As Nigerians await President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s ministerial list and other appointments, gender advocates and other stakeholders are canvassing the inclusion of women in governance, even as they have reminded the president of his campaign promise to the Nigerian women, ENE OSHABA reports
Campaigns and elections have come and gone and what is most important now is policy making and representation, having in mind the importance of an inclusive government to the development of the nation.
While the women did not do well in the elective positions, the appointments made so far have also not reflected women representation.
Many Nigerians, not just women, are advocating an inclusive government to bring a stop to the old order of leaving 50 per cent of the contributions of women can bring to governance out.
It is sad to note that since the Federal High Court ordered the federal government to comply with 35 per cent affirmative action for women there hasn’t been any much difference in the percentage of women being appointed in the political space.
mainstreaming women and Nigeria devt
Expressing her concerns during a zoom conference, organised by the Women Radio 91.7FM, tagged: “Tinubu’s Ministerial Appointments” the Programme Officer, WRAPA, Zainab Abdulrasheed, decried the fact that 35 per cent Affirmative Action has not been met. She stressed the need to achieve a holistic and sustainable development where the gender gap would be drastically closed.
Abdulrasheed sighted developing countries like Rwanda that have achieved up to 52 seats translating to 61.25 per cent of women in governance, and called on Nigeria as the giant of Africa to exemplify governance for other African countries to emulate.
“We’re largely faced with a patriarchal society where over time we see that discrimination from various social norms and values have affected how governance has been going over time.
“And so, if this has to change, I think with the new administration having this on the top burner of the administration, then you have to translate to a lot for women.
“Women constitute half of the population of Nigeria and to marginalise this population means marginalising such potential of talent. And so, it is a disservice our own country by not having these women on the front burner in decision making.
“There are lots of qualified women in all sectors who can contribute meaningfully in very vital and crucial sectors but we have brain drain due to the level of education that has dropped and all the conditions of service that are not so favourable to the upcoming ones,” she said.
“National Development is not just at the federal level, we need to look down to the grassroots to the state level, as well as the federal having all voices on board on this mission is what we need for an inclusive, socially inclusive, economically inclusive, you know, politically inclusive.
“I must say, governance, and having that will mean we’ll have a transparent, all inclusive, holistic as well as sustainable, you know, leadership process going on in our country. So, there’s more to just having a bit of the population of a country contributing to developing the state than having just the men. “Every level has to be taken on board for inclusivity in government so gender equity, social inclusion, and empowerment for women is crucial to mainstream their voices in leadership in Nigeria if we must achieve development,” she added.
Role of media in women inclusion
There’s been different cases around changing the narrative and amplifying the voices of women through the media. This is because there are many capable women doing great in their various field yet are often underreported in the media and so are not visible to occupy positions.
It is because of this that the conference tasked the media to intentionally amplify women’s voices by projecting their capabilities so that the President can be held accountable on his campaign promise of ensuring a minimum of 35 per cent of women in his ministerial cabinet.
Speaking on this, the National President, Nigeria Association of Women Journalists (NAWOJ), Comrade Ladi Bala, expressed worry over the fact that Nigeria was yet to implement 35 per cent Affirmative Action.
She noted that though the representation of women in the media seemed to be quite low, a lot of progress has been achieved.
Bala maintained that there was a serious shift in the way women were being reported in the media, particularly women in politics.
She recalled that NAWOJ, in the build up to the 2023 general election trained journalists on gender sensitive reporting for their visibility.
“I think that perception about women not being well represented in the media is gradually shifting to a woman getting more visibility. I think the issue here for me is the lack of proper engagement of media.
“A lot of groups, CSO’s do a lot around women especially in politics, about increasing the representation of women in governance but the media, and particularly journalists are not being mobilised in the process.
“The media is being used like a one-off thing, even when the issue of 35 per cent has lingered for long.
“The issues of women are not being prioritized, and that bis why they are not visible on decision making tables. This is not democracy that we are practising, and I think this should bother anyone that that wish Nigeria well.
“It’s so worrisome, as we speak today, we don’t have a good number of women at the National Assembly, we actually require strategic Media Engagement at this point in time before the election of the 10th Assembly.
“NAWOJ issued a press statement calling on the President, to see how a female can occupy key position at the National Assembly. I am disappointed that this call did not scale through because we cannot see a resemblance of the kinds of promises that the APC Presidential candidate made during his campaign concerning women inclusion and the few appointments that have been made does not reflect what we are anticipating,” she lamented.
The NAWOJ president called for all hands to be on deck by taking unconventional way of achieving this, calling particularly on the wife of the President who is a Senator to use the opportunity to push for the gender bill to be passed.
“The President promised to come up with a law that will guarantee the safety of women in the area of appointment across board. And if this government must be taken seriously the best thing to do at this point in time is to ensure that it achieves 35 per cent, in appointed position for women,” she stressed.
