GENDER AUDIT – 2003 ELECTION

And Issues In Women’s PoliticalParticipation In Nigeria

Editors:ABIOLA AKIYODE-AFOLABI (MS)

‘LANRE AROGUNDADE

Supported byHeinrich Boell Foundation

WOMEN ADVOCATESRESEARCH &

DOCUMENTATION CENTER(WARDC)

“A major challenge for women is how to wieldpower not as an instrument of dominance andexclusion…. but as an instrument of liberation andequity.”

Jacqueline Pita Guy (The NGO forum onWomen, Beijing, 1995)

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GENDER AUDIT – 2003 ELECTION

And Issues In Women’s Political

Participation In Nigeria

A PUBLICATION OF WOMEN ADVOCATES RESEARCHAND DOCUMENTATION CENTRE (WARDC)

DECEMBER 2003

SUPPORTED BY HENRICH BOLL FOUNDATION

PROJECT CORDINATORSABIOLA AKIYODE AFOLABI

TITI SALAAM

WOMEN ADVOCATES RESEARCH ANDDOCUMENTATION CENTRE (WARDC)

17/19, ALLEN AVENUE, OSHOPPEY PLAZA,2ND FLOOR,NEAR FORTUNE BANK ENTRANCE,IKEJA, LAGOS-NIGERIA.

PUBLISHED BY:WOMEN ADVOCATES RESEARCH AND DOCUMENTATIONCENTRE DECEMBER 2003

ISBN 978-062-029-X

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in aretrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission of WomenAdvocates Research and Documentation Centre (WARDC)

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CONTENTS

Acknowledgement vi

Foreword vii

Research Methodology and Scope ix

Chapter One – The imperative of a Gender Audit 1

Chapter Two - A Challenge Dated in History(1914 – 2003) 7

Chapter Three – Issues in Affirmative Action andWomen Participation 21

Chapter Four – Intricacies of Women Participationin Party Politics 37

Chapter Five – Periscoping the Electoral Field 2003 63

Chapter Six - Analysis and Observations 93

Chapter Seven - Conclusion and Recommendations 105

Appendix 1 – BIO DATA 109

Appendix 2 – Questionnaire on Women andVoters’ Attitude 120

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ACKNOWLEDGMENT

Women Advocates Research and Documentation Centre (WARDC) highlycommends the Henrich Boll Foundation for its support and particularlythanks Dr. Axel Harneit Sievers and Ms Monika Imunna, whose gendersensitivity helped to make this project a success.

WARDC also acknowledges the effort of Mallam Umar Farouk of theIndependent National Electoral Commission, INEC, for providing relevantresource materials such as the manifestoes and constitutions of the politicalparties, which enhanced the quality of the research.

Special thanks also to the researchers: Raheemat Momodu, Tony Iyare,Ada Agina-Ude, Nkechi Nwankwo, Lanre Akinola, Ibrahim Isa, andPastor Chukuma Akpasidelem, for being thorough, insightful and focusedin conducting the fieldwork and presenting the findings contained in thisbook. We are grateful too to Professor Jadesola Akande for writing theforeword to the book.

Equally deserving of commendation are the WARDC Staff in Lagos andZaria who managed the logistics demands of the project and exhibitedgood humour even while working tirelessly and Lanre Arogundade for hiseditorial skills.

WARDC is pleased to have the opportunity of contributing to theparticipation of women in politics through an enduring collaboration withthe Heinrich Boll Foundation on participatory politics in Nigeria.

It is hoped that Nigerian policy makers and others who are concernedabout improving women’s political participation will find the output of thisresearch useful.

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FOREWORD

It was Charles De Gaulle (France c’est moi) who said that politics is tooserious a business to be left for politicians alone. But what this book issaying is that politics is too serious a business to be left for men alone.

Why is it necessary to have a Gender Audit of Nigerian Electoral process,particularly, in relation to the 2003 elections? The initiators of this projecthave seen the all-pervading dominance of the political terrain by men. Adominance that should not really be, because of the almost equal proportionof the two genders in the population.

The idea of a gender audit is welcome and necessary if we must movefrom the dismal level of female representation of less than 2% in politicsand less that 5% in total governance. The United Nations had enjoinedNation States to aspire to a minimum of 30% by the year 2000 AD!Admittedly only a handful of Nations can boast of this achievement evenin the year 2003, but at least there is some movement. Whereas in Nigeria,it seems we are all motion with little movement.

The contributors to this publication have dealt with most of the issues thatone would expect in a Gender Audit namely: the history of femaleparticipation in politics; possible reasons for their poor showing; the slowmovement forward and possible strategies and their efficacy to acceleratethe movement. In this regard, it is of course relevant to discuss theaffirmative action principle much as there is still a lot of misunderstandingand controversy over its implementation. Many countries that have usedthe principle have found it a very useful tool for creating a level playingfield for female participation not only in electoral process but also indemocratic governance.

This book, though basic, is a beginning of necessary collection of data,documentation and analysis of a very important component of

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democracy and good governance. It is a book which students ofcontemporary politics and gender issue will find useful.

I commend the initiators of, as well as the contributors to, the publication.

Jadesola Akande Ph. D. OFRProfessor of Law and Executive DirectorWomen, Law and Development Centre (WLDCN).

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RESEARCH METHODOLOGY AND SCOPE

This research offers a unique opportunity for the Nigerian people in generaland women in particular to be heard in a global forum, coming as it doesunder Nigeria’s second democratically elected government in 15 years.

The project was executed over a six-month period from June to December2003 commencing with the group meeting of the researchers each of whomterms of reference was based on the general objective of the project asendorsed by the sponsors.

With WARDC taking up the challenge of addressing the country’s extensiveand pervasive marginalisation of women, this study is an exploratoryresearch focusing on literature assessment and interview schedulespurposively conducted with some elected key informants in Lagos andAbuja.

These key informants are politicians, professional and activist, irrespectiveof sex from the dominant political parties. In analyzing the foregoing andrelated issues, this book engages in the analysis of how women have beenempowered to realize their political leadership potentials in Nigeria withintheir political parties.

The primary objective of the study is to document the situation of women’sparticipation in politics. Existing literature was reviewed and structuredinterviews were used to extract detailed accounts of experiences of targetedgroups.

The book is divided into three sections; the first discusses the historicaloverview of women in Nigeria politics, while the second takes a look atwomen political involvement, its features and characteristics. The final partexamines case studies, critical discussions, profiling and finally profferseffective solutions to the marginalisation of women in politics.

