Reported by Martin Musiime Lawyer and Human Rights Activist

On the 25^th of February, Nigeria went to the polls and after days of vote tallying, Bola Ahmed, 70 years, was announced the president elect. Mr. Tinubu is a senior member of the incumbent party, APC that has been in power for 8 years. The results have been disputed by the opposition citing irregularities in the process. The election observers have stated that the election “fell well short of Nigerian citizens’ reasonable expectations.”[i] In their preliminary statement, the EU Election Observation Mission stated that, “Elections held on schedule, but lack of transparency and operational failures reduced trust in the process and challenged the right to vote.”[ii] The EU mission specifically noted that the process of choosing flag bearers from major political parties lacked transparency and inclusiveness. They added that the cycle underscored the very chronically low levels of participation of women and youth.[iii] This article focuses on the low levels of women participation.

Women comprise approximately 50% of Nigeria’s 210 million population and about 47% of the voters. Interestingly, of the almost 10million new registered voters, about 6.2 million are women. Whereas the numerical strength of women in Nigeria is not negligible, we inquire whether this is represented in the decision making rooms.

To start with, Nigeria has neither had a female president nor a female Vice President. The closest a woman has been to any of the top political jobs in Nigeria is when Patricia Olubunmi Foluke Etteh held the position of the speaker of the House of Representatives for five months—she was forced out of office following allegations of corruption. In the just concluded presidential elections, only one woman competed against seventeen men for the country’s top job. Her dismal performance was not unexpected considering she comes from a smaller political party, Allied People’s Movement and—she is woman! Important to note is the fact that none of the three main Presidential candidates had a female running mate.

The percentage of female legislators was reported at 6.2% compared to the 93.8% seats being held by the men. Equally, the Cabinet of Nigeria has only 7 female ministers out of 43 portfolios.[iv] The 2023 elections have not changed the trajectory of female representation at higher levels of leadership—only one woman is vying for the position of governor across the 36 states. Out of the 15,336 candidates in the 2023 elections on various positions at Federal and state levels, only 1,524 being women.[v] Elections alone cannot catapult women into leadership positions when the odds are against them in every aspect of life.

Some of the major obstacles to female participation in politics in Nigeria are; Patriarchy, Low levels of education, Religious and Cultural beliefs, Political violence, Financing, Stigmatization, and unfavorable meeting schedules according to Oloyede Oluyemi, a researcher in Nigeria.[vi]

Nigeria is a deeply patriarchal society where men have held most positions of power and relegated women to domestic roles. For many communities in Nigeria, a woman has to seek the permission of her husband before contesting for any political office. The suggestion to contest is often faced with hostility from the men who still consider women as unfit to govern. This patriarchy permeates into the political party structures where the highest position often reserved for women is that of ‘woman leader’ or leader of the women league of the party.

Another obstacle is religious and cultural beliefs that largely discourage women from occupying positions of elective leadership. With over 90% people in Nigeria ascribing to some form of religion, about 50% of that number subscribing to Islam and over 45% to Christianity, religion has a big influence on the Nigerian society. Majority of the religious groups are rather conservative when it comes to issues of women and are of the view that running for office makes women less submissive to men.[vii]

Political violence in Nigeria has also driven women away from politics. For every political cycle, there are reports of abductions, intimidations, even deaths resulting from political activity. The women in politics often receive the bigger brunt of this violence mainly in the insecurity prune parts of the country. In the build up to the 2023 general elections, Victoria Chintex, a labour party female leader was shot dead at her home. This attack is said to have been the ninth documented violent attack on a female politician. Many go on in communities unreported by major media channels. This is part of the compendia of roadblocks for women in politics.

Poverty is arguably one of the biggest roadblocks to women participation in politics. Whereas Nigeria is Africa’s biggest economy, it has 12.9% of the global population living in extreme poverty according to Statista. The biggest percentage of the poor comprises women. With the further systemic huddles that keep women in poverty such as in-access to education by women and barriers in access to finance, women find themselves in perpetual poverty that does not allow them the finances to run for office. Suffice to note: Nigerian politics is characterized by large sums of unregulated money—making politics in Nigeria a preserve of the rich.

Owing to the above highlighted barriers, it is pertinent that all stakeholders swing into action to eliminate all obstacles to women involvement in politics and other crucial decision making platforms. The first and most urgent strand needed to address this, is ‘political will’ among the decision makers—the men wielding power.

Due to the lack of political will, a series of amendments and bills that aimed at affirmative action in Parliament and government bodies were rejected by Law makers in Nigeria. These bills sought to create 35% positions in the House to women and also introduce a minimum of 10% slots for women in cabinet. These proposals were against the background of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action among other international instruments that call for equality among men and women. without deliberate political will amongst politicians in the midst of all the cultural and religious oppositions, bridging the gender gap in leadership in Nigeria will remain a far cry in the dessert. There should be POLITICAL WILL NOW! The new administration should make gender equality in politics a priority.

[i] Gabriele Steinhauser and Gbenga Akingbule, “Nigeria Election Criticized by International Observers, Opposition Parties.” Wall Street Journal, February 27 2023, https://www.wsj.com/articles/nigerias-ruling-party-candidate-takes-early-lead-in-slow-vote-count-5875b068.

[ii]https://www.eeas.europa.eu/sites/default/files/documents/2023/EU%20EOM%20NIGERIA%202023_FIRST%20PRELIMINARY%20STATEMENT%20_27_02_2023.pdf

[iii] ibid

[v] Rahma Jimoh, “Nigeria election: Women denounce poor political representation,” Aljazeera, February 16 2023, https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2023/2/16/nigerian-women-decry-poor-representation-in-nigerian-politics.

[vi] Oloyede Oluyemi,” Monitoring Participation of Women in Politics in Nigeria,” a paper presented to the Nigeria Bureau of Statistics, https://unstats.un.org/unsd/gender/Finland_Oct2016/Documents/Nigeria_paper.pdf.

[vii] Supra v