Expectations from President Tinubu
Nigerians are expectant of an inclusive governance from the president in the appointments of ministers stressing the benefits of fair inclusion.
Sharing her thoughts, the newly elected Deputy Chief Whip House of Representatives, Adewunmi Ononuga, expressed disappointment at the appointments made so far. However, she urged women to be hopeful as more were still underway.
“I was hopeful because I was made to understand from the body language of His Excellency the President that we would have at least 40 per cent though we would even have more than 35 per cent.
“Having said that, it is possible that the 40 per cent in totality would even be more than what we’re expecting. It may be in the ministerial, it may be in the boards, it may be in the advisers and assistants. It may be in anything else apart from the essays.
“So, I don’t I don’t really want to say that we have been shortchanged yet, because all the appointments have not been finished, never been done with. We cannot say it’s tokenism.
“If per chance, we now get to the ministerial, we get to the SSA’s we get to the boards and then we are on the same path. Let me tell you, a lot of women, even within the party, have been engaged by the President, have been engaged by the First Lady. So, I think it’s important for us to realise that we can’t start early enough, we cannot start early enough, we shouldn’t stop. We have to keep going on with regards to lobbying. We really have to put on our shoes and our skates are loaded with the gas to heat in the 35 per cent affirmative action or even more.
Benefits of inclusive governance
Speaking on the need for an inclusive government, a PDP member and Social Justice Advocate, Chikas Kumie, stated that the involvement of women across sectors at this point was critical if any meaningful development would be achieved by the current administration.
“Politics is over, it’s now time for governance and what we’re looking for is providing solutions to the needs of Nigerians. Now that President Tinubu has emerged, he’s not just a president of members of the APC. He’s a president of all Nigerians and what that means is part of the population he is leading are women. And what we want to see is a president who is not offering lip service to Nigerian women.
“This is because while in the field campaigning for the PDP we do come across the women in the APC. We see how much they have invested in the campaigns. We’ve seen how much of resources energy and time the women in the APC Have you been to this campaign, particularly for the 2023 elections.
“…And in going forward, what we are saying is, we want the women in the APC to be appointed. Why? Because they deserve to be appointed. If the men can be appointed, then the women deserve to be appointed too and we are not saying that as a form of a fight. But we are only saying that these women are competent and they have something sufficient something concrete to offer the Nigerian people and in the APC across all sectors, you can’t tell me that you will not find women who are competent to fill in all positions, whether it’s the ministry positions or heads of agencies, and if we in the opposition are looking forward to President who have a good governance. It’s not time for partisanship.
“Like I said the politics is always on time for governors. We know opposition are also hoping and appealing to the President that he gets to work with the women in the APC because when that happens, the impact of that Government will not only be felt by members of the APC, it will be felt by all Nigerians,” she said.
“I am really disappointed that the appointments so far have not reached that 35 per cent benchmark that we have been advocating for. But I am praying that going forward going to meet up to like what are what are known to that set, maybe 40 per cent or 50 per cent.
“We have the women that can fit in those positions right now in our State Assemblies. In the National Assembly, we grossly have insufficient number of women. So if we have women being appointed in these key positions, it will help them not just to bring to bear what they have to the table but we also have a ripple effect in the states when ministers are appointed as women.
“If we have 40 per cent of ministers being appointed as women I believe we will send a message to the governors and it will also reflect in the appointments that will be made in the States because not all the states are governed by APC their state and NPP there are also PDP members and that is why we’re saying let the president who is the head let the president who is the leader let his body language speak that he wants to run an inclusive government.
“The cost of living from the removal of subsidy and also the insecurity in the country. And all of these issues you cant have these issues seriously addressed without the voices of women heard because women are the ones who take care of children at home.
“Women are the ones who understand what it means not to have the educational system working or what it means to have a society where the infrastructures are not working the women.
“If we want to really bring this down to the local men who are the majority in the villages. They are the ones that have difficulty accessing, clean drinking water, good roads and all of these things, even the basic activities that keeps our people as it’s falling.
“Majority of the farmers are women. And just recently the President spoke about food insecurity. So, if we’re bringing all of this into the issue of inclusion, you can’t have the National Security Council meeting where we met was represented and then have other issues.
“So when we’re talking of governments, not to be speaking above the heads of Nigerians, what Nigerians simply want is to have a good life, be safe in their homes, be able to pay their bills. “And if we’re able to get that done, it will not only be that we’re in this position because currently there are women what we are praying we are given the women in positions so that we get know what happens, the women are the rural area because that is rewarded for being in field, I will tell you that a lot is going on in the country that sometimes I feel that our leaders are detached from reality.
“Nigeria is at the stage where we need everybody to be on board. And then when we feel we need people to be on board, we are not saying you are members of the opposition. No, as a politician.”
