The Nigeria 60th independence anniversary is celebrated as women also recounts the gains and challenges of women 25 years after the Beijing Declaration which calls for Affirmative Action for women in all spheres of national life. ENE OSHABA writes
1995 Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action has continued to be recognised as the most progressive Roadmap for the Empowerment of women and girls, everywhere.
Nigeria, as a member of the United Nations, was expected to join the global community in March 2020 to report on progress made, challenges encountered and the way forward in implementing the 12 critical areas of the Beijing Platform for Action, 25 years after its adoption, though stopped by the outbreak of coronavirus.
It would be recalled that the Ministry of Women Affairs was birthed in the same year as the historic Beijing Conference and has also tried to align its programmes, plans and actions according to the 12 Critical Areas of Concern.
The Minister of Women Affairs while delivering a keynote address at the national review conference on Beijing declaration held on the theme: “25 years since Beijing: accelerating commitments in Nigeria,” noted the normative and descriptive structure of the Beijing Platform. She said the ministry continually seeks entry points on improving the situation of women and girls through multi – sector collaboration and partnerships at different levels.
Represented by her special assistant on technical matters, Princess Jumai Idonije, she said the disparities in different geopolitical zones plus the persistent challenges of cascading the policy gains from national and state levels, to reach women and girls in the rural areas, always are serious challenges.
“There is also a sense in which programmes that deal with gender equality and the empowerment of women tend to refer to women and girls as homogenous blocs, which further marginalises specific categories of women and girls such as those with disabilities,’ she said.
Women’s scorecard @60
A critical look at Nigeria as it relates to the delivery of the commitments contained in the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, shows zonal variations, but with a very definite tilt towards the assertion that Nigerian women and girls have come a long way.
The minister explained that some of the achievements that are specific to the past five years include the adoption of a Social Protection budget as part of the Federal Budgetary Framework; the passage of the Child Rights Acts 2003, Violence Against Persons Prohibition Act; 2015, launch of National Sexual Offenders Register and Sexual Assault Referral Centres, development of National Action Plans and State Action Plans in line with UNSCR 1325, Financial inclusion for women and better Economic Empowerment programmes targeted at women.
She added that there is the integration of gender perspectives into the National Security and Peace architecture and into interventions in the North East, strengthening of institutional mechanisms for the advancement of women, as well as targeted programmes to improve girl-child participation in science and vocational education.
“One defining achievement was the coming on stream of the National Gender Policy 2006. The Policy is aligned with relevant Regional and International Protocols and Instruments, such as; the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, the Beijing Plan of Action, New Partnership for Africa Development, African Union Solemn Declaration for Gender Equality, African Protocol on Peoples’ Rights and the Rights of Women, International Conference on Population Development Plan of Action, Commonwealth Gender Plan of Action, the Millennium Development Goals, and the National Economic Empowerment Development Strategy. The Policy has laid the foundation for advocating and mainstreaming our issues and concerns in all aspects of National Development.
“This has also led to strengthening women’s voices and structures as shown by the frequency with which gender concerns are integrated in public policy texts and discussions; the vibrant activist landscape of women – focused civil society organisations; women’s increasing interactions within the economic sphere; and the higher numbers of women, engaged at different levels within the electoral space as proof of gender – specific gains within the past twenty – five years in general, and the past five years.
“It is gratifying to note that many Universities have established Gender Departments and Research Centres to provide access to data as well as formal education study options on gender.
‘To further consolidate on these gains, we have launched the National GBV Data Collation Tool, the first of its kind, to ease the dearth of GBV data in the country, with directives that every partner and stakeholder should use the tool to collate and submit GBV data to the Ministry for effective coordination and planning.”
Not yet uhuru
Even though a lot progress has been made, it is sad that the high levels of women’s electoral participation have not translated into equally high numbers of women in political and public office where decisions are made.
According to available statistics, out of a total of 11,117 available electable positions in 1999, women made only 631 of the positions, representing a mere 5.6%. Of these 631 female contestants, only 180 managed to win. Out of the 180 that won, 143 were elected at the ward levels as Councilors. The 180 elective positions occupied by women represented only 1.6% of the total number of available elective positions.
The minister recalled that in 2003, no woman occupied the Government House of any of the 36 states of the federation as governor.
“However, following the Supreme Court judgement on June 14, 2007, which noted that Mr. Peter Obi (elected on the platform of APGA) had not served out his tenure, as governor, Andy Uba (whose deputy was Stella Odife) left office as governor of Anambra state and Lady Virgy Etiaba, became Peter Obi’s From 1 deputy governor in 1999, the number rose to 2 in 2003, (5.5), 6 in 2007 (16.6) and decreased to 3 in 2011 (8.3) and 4 in 2015.