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On the average 250 questionnaires were administered per state or territory(Lagos and Abuja). These groups were selected from diverse ethnicnationalities, geographical zones, sexes, ages etc. Field researchers assistedthe respondents in filling out the questionnaire upon request without alteringtheir views. It is therefore hoped that the results of this study will lead to aconsensual agreement on how to empower women and see to theiremergence as political leaders in Nigeria.

A major problem encountered during the research was that the secretariatof most of the political parties had been abandoned without any clue as tohow to engage the staff in discussion. This made it very difficult to obtainthe exact data on the gender character of the membership. Despite thisunfortunate shortcoming, the in-house opinion is that the researchmethodology was achieved.

Titi SalaamProgram Officer (WARDC)

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CHAPTER ONE

THE IMPERATIVE OF A GENDER AUDIT *

In spite of the fact that around the world today, democracy has becomethe pillar upon which nations are building the hope of attaining sustainabledevelopment, the definition of democracy remains elusive. Politics thoughremains an integral part of democracy bearing the traditional definition,which characterizes it as male dominated and excluding the women. But itneeds to be stressed that women’s political right remains an integral partof human rights and women’s rights generally are necessary aspect of anydemocratic framework.

If the definition of democracy allows for diversity of opinion andparticipation of different groups, then it cannot thrive by excluding women,which effectively constitute half of the world’s population and half of eachand every single national population. The fact that the constitution issupposed to promote the evolution of the notion of the democratic processis not in doubt, what seems debatable is whether the democratic processcan flourish in the current dispensation where constitutional guarantees forwomen’s participation in politics are limited.

In Nigeria despite the significant roles of women before and afterindependence, the development of corresponding economic, social andpolitical power is still wanting.1 The fact that the military ruled for yearshelped to institutionalize violations of human rights that resulted in verysevere political, social and economic crises. These anomalies have impactednegatively on the development of women’s rights, despite the manyinternational norms and institutions designed to advance the cause ofwomen.2

* This chapter was put together by Abiola Akiyode-Afolabi, National Coordinator, WARDC.

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Poverty, increased civil and religious conflicts, insecurity of life and propertyhave aided violence in Nigeria. Socio-cultural prejudices and inadequatelaws are also factors militating against the promotion of women’s rights inNigeria. The challenge of women’s participation in the political process inNigeria has gained additional significance, since the return of democracy.The last election saw men taking over with their male-dominated model ofpolitics which often times leave women with the option of either rejectingpolitics altogether or rejecting male-style politics.3

Women’s perception of politics as a dirty game and continued fright at thethought of violence has further alienated them from mainstream politics. InNigeria there seems to be no critical understanding of the differencebetween “ a visible agenda for women and an impacting agenda forwomen4” While severally, emphasis is laid on women’s numerical strength,translating such into the attainment of power has been difficult as womenare perceived as “supporters club, team of cheerers and clappers” incontrast to their male counterparts.

Women’s aspiration to participate in governance is premised on thefollowing ground; that women in Nigeria represent half of the populationand hence should be allowed a fair share in decision-making and thegovernance of the country. Secondly that all human beings are equal andwomen possess the same rights as men to participate in governance andpublic life.

The right to democratic governance is an entitlement conferred upon allcitizens by law.The 1999 constitution by virtue of Section 40 states the following

“ Every person shall be entitled to assemble freely and associatewith other persons, and in particular he may form or belong toany political party, trade union or any other association forthe protection of his interests:

 Provided that the provisions of this section shall not derogatefrom the powers conferred by this Constitution on the

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Independent National Electoral Commission with respect topolitical parties to which that Commission does not accordrecognition”5

Section 42 of the same constitution states further that(1) A citizen of Nigeria of a particular community, ethnic group,place of origin, sex, religion or political opinion shall not, byreason only that he is such a person be subjected to any formof discrimination.6

This further confirms that you can go to court to seek redress if as awoman your franchise is violated and that the constitution as a wholeprohibits discrimination on the basis of sex.

The constitution also states:S77 (1) Subject to the provisions of this Constitution, everySenatorial district or Federal constituency established inaccordance with the provisions of this Part of this Chapter shallreturn a member who shall be directly elected to the Senate orthe House of Representatives in such manner as may beprescribed by an act of the National Assembly.

(2) Every citizen of Nigeria, who has attained the age ofeighteen years residing in Nigeria at the time of the registrationof voters for purposes of election to a legislative house, shallbe entitled to be registered as a voter for that election.7

From the foregoing, it appears that there is nothing in the constitution,which excludes the participation of women in politics in Nigeria. Yet whenit comes to actual practice, there is extensive discrimination.

Among the factors affecting women participation in politics in Nigeria are,gender and cultural patterns, ideology, pre-determined social roles assignedto women and men, male dominance and control, women’s lack ofconfidence to run for elections, the way in which women are portrayed inthe mass media and women’s perception of politics as a dirty game. Othersare lack of funds and resources, poverty and unemployment, illiteracy andlimited access to education, the dual burden of domestic task andprofessional obligation, ignorance, lack of confidence in other women,lack of access to information and effects of violence against women.

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Most, if not all, of these factors must have come into play in the Nigerian2003 elections. The Parties’ programs and manifestoes hardly articulatedwomen issues while a gender analysis of the outcome of the election hasnot shown any significant improvement in the position of women in politicsin Nigeria. This has happened despite the enlargement of the political spacein Nigeria that should have created more opportunities for the participationof women in politics.

It has become imperative to determine the capacity of women to manageincidence of politics because an equal society needs gender balancing inorder to maximize its development needs and objectives. Genderdevelopment requires that attitudes, beliefs and customs must change. InNigeria and all over the world, this remains a challenge for women andthis constitutes the essence of this publication.

In undertaking to conduct and document a “GENDER AUDIT OF THE2003 ELECTION” therefore, the Women Advocates Research andDocumentation Center (WARDC) seeks to achieve the followingobjectives:

• To take stock, after four years of democracy, of the situation ofwomen in politics compared to previous elections.

• To critically analyse the structures and policies of political partiesand the election process in respect of equal opportunities/affirmative action for women.

• To recommend to political parties new strategies and policies thatwill facilitate active political participation of women.

• To learn from positive or negative experiences of female candidatesin the past elections and to encourage increased politicalparticipation of women in the future.

• To create a databank of successful female politicians.

This book has seven chapters with each addressing issues and findingscritical to its focus of the gender audit of the 2003 elections. In the firstchapter Abiola Akiyode-Afolabi offers an insight into the conception ofthe idea of the gender audit explaining that it was made imperative by theobserved decline in the political fortunes of women.

