Nigeria, which ranks 181 out of 193 on the Gender Equality Index for countries with low women representation in governance, is going further down the ladder in terms of the number of female candidates in next year’s general elections.
While female representation is only 7.3 percent (8 of 109) in the Senate and 3.6 percent (13 of 360) in the House of Representatives in the current dispensation, the situation will be potentially worse in the 10th National Assembly, to be elected in February next year.
For the 2019 elections, 12.3 percent of the senatorial candidates were women. That was a decline from 17 percent for the 2015 elections. But the 2019 has further crashed to nine percent for the 2023 polls.
Also, in 2019, 11.9 per cent of the House of Representatives candidates were women as against nine percent for the 2023 election.
By the time the elections are concluded, the figure of female federal legislators is likely to be lower than that in the present National Assembly, given that many of the candidates are in fringe political parties.
There are no candidates for the executive positions – President and Governor.
Nigeria has only produced a female governor by default when then then governor of Anambra State, Mr Peter Obi was impeached by the state House of Assembly in November 2006. Between then and February 2007 when Obi regained his seat through the judicial process, Dame Virgy Etiaba served as governor.
Women’s representation in Nigeria’s parliament is among the lowest in the world, according to a civil society organisation, YIAGA Africa in its “No Country without Women” report.
A recent report by the Gender Strategy Advancement International, a non-governmental organisation, revealed that women’s political participation in Nigeria falls below the world and African continental standards.
The list of candidates for the 2023 elections yet again highlights the poor representation of women in politics in Africa’s most populous country and one of the world’s largest democracies.
Five states – Bauchi, Kano, Sokoto, Yobe and Taraba – have no female candidate for federal legislative seats.
Compared with the statistics of the parliamentary elections of 2015 and 2019, female representation in the 2023 polls is the worst, despite increased agitation in the last three years for gender balance and more active female participation in politics.
“For the House of Representatives, women’s candidacy was at 11.6 percent in 2019, which was a decline from 15 percent in the 2015 elections, and for State Assembly, the candidacy of women was at 12.7 percent in 2019, revealing a decline from 14 percent in 2015″, YIAGA Africa’s Director of Programmes, Cynthia Mbamalu wrote in an article, “Women: Balancing Representation through Constitutional Reforms”.
Mbamalu warned that Nigeria is heading to an almost all-male legislative house “if legislative measures are not taken to guarantee women’s representation in elective offices”.
Nigeria’s largest political parties – the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) – are not showing leadership by example in gender parity.
Only six percent of the APC’s National Assembly candidates are women while that of the PDP is five percent.
For the senatorial election, the National Rescue Movement (NRM) has the highest number of female candidates with 10, while the Africa Democratic Congress with 44 candidates produces the highest number of female candidates for House of Representatives seats.
The Accord party has eight female candidates for the Senate and 15 for the lower chamber; Action Alliance has two for Senate and 16 for the green chamber, while Action Democratic Party (ADC) has five each for both chambers.
Action Peoples Party also has eight female candidates for both chambers, ADC has nine for Senate and 44 for the lower chamber, while the ruling APC has five for the Senate and 22 for the House of Representatives.
The All Progressives Grand Alliance has two female candidates for the Senate and 16 for the lower chamber, while the Allied Peoples Movement has four for the Senate and 23 for the House of Representatives.
Booth Party has only one female senatorial candidate but six for the House of Representatives; Labour Party has four for the Senate and 12 for the lower chamber; NRM has 10 for the Senate and 11 for the lower chamber, while the New Nigerian People’s Party has eight and 26 female candidates for the Senate and House of Representatives respectively.
The PDP has five female candidates for the Senate and 19 for the green chamber while the Peoples Redemption Party has one female senatorial candidate and 11 for the House of Representatives.
Also, the Social Democratic Party has nine female candidates for the Senate and 28 for the House of Representatives while the Young Progressive Party has five each for the two chambers and the Zenith Labour Party has six female senatorial candidates and 14 for the House of Representatives.
Like the political parties, female representation by candidacy for the 2023 national elections also varies from one state to another. Out of the 36 states and Abuja, six (Bauchi, Kano, Sokoto, Yobe, Taraba and Abuja) have no female candidates for the National Assembly elections.
Akwa Ibom and Gombe have the highest number of female candidates for senatorial seats with nine and seven respectively. The two are followed by Anambra and Benue States with six female candidates each, while Rivers and Lagos States also have five female candidates each for the upper legislative chamber.
Zamfara, Nasarawa, Kebbi, Kaduna, Ebonyi and Plateau States have one each for senatorial elections.
For the House of Representatives, while Lagos State has 26 female candidates, Jigawa State has none. The other top states in this category are Imo (19), Rivers (18), Anambra (14), Osun (13), Akwa Ibom; and Delta States, with 12 each. Benue, Cross River and Gombe States have 11 each. The FCT and Oyo State also have 10 female candidates each across various political parties.
Kogi, Nasarawa, Zamfara and Yobe have one female candidate each for the lower chamber, while the remaining states including Edo, Bauchi, Bayelsa, Borno, Ebonyi, Ekiti, Enugu, Kaduna, Kano, Ogun, Plateau, Sokoto, Taraba and Yobe, have less than 10 female candidates across the political parties.
Various reports on the gender equality index have consistently ranked Nigeria extremely low both globally and in Africa.
Many have attributed this situation to what they described as a common patriarchal practice across the country’s societies.
This inherent culture, they said, has impeded various efforts, including deliberate government policies to right the wrong.
A recent report by a non-governmental organisation, the Gender Strategy Advancement International links the situation to reasons such as “poor resource allocation in the economic and social sectors, frequent conflicts, forced displacements and inadequate inclusion of women and girls’ perspectives in policy-making decisions”.
Source: PREMIUM TIMES
