brits. That was one of the significant events that America used to free itself from the United Kingdom. It was women who first took a stand; it was women who gathered together and forced the government to take action.

“Looking at the civil war a few years later in the US, it was women who fought for the abolishment of slavery. These were women who could not vote, but they were involved in politics; they were active and activists. They were not willing to sit at all and they successfully had to force the US government to end slavery.

“Moving forward to the turn of the century, women went forward with the suffragette movement to push forward the right to vote. It was women activists and their concerted efforts that led to the enforcement of two amendments to the US constitution because in 1920, American women finally got a right to vote.”

Zotter encouraged Nigerian women to also become more involved in politics by becoming both activists and influencers, noting that in the social media age, women could now make their voice better heard.

Quoting Hillary Clinton who said in 1995, “Women rights are human rights,” she said since then, the US government had started focussing on the causes of women in other countries of the world, including Nigeria, especially in the areas of education and health care.

The convener of the Media Women Forum, Mrs. Janet Mba Afolabi, said the day was to celebrate women who have achieved a lot in the society and look at the plight of those who were suffering from domestic violence and abuse.

Afolabi also called on women not to sit again on the fence when it comes to politics and start taking active roles for the betterment of the society.

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