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Nkechi Nwankwo, in the second chapter embarks on an historicalexcursion of women political participation from the amalgamation of 1914to the electoral contest of 2003. She submits that the situation of womenin Nigerian politics is a complex study of unending challenges. Followingthat Ada Agina-Ude in the third chapter locates the issue of womenparticipation in politics within the context of the affirmative action as shemakes a comparative analysis of the countries implementing and notimplementing affirmative policies.

The intricacy of women involvement in party politics engages the attentionof Raheemat Momodu in the fourth chapter. There she makes a strongcase for the structural review of political party structure as well as theentire electoral process to accommodate women’s demand for equalpolitical rights. Meanwhile, Tony Iyare in the fifth chapter assesses theperformance and experience of women by periscoping the 2003 electoralfield. Chapter six contains the main findings of the audit while chapterseven provides the way forward in the hope that its broad charter ofchange will be embraced by all who desire an elevated position for womenin Nigerian politics.

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End notes

1. Babatunde Oluajo, A paper presented at a National Workshopon Gender, Politics and Overcoming Barriers to the Emergenceof Women Political Leaders 2003.

2. Ihonvbere, J O (2000), Towards a New Constitutionalism inAFRICA.

3. Orji Nkwachukwu 2003, State and Emergence of Women Politicalleaders in Nigeria, Reflections of constrains and opportunities.

4. Nkoyo, 2002: 29 - “Women are looking for new partners forempowerment” in community magazine CAPP Publication Vol. 5No. 1.

5. The 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

6. Ibid.

7. Ibid.

8. Obi, R (1998)- “ Women’s Participation at Executive Level inTrade Unions in Nigeria, 1985-1990", Africa Development xx111(314).

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CHAPTER TWO

WOMEN AND A CHALLENGE DATED INHISTORY (1914-2003) *

Background to Nigeria’s polity

Before Britain colonized, “pacified” and carved out Nigeria in the 1900’s,the area was occupied by some 250 different ethnic groups and self-governing kingdoms. Those kingdoms were grouped together as twoprotectorates – Northern and Southern – in 1906. In 1914, Britainamalgamated the two protectorates to form one country. That was whenNigeria as a political entity came into being.1

Colonial rule in Nigeria effectively lasted from 1914 to 1960. In betweenthose dates, there were quite a few noteworthy events that would have alasting impact on the trend of the country’s development. One of suchwas the 1922 creation of a legislative council with limited Africanrepresentation (of which there were no women). There was also theformation of the first political party in 1923 – the National DemocraticParty; the formation of the Nigerian Youth Movement in 1938 and theformation of the first truly national political party, the National Council ofNigeria and Cameroons (NCNC) in 1944.

Encouraged by the 1946 Richards Constitution that seemed to supportparty formation, more political parties soon came on board. There wasthe Action Group (AG) formed in 1948 that had its base in Yorubaland. Itwas an offshoot of the cultural group, Egbe Omo Oduduwa. The NorthernPeoples Congress (NPC) came into being in 1951 and was also ethnicallybased. The NPC came out of the Jamiyyar, based in the North. Later in1951, another northern- based party, the Northern Elements ProgressiveUnion (NEPU) also came into existence.

*This chapter was put together by Nkechi Nwankwo, Executive Director, Women LeadershipGroup.

In 1960, Nigeria got her independence from Britain. The government wasmodeled after the British Parliamentary system. Under this system, therewas a ceremonial president and a parliament but major governmentalpowers rested with the Prime Minister who was the leader of the majoritygroup and headed a cabinet2. At the federal level there was the Senateand House of Representatives. Membership of the Senate was bynomination by the three regional governments. Each of the three regionsappointed 12 members to make up the 36-member Senate. Membershipof the 312 -member Federal House of Representatives was by electionbut seats were apportioned to the Regions based on population. In eachof the Regions - North, East and West- there was the House of Assembly,a strong Regional government and its cabinet.

The political arrangement soon had difficulties that turned violent in the1964/65 elections season. The upheaval was to provide the excuse forthe military incursion into the political arena in 1966. From then onsuccessive military regimes occupied the Nigerian political space until 1999,except for a brief period of civilian rule that lasted from 1979 to 1983.Altogether, there were six military regimes that took over from one anotherthrough violent or palace coups.

Eventually in May 1999, Nigeria returned to civil democracy that isessentially still in transition. The current system of government is modeledafter the American Presidential system with three tiers of government –Federal, State and Local government. At each level of government, thereare three arms- the executive, judiciary and legislature. At the federal level,there are two legislative chambers – the Senate and House ofRepresentatives – that make up the National Assembly. Each of the 36states that now make up the Federal Republic of Nigeria has a House ofAssembly as the legislative arm. Each of the 774 local governments in thecountry also has a council of legislators whose jobs, curiously, seem to bea merger of legislative and executive functions.

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Women and Political QuestLike their counterparts the world over, Nigerian women are poorlyrepresented in politics and decision- making positions. This is despite thefact that women constitute roughly half of the current population projectionof 120 million based on the 1991 census. While the global averagerepresentation of women in national politics is five per cent3, in Nigeria thefigure has hardly ever been more than three per cent4 from the country’sindependence to 43 years after. From the pre-colonial, to colonial andpost-colonial periods, there have been various degrees of women’sparticipation in politics and governance and varying sets of limiting factorsto equal gender participation. Some of the limitations are understandablytied to the political development of the country.

The Pre-colonial EraIn the pre-colonial era, many of the 250 ethnic groups that made up Nigeriawere self-governing kingdoms. In most of those kingdoms and entities,women were hardly part of the communal decision-making bodies.However, some kingdoms and communities had dual political systemsthat allowed women to participate in governance. That is, the womendecided the things that had to do with womenfolk. In a few pre- colonialsocieties, women even occupied revered political positions, leading menin communal decision-making and in warfare.

Oral tradition has it that women played prominentroles in the political history and decision –makingprocesses of (some) traditional societies. Thelegendary roles played by Princess Inikpi of Igala landand Moremi of Ife as saviours of their societies duringwarfare, to the extent of sacrificing their lives to ensurevictory, were remarkable. Other notable women ofvalor who helped in directing the course of history oftheir traditional societies in the pre-colonial eraincluded Queen Amina of Zaria (a formidable femaleruler who led military expeditions and expanded herterritory as far as River Niger, the Kwararafa empireand Kano in the north), Queen Kambasa of Ijaw andQueen Owari of Ilesa.5

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In the pre-colonial communities with dual political systems, womengenerally mobilized for theirs and their families’ welfare. The leaders of thewomen usually got their position of authority and influence on merit. Theycould articulate the views of women and had the financial wherewithal tomaintain their status. Among these were the Iyalode, Lobun, Arise of theYoruba, the Omu of Onitsha and Western Igbo.6

Women also had strong and powerful associations through which theyorganized and acted politically. The associations enabled them to put up aunited front to express approval or disapproval to political situations.Among the Igbo, there was also the institution of the Umu-Ada, the eldestdaughters of the village whose main role was peace- making in thecommunity. The Umu-Ada were usually feared because they often usedtheir enormous powers to intimidate family members, particularly the wives.

