Photo: (Eduardo Soteras/AFP/Getty Images)
In the last week of October, the Ethiopia’s parliament appointed Sahle-Work Zewde as the president of the country making her the first female president in the country’s history and the second in Africa. Ellen Sirleaf Johnson became the first female president in Africa after winning the Liberian general election in 2006 and led the country till 2018. Prior to the appointment of Sahle-Work as the president, Ethiopia’s Prime Minsiter, Abiy Ahmed made a significant reshuffle in his cabinet by reducing his ministers to 20 with half being females. This great move coupled with the appointment of a female president have resultantly led to cheers and accolades from various quarters of the world on a giant stride in female representation and inclusive governance in the continent’s second most populous country.
In recent times, gender discus have occupied a central place in development agenda which is predicated on the increasing recognition that women play important roles in economic growth, social cohesion and the attainment of sustainable development birthing policies and agendas to put women at the fore-front of decision making. While some countries are making significant progress in giving women fair chance in representation and decision making, many are still lagging behind. Nigeria, as the most populous county in Africa has about half of its estimated 200 million population to be females, the big question is ‘what percentage of these women are occupying political leadership positions?’ Nigerian women have about the worst representation of 5.6% in the national legislature currently ranking 183rd of the 190 countries assessed. This is particularly worrisome when compared to most other African countries like Uganda (34.3%), South Africa (42.3%), Angola (30.5%), Ethiopia (38.8%), Mozambique (39.6%), Cameroon (31.1%) and Niger (17.0%) [1].
Female representation in political leadership in Nigeria seems to be going down a slippery slope, for instance while the immediate former president, Goodluck Jonathan had 12 females out of the 42-member cabinet representing over 31% female representation among his ministers and about 4 occupying pivotal ministries, the current administration of President Mohammed Buhari has only 6 female ministers. Interestingly, women’s representation in political affairs is not novel in the Nigerian trajectory as they have often occupied prominent roles in warfare, political leadership and even heads of informal market across the various ethnic groups in the country. For instance, Olufunmilayo Ransom-Kuti was a foremost educator and women right activist that became a powerful force in the advocacy for women’s right to vote. Luwoo was a female that became the 21st Ooni (King) of Ile-Ife, a town reputed as the source of the Yoruba people while the Aba Women Riot of 1929 that saw thousands of women from Calabar and Owerri resist the British appointed ‘oppressive’ warrants chief and taxes imposed on market women are testament to the leadership capabilities of women even before the country attained independence.
The Nigerian constitution provides a levelling ground for ‘Nigerians’ to participate in political party, political office or exercise their voting rights without discrimination on their sex. The convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women (CEDAW) adopted in 1979 by the UN General Assembly and accepted to by 180 states including Nigeria also outlines the rights and equality of women, their freedom from discrimination and equality under the law. The Federal government of Nigeria through the Federal Ministry of Women’s Affair and Social Development in 2006 developed the National Gender Policy with the aim to ‘build a just society devoid of discrimination, harness the full potentials of all social groups regardless of sex or circumstance, promote the enjoyment of fundamental human rights and protect the health, social, economic and political wellbeing of all citizens in order to achieve equitable rapid economic growth; evolve an evidence based planning and governance system where human, social, financial and technological resources are efficiently and effectively deployed for sustainable development’. However, it was in August, 2008 that the Strategic Framework for the implementation of the Gender Policy was developed which focused on five key pillars; culture re-orientation and sensitization, promotion on women’s right particularly on gender based violence and in supporting new legislations and right for women, promoting the empowerment of women and integrating gender into key sectors, women political participation and supporting institutional development through the use of ICT [2]. While the country can boast of inclusive policies on gender participation in governance on paper, in practice, Nigeria is still far behind.
Of the 31 candidates that have indicated interest in becoming president of Nigeria after the 2019 elections, only 6 are women. The big question is ‘why is women representation and participation in political offices low in Nigeria?’ Abundant evidence from literature and share of conversations have shown the influence patriarchy and gender expectations play in women involvement in politics. For instance, party politics in Nigeria can be so demanding requiring several hours of commitments and travels that most women in Nigeria cannot afford except few cases of supportive husbands. How do we address this constraint? More advocacy for men to be partners in development; for the society to stop gender stereotype; for inclusive and equitable policies. While progress can be slow, change is inevitable. Another opportunity window is to be like Ethiopia, appointing qualified women to important roles, women like men, do not need to be politicians to have a share in decision making, they can be technocrats driving key decisions for the country.
Finally, if there is another take home lesson from Ethiopia, as is with Liberia, both women appointed were technocrats with enviable portfolios prior to their precedence. Ellen Sirleaf Johnson is a Harvard trained Public Administrator with expansive work experience at Key Institutions like Citibank, World Bank and UNDP while Sahle-Work Zewde is a top diplomat with about 3 decade career spanning several UN agencies. This negate the notion that women participation in political leadership is a mere appeal to feminine sentiments but rather demonstrate the unique power of qualified women that can shape the country’s development agenda.
References
- Women in National Parliaments. Situation as a 1st October, 2018. Available at http://archive.ipu.org/wmn-e/classif.htm
- National Gender Policy Framework (Implementation Plan) Federal Republic of Nigeria, 2008 – 2013.