“There was an increase in percentage of women elected into the Houses of Assembly from 3.54% in 2003 to 5.4% in 2007; 6.11% to 7.2% (for House of Representatives; and 3.67% to 8.3% (for Senate).”
Expert speaks
The National Coordinator of Change Managers International and the 100 Women Libby Group Mrs. Felicia Onibon, maintained that though a lot of progress has been achieved, a lot of women still do not have the needed enabling environment to reach their full potentials even when they have proven smart and capable: leading processes around the world where there is a fair playing ground.
Onibon noted the giant strides of women in the past who fought for the emancipation of women, stressing however that Nigeria ought to have achieved more on development of women and girls.
“By now we should give special attention to women who wants to be in the sciences instead of discouraging them. The kind of thing that happened in Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) Zaria where a girl who almost got the cut off marks to be admitted but was denied admission was discriminatory.
“In politics we need fair playing ground and government should ensure that it is not monitised. In other countries politicians also spend but the magnitude of spending in Nigeria is quite different. How would you explain somebody spending 85million naira cash a night before election?”
Also speaking the Executive Director, Oja Development Content Author and Public Affairs Analyst Jide Ojo, there is nothing to write home about women development in Nigeria.
According to him, the country is only paying lip services to issues of women integration and development, adding that there is a lot of tokenism around issues of women.
“Take for instance the National Gender Policy which has not yielded any results. The fact that there is a women’s ministry in all the states yet there is lots of gender disparities shows that a lot still needs to be done to engender our national lives and this can be achieved with better commitment and political will of government,” he said.
NWTF
In her welcome address at the national review conference the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Nigerian Women Trust Fund (NWTF), Mufuliat Fijabi, said at 60 there should be more women in leadership positions in both elective and appointive capacity.
She said that the lockdown arising from the coronavirus pandemic escalated violence against women and girls, noting that this exposed the true attitude of each community, state, country and the world towards women.
She also expressed concerns at the rate of protection of women at home, the community response and attitude towards them, adding that efforts/response of the security agencies and the government all came to the fore and have been adjudged as poor.
According to her, this poor response was what reinvigorated the need to expedite action on the twelve critical areas which the Beijing Platform for Action (BPFA) stands for.
“The review conference placed emphasis on violence against women, women in power and decision-making positions, institutional mechanisms for the advancement of women and human rights of women.
“The year 2020 no doubts will remain a critical year in human history not just because it is 25 years since women gathered in Beijing China at the Fourth World Conference on Women under the auspices of the United Nations but because, the year 2020 came with a global pandemic that exposed the true situation of women and girls across the globe – a reflection that aside the public health emergency women and girls have actually being living in a greater daily pandemic in the form of violence against women and girls that is yet to receive a complete lockdown if only to protect world’s women and girls,” she said.
Way forward
The NWTF CEO said to increase and fast track the speed of response to the advancement of human rights, gender gaps in governance needs to be closed including advancement in the role of women in decision making positions.
She called on all to see this review conference as another space to examine the issues at hand and to debate vigorously on the strategic way forward.
“There is need for a more intentional approach from the government of Nigeria. The gains of Beijing must not be left to a standstill.
“The Ministry under my leadership will continue to advocate and create awareness to end all forms of discrimination, violence and injustices against girls and women in Nigeria. To this end, we will upscale our on-going advocacy strategies with all relevant partners to ensure that women and children concerns are not left out of the Agenda of the Administration of His Excellency, President Muhammadu Buhari,” said the Minister Pauline Tallen.
“Due to the significance of the year, we will intensify collaboration with all stake holders at National and State levels towards the provision of an enabling environment, legislative reviews and passage of Gender and Equal Opportunity law to ensure the elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Girls and Women.
“We will also continue to use our “HeforShe” campaign to drive the advocacy to create a level playing field for women and girls,” she added.
However, women are still confronted with patriarchal customary beliefs and social norms that are regularly appropriated to reinforce limitations to women’s choices, opportunities and also their access to productive resources, such as access to land.
Available data shows the number of policy actions geared towards ensuring inclusive growth and women’s economic participation have not yield expected results.
It is to this end that gender experts are recommending that there is a need to have more gender champions including men and women that can push harder the demand for an inclusive government and political participation to enable the change women desire.