The Colonial Era

The colonial era that started in the 1900’s drastically changed the politicalset up. Along with the abolition of the kingdoms, the colonial governmentlargely eroded the dual political systems. In the kingdoms where therewere women chiefs, they lost their power base and were no longerreckoned with in the decision-making process. In the eventual redistributionof positions and power, the colonial authorities ignored women. The Britishauthorities did not consider women in their appointments of local staff torun the colonial government. Even in markets where women were used towielding power in the allocation of stalls and imposition of levies, thegovernment appointed men to take charge.

The sidelining of women during the colonial era was behind the earliestmass protest movement by women in Eastern Nigeria, theNwaobiala movement in 19257. The protests eventually culminatedin the 1929 Women’s War, (also known as the Aba Riots). TheWomen’s War was both a political and economic protest against thecolonial authorities. The women’s grievances included a planned

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taxation programme and the population census being conducted by theBritish authorities.8 In Western Nigeria in 1946, the Abeokuta Women’sUnion, led by Mrs. Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti, also protested because oftaxation and the inherent high-handedness in taking away the powerswomen had over the markets.

Market women in Lagos also had their fair share of protests during thesame period. Although in contrast to most other places in Nigeria, marketwomen in Lagos retained charge of the administration of their marketsand were very well organised, their market associations took sides in politicsand other related matters in the government. Between 1927 and 1941,the Lagos market women organised several (but eventually abortive)protests to ensure that women were not taxed.

A major highlight in the political development of women during the colonialera was the formation of a Women’s Party in 1944. Spearheaded by Mrs.Oyinkan Abayomi, the party was exclusively for women and had apparentlybeen formed out of the frustration the women felt with their lack of headwayin the then only political party, the Nigerian Youth Movement (NYM).However, Mba noted that:

Despite its name, the Women’s Party was neverorganized as an active political party seeking to obtainrepresentation in government. It did contest the LagosTown Council elections in 1950 but that was its onlyattempt to seek political power. It did not have apolitical program as such, but its leaders sharedcertain definite political views which were to lead themto support another political party – the Action Group– at a later stage9

When other political parties came on board – the NCNC in 1944, theAG in 1948 and the NPC in 1951- women resorted to formingWomen’s Wings of the parties. In general, the parties related withwomen through the Women’s Associations. However, some women stoodon their own merit as party members and won party elections

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to attend conventions independent of the Women’s Associations. Someof the women who achieved such feat included Mrs. Margaret Ekpo,Mrs. Henrietta Lawson, Mrs. Keziah Fashina and Mrs. Mary Ededem10

– all four of the NCNC. Mrs. Ekpo was also later nominated to the EasternHouse of Assembly in 1953.

The structure of the AG did not give room for women to make muchindividual achievements in terms of elections within the party. In 1951however, the AG proposed the appointment of a non-partisan woman,Mrs. Remi Aiyedun into the Western House of Assembly in 1953. Later in1955, Mrs. Oyinkan Abayomi also joined her in the Western House ofAssembly. On the other hand, the NPC was opposed to the participationof women in political activities.

One of the assignments the Women’s Party had given itself was canvassingfor the franchise for women. Its members informally lobbied governmentofficials. Subsequent women’s organizations during the colonial era alsohad the attainment of franchise for women at the top of their agenda. Forinstance, the Nigerian Women’s Union, the Federation of NigerianWomen’s Societies and the Women’s Movement all pressured for womento get the vote.

Both the NCNC and the AG were equally committed to theenfranchisement of women. The only opposition came from the NPC.Although the NPC was opposed to the enfranchisement of women, itinsisted on the enumeration of women in their region and on seats in thefederal parliament being apportioned to the regions based on the totalpopulation rather than the number of voters. In other words, as Billy Dudleyobserved:

The North was prepared to argue that representationbe based on the principle of “each to count for oneand no one to count for more than one” (but) it didnot apply that principle to the adult community in theNorth itself: women were still denied the vote. On theprinciple that NPC was expounding, representationalapportionment should have been on the eligible voting

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population and not on the total population. The NPCwould then have been forced either to franchisewomen, or accept that the North’s representationalquota be halved.11

In a manner of speaking, the NPC- North ate its cake and still had it. Inspite of the North’s refusal to enfranchise its women it still got seats afterthe 1959 Federal elections, based on the total number of population. Outof 312 -member seat of the federal legislature, the North got 174, theEast got 73, the West 63, and Lagos 3. By 1959, Nigerian women inother parts of country had won the vote, having been enfranchised instages through the 50’s. (Women in the North were not to get the voteuntil some two decades later, in 1978).

Apart from the denial of franchise, women who attempted any politicalactivism in the North were subjected to untold harassment and branded“prostitutes”. That applied to both Southern–born women residing in theNorth as well as their Northern sisters who belonged to other parties(Since NPC would not have women participate in their activities, anyway).Many of such harassed women in the North showed great courage. Aclassic example is Mallama Gambo Sawaba the leader of the Women’swing of the Northern Element Progressive Union (NEPU) who waskidnapped, beaten and imprisoned several times. She was once deportedfrom Kano but in all of that she kept faith with the political struggle12.

Along with the men, women clamoured for Nigeria’s independence. Twowomen – Mrs. Margaret Ekpo and Mrs. Ekpo Young - were among thedelegation that attended some of the constitutional conferences betweenBritish officials and Nigerian delegates in 1953 and 1958 in London toprepare for Nigeria’s independence. Mrs. Young attended only in 1958and both herself and Mrs. Ekpo who was in the two meetings attendedthe conferences only as advisers. They therefore had no chance to speakofficially during the meetings.

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Post-Colonial Era

At the point of independence in 1960, the 36-member Senate had onlyone woman, Mrs. Wuraola Esan, nominated by the Western Region. The312-member House of Representatives had no woman among them. TheFederal cabinet also had no woman. The three Regional governments hadno women ministers in their cabinets.

In the 1961 general elections, two women - Mrs. Margaret Ekpo andMrs. Janet Mokelu – won seats into the Eastern House of Assembly. Athird woman, Mrs. Ekpo Young also won through a bye-election into theEastern House in 1963. Women also fared a little better at the localgovernment level with many of them being appointed or elected in localcouncils.

In 1964, another woman, Mrs. Benice Kerry joined Mrs. Esan at theSenate. The newly created Mid-Western Region nominated Mrs. Kerry.It needs to be said that Mrs. Esan was noted to have given an excellentaccount of herself in the Senate through her numerous contributions andactivism especially with issues that had to do with women’ rights13.

Meanwhile, there were disputations and violence following the 1964elections. Things degenerated to very intolerable levels and seemed tohave provided the excuse for the first military incursion into Nigerian politicsin January 1966. There was a counter military coup in July 1966. Theviolence and killings that followed culminated in the Nigeria Civil war,which lasted from 1967 to 1970. Apart from bringing untold human sufferingand abuse of women, especially on the “Biafran” side, the war furtherdiminished women’s political space. The military continued in power atthe end of the war in 1970.

Altogether, the six military regimes in Nigeria lasted from 1966 to1999with only a four- year civilian government interregnum between 1979and 1983. The military occupation of the political space was nothelpful to the political development of women. For one thing there

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were very few women in the military but even those belonged to servicesectors such as nursing. In other words, women were not highly placedenough to be in the decision-making bodies of the military governments.Even when the first military regime in 1966 involved some civilians ingovernment, there was no woman among them.

The second military regime (July 1966-July 1975) had Nigeria demarcatedinto a 12- State structure. There was no woman at the Federal level. Twoof the twelve states- East Central and Lagos- appointed a woman each ascommissioner while a third state, Oyo, appointed two femalecommissioners.14 The third military regime (1975- 1979) also had nowoman at the federal but it had an unofficial policy of appointing a femalecommissioner in each state.

But most disappointingly, the third military regime (1975-1979) did notconsider any woman to be among the 50 persons chosen to draft theconstitution for the return of civil rule. Possibly in response to the criticismsabout the exclusion of women, five women were appointed to the 250-member Constituent Assembly that reviewed the draft constitution. A majorcontribution by the five women was to insert a clause in the constitution tomake sex discrimination illegal. That clause also automatically enfranchisedthe women in Northern Nigeria in 1978.

When the ban on political activity was lifted in 1978, some 52 politicalassociations sought to be registered as parties. Among the associationswere two would-be women parties. Eventually, only five parties wereregistered and none of the women parties was among them. During theelections that ushered in civilian rule in 1979, a handful of womencontested at various levels except the presidency or gubernatorial seatsof the (then) 19 states.

Four (women) contested for seats in the 45-memberSenate but none won. A meagre three got into the (450–member) Federal House of Representatives and onlyfive got seats in the State Houses of Assembly. The

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civilian government that was sworn in 1979 had threefemale federal ministers and most states had at leastone female commissioner. 15

As far as women were concerned a most significant outcome of the nextelection year in 1983 was that it produced the first elected female memberof the Senate in Nigeria, in the person of Ms. Franca Afegbua. She wasone out of the 45 members of the Senate. Their term lasted only threemonths before the army struck again in December 1983.

The fourth military regime (1983-85) treated women just like the earlierone: each state appointed a token one woman as commissioner. Beyondthat women were not in high decision-making bodies. The fifth militaryregime (1985-93) followed the same pattern, except for the visibility ofthe First Lady, Mrs. Maryam Babangida who had a pet project, the BetterLife Programme (BLP), which sought to enhance the living conditions ofrural dwellers and women in particular. The BLP and the fanfare associatedwith it, gave women some visibility and its beneficiaries enjoyed enhancedeconomic power.

The military promised to return the country to a civilian government in1993. When the military government held preparatory local governmentand gubernatorial elections in 1990, women won only 206 out of 1,297local positions nationwide and none made it to any of the (then 30)gubernatorial positions. In the 1992 elections to the National Assembly,only one woman got into the 90–member Senate while 12 of them wonseats in the 638–member House of Representatives.

During the 1993 presidential election primaries that were supposed toconclude the process, there was a female presidential aspirant inthe person of Mrs Sarah Jubril. However, her presidential aspirationwas cut short when she could not produce the five hundred thousandnaira (N500,000) required as non- refundable deposit by the NationalElectoral Commission. In any case, after the election had been won andlost by the men, the military government annulled the result

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because it apparently did not want to hand over power. That annulmenttook Nigeria to the brink. To get itself out of the quandary it created, themilitary government appointed an Interim government of 32 membersamong who was one woman, Otunba Bola Kuforiji-Olubi.

The Interim government lasted only a few months before another militaryregime, the sixth, took power in November 1993. For women, thesignificant thing about this sixth regime (1993- 1998) was that the Ministryof Women Affairs was created in January 1995 to more closely addressissues to do with women. Also two women - Mrs. Mobolaji Osomo andMrs. Ada Adogu - were appointed into the Federal Executive as Ministerand junior Minister of Establishment and Agriculture respectively. Thatwas the highest appointment women had ever got in a military regime inNigeria. Regardless of that however, the sixth military regime took thecountry on a torturous political and emotional roller- coaster. It took thedeath of the military head of state, General Sani Abacha, to end that regimeand start the country on a process of civilian democracy again.

Elections were held in 1998 and Nigeria returned to civil democracy onMay 29, 1999. In the elections, women did not fare much better than inthe past. As a result, in the civilian government of 1999-2003, womenheld less than three percent of elective positions. At the Federal level, thePresident and Vice- President were both men. In the 109-member Senate,there were only three women and in the 360-member House ofRepresentatives, there were just 12 women. Out of a total of 44 Ministersand Special Advisers, there were nine women.16

Of the 36 states, there was no female governor. Of the 36 deputy–governors, there was only one woman, Senator Kofo Bucknor- Akerele.Of the 36 speakers of the State Houses of Assembly, there was only onewoman, Mrs. Grace Icheen of Benue State who was later forced to resign.The 36 State Houses of Assembly had a total of 990 members, (that is anaverage of 28 members each) out of which there were 12 women, meaningthat most of them do not have any female members. So, a state like Lagosthat had two female members became a shining star.

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At the local government level, women accounted for nine out of 774 localgovernment chairmen nation-wide. Of the 8,810 local governmentcouncilors nationwide, there were 143 women.

2003 Elections – Any progress for women?

How do these figures compare with the results of the 2003 elections? Hasthere been any improvement in the numbers of women in elective office?The answer is yes, even though the increase was marginal.

With the widening of the political space as evidenced by the eventualregistration of 30 parties for the 2003 elections, more women than everbefore vied for various positions. At the end of the primaries, two womenwon their parties’ nominations as presidential aspirants. These were MrsSarah Jubril of Progressive Action Congress (PAC) and Major MojisolaObasanjo of the Masses Movement of Nigeria (MMN)17. Two otherwomen – Hajia Mairo Habib and Hajia Asmau Mohammed of JusticeParty and African Renaissance Party respectively won vice-presidentialparty nominations. Another two women won the gubernatorial nominationsof their parties. For the positions of Deputy governor in the 36 states, fivewomen got their parties’ nominations. Many more women won nominationsto various positions but most were with the newer and not- so- viableparties.

When the national elections were held and the results announced, thepicture was not so great for women. Thus at the Federal level, the positionsof President and Vice-President are still occupied by two men. The 109-member Senate still has just three females. However, there is an increasein the number of women in the Lower House. The 360-member House ofrepresentatives now has 21 female members as against 12 in the 1999-2003 tenure.

At the Federal cabinet level, women account for six out of a total of34 Ministers and 10 out of 35 Special Advisers. Also, compared tothe last administration, women have been placed in more keyministries and advisory positions. For the first time ever in Nigeria

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two women – Mrs. Ngozi Okonji-Iweala and Mrs. Esther Nenadi Usman-are in charge of the Finance Ministry as Minister and Minister of Staterespectively. A woman, Mrs. Mobolaji Osomo, is the Minister of Housing.At the advisory level, two women –Mrs. Oby Ezekwesili and Mrs. RemiOyo -are handling budget and media, respectively.

Of the 36 States, there is still no female governor. Of the 36 Deputygovernor positions, women now occupy two, representing an increasesince there was just one in the 1999–2003 dispensation. The two femaleDeputy governors- Alhaja Salimat Badru and Erelu Olusola Obada - arethose of Ogun and Osun states respectively. There are also two femalespeakers of the State Houses of Assembly – Ogun and Anambra States-Hon. Titi Sodunke-Oseni and Hon. Eucharia Azodo respectively (althoughthat of Anambra State has been impeached). That also represents anincrease from the one female Speaker we had in the 1999 to 2003 tenure.(Ironically that lone female speaker also did not finish her tenure).

While the current figures fall far short of the expectations of many peopleand the goals of those working to achieve gender parity in governance,they need to be acknowledged as some progress. Of course, there is stilla long way to go in the journey to equal participation of women in politicsand governance. It calls for all hands to be on deck and for extra measuresto speed up the process in the next few years.

In summary, in all of Nigeria’s political history including the previousattempts at democratic rule, women were severely side-lined in terms ofrepresentation in government. Although they constitute 50 per cent of thepopulation and 51 per cent of voters in elections, women have never hadmore than three per cent representation in national government. With militarygovernments, women have been virtually non-existent in governance inNigeria. In the civilian regimes, numerous factors have constituted obstaclesfor them.

For the emerging democracy in Nigeria to be sustainable, all groups withinthe population must be actively involved in governance. Women’s voiceneed to be heard and their experiences and expertise utilized for the optimalgrowth and development of the country. The empowerment of womenand their involvement in governance will contribute to the developmentand deepening of the democratic system.

Endnotes

1. Nkechi Nwankwo, (1996), Gender Equality in Nigeria Politics,Deutchez, Lagos. P. 7

2. JHU, (1997), Nigeria Press Briefing Kit: Democracy andGovernance, P. 9

3. O’ Barr in Hay, M. and Stitcher, S. (eds), (1984) African Women:South of the Sahara, P. 154

4. UNIFEM (1999) Status of Nigerian Women and Men, P. 605. JHU, (1997), Nigeria Press Briefing Kit: Democracy and

Governance, P. 126. JHU (1997) P.127. Nina Mba, (1982), Nigerian Women Moblized, P. 688. JHU, (1997), Democracy and Governance, P.149. Mba, (1982), Nigerian Women Mobilized, P. 22410. Mba, (1982), Nigerian Women Mobilized, P. 23611. Billy Dudley, (1982), Introduction to Nigerian Government and

Politics, London, Macmillian, P.5812. Mba, (1982), Nigerian Women Mobilized, P. 25513. See Mba (1982) P. 27314. Nkechi Nwankwo, (1996), Gender Equality in Nigeria Politics,

Deutchez, Lagos. P.1715. Nkechi Nwankwo, (1996), Gender Equality in Nigeria Politics,

Deutchez, Lagos. P.1816. UNIFEM (1999) Status of Nigerian Women and Men, P. 6017. CLO (2003), Democracy Review, P.6

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CHAPTER THREE

ISSUES IN AFFIRMATIVE ACTION ANDWOMEN PARTICIPATION *

“Adoption by States Parties of temporary special measuresaimed at accelerating de facto equality between men andwomen shall not be considered discrimination as defined inthe present Convention, but shall in no way entail as aconsequence the maintenance of unequal or separatestandards; these measures shall be discontinued when theobjectives of equality of opportunity and treatment have beenachieved”.

-CEDAW, Article four1

PreambleAfter decades of alternating civilian rule and military dictatorships, manyNigerians may not easily determine which of the two systems of governmenthas been more beneficial in terms of infrastructure development. But thepalpable disappointment with civilian administrations for their inability sofar to provide efficient systems and adequate social amenities has notchanged the overwhelming preference for democratic governmentcompared with military regime.

With the usual benefit of hindsight Nigerians have come to appreciate thespace for freedom of expression and association that the democratic systemoffers them. Civil rule creates the enabling environment for intellectualengagement and healthy criticisms giving various interest groups the windowof opportunity to articulate there positions on issues and actualize theiraspirations through equal access to political power. Evidence of this is thequest of some states and various ethnic nationalities to ensure an equitablespread of both economic and political power.

*This chapter was put together by Ada Agina-Ude, Director, Gender and Development Ac-tion (GADA).

This pursuit that is generally regarded as legitimate reflects an attitude thatfair representation will make for better cohesion and advancement of apluralistic society, which is held to be the key to accelerated developmentin a heterogeneous society. Equal representation is so pivotal in themanagement of Nigeria’s socio-cultural diversity that it formed the basisof the federal character principle entrenched in the constitution2.

The rationale for these provisions is to ensure that“the composition of the government of the federation or any ofits agencies and the conduct of its affairs shall be carried outin such a manner as to reflect the federal character of Nigeriaand the need to promote national unity, and also commandloyalty, thereby ensuring that there shall be no predominanceof persons from a few states or from a few ethnic or othersectional groups in that Government or any of its agencies.”3

By the same token there can hardly be a stronger argument for gender-based affirmative action than equal representation in a country wherewomen who constitute about half of the population have been continuouslysidelined in public life to the extent that they have never held more than15% of both appointive and elective offices.

IntroductionAlthough the Nigerian state is beginning to appreciate the importance ofgender mainstreaming in national planning, Affirmative Action as a meansof closing gender gaps in sectoral development remains largely a contentiousissue. For example, the opponents of special measures argue that it willlead to a lowering of standards apart from being patronizing. Among theopponents of Affirmative Action in politics and public life are those whoquestion the basis for 30% minimum representation and call for higher orlower targets.

Such is the level of misgivings about Affirmative Action that evenamong its proponents there is a preference for reservation of appointivepositions over elective offices4 which tends to reflect the notion that certaintypes of affirmative action are unfair, unjust and even

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discriminatory especially in the light of the principle of equality before thelaw. Some of the disputes over special measures did end up in lawsuitsand litigations arising from the perceived injustice in the implementation oflabour–focused Affirmative Action especially in the United States. Theyhowever aided the development and growth of the concept of AffirmativeAction.

However those favouring the choice of Affirmative Action for the redressof gender disparities that exist in human development and particularly inthe area of politics and public decision - making are not unmindful of thesearguments for and against. Article four of CEDAW that obligates statesparties to introduce the necessary remedial measure prescribes them astemporary and devoid of “separate standards”. It is however noteworthythat the arguments against gender based affirmative action begin to pale inthe light of the successes that hold it up as the best option so far forachieving any significant increase in women’s representation in parliaments.

Definition of ConceptMost of the earliest references to the concept of Affirmative Action werein the 1960s when the government of the United Sates introduced specialmeasures to redress racial disparities that exit in that society despiteconstitutional guarantees of equality and non discrimination. But the phrase“Affirmative Action” was first noticed in the New Deal Wagner Act of1935 that sought to address unfair labour practices.

Affirmative Action, sometimes confused with discrimination, isusually a measure intended to supplement non-discrimination; it is abroad term encompassing a host of policies that seek to support weakgroups in society. They include policies such as dissemination ofinformation; consciousness-raising, faith-based efforts to recruitwomen, training programs, school desegregation, and the moreextreme form that is reverse discrimination. Reverse discriminationoccurs in work context (hiring, promotion, and layoffs) in education(admission) with regards to state contracts or funding offered to private

business and in other setting such as access to broadcasting slots or unions,etc, where deliberate action is used to stop discrimination.

A policy process of this kind allows for rules that have the objective ofenhancing equal opportunity for individuals and the improvement in thesituation of marginalized groups. It is not the use of Affirmative Action thatseems to be the problem but the practical effects and its linkage tofundamental ideas of fairness and justice.

Two countries, the United States and Germany, have interesting experienceswith Affirmative Action. In the United States, much of the work in the areahas been with preferential admissions into higher institutions, hiring andsubcontracting by the state and to a lesser extent in the incorporation ofmore women. In Germany, the scope is less pervasive. What exists isrelated to the use of legal measures to ensure factually equal positions forwomen and men in professional life. Similarly, the practice has been inuse in the US for decades but there is no constitutional guarantee for it.

In Nigeria different forms of Affirmative Action have been practiced sincecolonial times, one of the earliest being the step taken in the 1930s toencourage indigenous exporters. The Nigerian Enterprises PromotionDecrees of the 1970s were enacted to put more businesses under thecontrol of Nigerians instead of foreigners. In colonial times owing to thedomination of the civil service by expatriates, the colonial administrationembarked on a deliberate policy of Nigerianisation. The Northernisationpolicy of the Northern People’s Congress and the Federal characterprinciple are all forms of affirmative action.

Strategies for preference gender-based affirmative action include anumber of practices such as the use of quotas. Quota system impliesthat a certain number or percentage of members of a body or candidatelist, committee or parliament must be women. This measure aims atensuring that at least 30 to 40 percent of women get into positionsinstead of the system of tokenism entailing the picking of one or two

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women on the assumption that they represent all women. Quota has beenjustified on the grounds that it aims at increasing women’s representationespecially because it addresses the under representation of women giventhe fact that women constitute 50 percent of the population of mostcountries. Although a favoured system, quota remains a much-debatedoption for Affirmative Action.

Faced with the charge that it is undemocratic the proponents of the systemargue that women have a right to equal representation and that any practiceor concept that excludes them is equally undemocratic. They maintain thatquotas actually compensate for the often-glaring barriers that preventwomen from holding public office. It is worthy of note that some of thecountries that have achieved significant increase in women’s representationdid so through the entrenchment of quotas in their constitutions or legalsystems. In Uganda a parliamentary seat is reserved for women in the 39districts, and in Argentina the electoral law established a compulsory 30percent quota for women for elective posts. Other places where quotashave succeeded in increasing numbers include India, Bangladesh andEritrea.

Apart from quotas, other systems for the implementation of AffirmativeAction include set asides, weighing gender as a plus factor or priority ruleand setting time goals for the attainment of equal female participation.Political parties and governments could apply any or all of these optionsto enhance women’s political empowerment. However Affirmative Actionunder any constitution must comply with the equal protection clause for itto be legitimate and credible. In using any form of Affirmative Action, itmust address two key concerns; that the plan has a legitimate purposeand secondly, that it does not infringe on the rights of the dis-preferredperson or persons.

The Focus on WomenThe first major Affirmative Action in favour of women universallywas taken in 1946 when the United Nations set up a Commission onthe Status of Women and since then and especially in the last 24

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years there have been progressive efforts in that direction. In 1975 duringthe International Women’s Year, the UN General Assembly launched theUN Decade for Women (1976 – 1985) with a view to creating greaterglobal awareness on the status of women and the girl child. One of themajor activities for the year was the World Conference on Women thattook place in Mexico City. The following year, 1976 it established theVoluntary Fund for the UN Decade for Women to implement the objectivesof the Decade. But in 1985 the General Assembly gave the Organisationan expanded mandate to join the UN group of agencies as the UnitedNations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) with the mission topromote the economic and political empowerment of women in developingcountries.

A year later, the UN General Assembly proclaimed the right to developmentby which countries and individuals are required to make conscious effortstowards socio-cultural advancement, economic expansion andtechnological progress; not just for higher standard of living but also toachieve a friendly environment where every individual realizes his or herfull potential as a human being. By this instrument nations are to guaranteean equal distribution of rights and obligations particularly between menand women. Thus the UN elevated the issues of child rights, women’srights and gender equality.

Consequently various theories have been espoused on how to rapidlyintegrate women in sustainable development. The Women andDevelopment (WAD) approach addresses women’s economicoppression in class structures, and promotes the idea that women’sempowerment will come through the elimination of all structures ofclass oppression. On the other hand Gender and Development (GAD)is concerned with the relationship between women and men, and withunderstanding why women are consistently assigned secondary orinferior roles to men in the society. Women in Development (WID)theory, which favours the provision of separate “catch up” projectsfor women, has been criticized for the likelihood to create the chance

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for women’s projects to be marginalized. However current thinking tendsto weigh heavily in favour of a combination of the three approaches.

CEDAW As A Special Measure The Commission on the Status of Women helped to identify the areas ofdiscrimination against women and gender inequality. As a result the statusof women received special attention with the declaration of 1975 as theInternational Women’s year. The first World Conference on women thatheld in Mexico City the same year linked, for the first time, the role ofwomen on a global scale to pressing political, social and developmentissues. Four years later, in 1979 the United Nations General Assemblyadopted the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of DiscriminationAgainst Women (CEDAW), which became effective in 1981 after twentycountries ratified it.

This convention has variously been described as the “Bible of womenempowerment” and “Women’s International Bill of Rights.” Since itsadoption it has become a reference point for the women’s movement inthe demand for gender equality. The Convention “reflects the depth of theexclusion and restriction practiced against women solely on the basis oftheir sex by calling for equal rights for women, regardless of their maritalstatus in all fields – political, economic, social, cultural and civil. It calls fornational legislations to ban discrimination, recommends temporary specialmeasures to speed equality in fact between men and women”5. Articles 7and 8 deal with women’s right to participate in politics, formulategovernment policies, hold public office and represent their governments atinternational levels. Anticipating the likely misinterpretation of the specialmeasures, Article 4, clarifies the position of the principles set forth in theConvention in relation to the uniformity of standards.

Although Nigeria ratified CEDAW in 1985, it has not become adomestic law because of constitutional bottlenecks. The defunct 1979constitution had provided that an act of parliament would be requiredfor the purpose of making international agreements enforceable in

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1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, nothing has beendone. Meanwhile since the military regimes ruled without a parliament formany years, they too did not domesticate the instrument.

Affirmative Action and the Beijing Declaration and PFA

As at 1995, the year the 4th International Conference on Women tookplace, high rate of gender inequality in most spheres of life existed in manycountries despite CEDAW and other international instruments. Even thoughwomen had gained some grounds in a few areas of life, progress had beenslow owing to various constraints that included internal and global conflicts,harmful traditional practices, illiteracy, poverty and violence to mention afew. The Beijing Declaration that was adopted by participating governmentsat the world conference on September 15, 1995 admits inter alia that:

“The status of women has advanced in someimportant respects in the past decade but that progresshas been uneven, inequalities between women and menhave persisted and major obstacles remain withserious consequences for the well- being of allpeople”.6

In the Platform for Action (PFA), Paragraph 28 and 29 of the GlobalFramework, which expounds the basis of remedial actions to be taken,capture the gross under representation of the world’s women in decision-making and power relations within the family in the various countries ofthe United Nations. This is further explained in the preamble for the StrategicObjectives and Actions for the enhancement of women’s access to powerand decision-making thus:

“Despite widespread democratization in most countries, womenare largely underrepresented at most levels of governmentespecially in ministerial and other executive bodies or inachieving the target endorsed by the Economic and SocialCouncil of having 30% women in positions of decision makinglevels by 1995”.

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Governments that are signatories to the agreements are bound to takespecific measures to “ensure women’s equal access to full participation inpower structures and decision making.” Notably, the actions that should be taken by governments include

“measures to substantially increase the number ofwomen with a view to achieving equal representationof women and men, if necessary through PositiveAction, in all governmental and public administrationpositions” 7

Governments are also to work toward gender balance in the list of nationalcandidates nominated for election or appointment to United Nations bodies,specialized agencies etc. Political parties on their part are to

“examine party structures and procedures to removeall barriers that directly or indirectly discriminateagainst the participation of women”.8

They are to consider initiatives that allow women to hold positions withinthe party, to be extended to party primaries and nominations. In additionto the direct actions expected of government and political parties, they areto support the efforts of non-governmental organizations and the privatesector in trying to enhance women’s political participation.

At the Beijing Conference the demand for concrete actions on the listedtwelve critical areas of concern were in tandem with the provisions ofCEDAW and other international legal instruments. Since most countrieshad failed to achieve the 30% target by 1995, it became part of the concreteactions demanded by women at the Beijing Conference. And 30 percent, it should be noted was only a starting point towards achieving the 50per cent desirable, equitable and ultimate target supported and promotedby the United Nations.

Nigeria and the Implementation of Affirmative ActionConcerned about the little progress made in the area of adequaterepresentation in 1999 following the return to civilian rule, the

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National Committee on Affirmative Action met at Ijebu Ode under theauspices of the Centre for Development and Population Activities(CEDPA). The purpose of the meeting was to review women’s efforts onAffirmative Action and adopt new strategies for its application at variouslevels of national decision-making. Realizing the need for a workingdefinition of the concept of Affirmative Action and also to give the thenon-going debate a proper focus, the Committee agreed to define it as“deliberate corrective action for adjusting imbalances in society”, therebystressing that Affirmative Action is neither an arbitrary action nor an irrationaldecision since it was carefully considered before adoption.

The Committee was unequivocal in calling on the government to implementthe 30% affirmative action in all subsequent appointments by the executiveand the demand for a reorganization of the political structures to equitablyaccommodate independent candidates. Monetisation of politics was viewedwith serious concern, as it was fast becoming a major impediment to fairelectioneering. In order to address this, the committee recommended thepegging of individual contributions to political parties by moneybags whohijacked the political machinery and process. Government was alsoenjoined to take steps to sensitize the entire populace on the provisions ofCEDAW and the Beijing Declaration and the PFA.

Nigeria’s lapses in the implementation of Affirmative Action became glaringat the special session of the UN General Assembly that was held betweenJune 4th - 9 th, 2000 to review the progress that had been made five yearsafter Beijing and to draw up strategies for further advancement of women.At that session 178 governments reviewed the commitment to the goals ofgender equality and women empowerment made at the Beijing Conference.The then Hon. Minister of Women Affairs and Youth Development HajiaAisha Ismail and some women activists led the Nigerian governmentdelegation. The NGOs were also well represented and their presenceand liaison with the government groups facilitated discussions on the criticalissues. However the shadow report on CEDAW prepared by the NGOs

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in 1999 which they took to New York, indicted the government for theinability

“to ensure proper representation of women in political parties,internal government appointments and internationalappointments”. 9

Nigeria had been in a peculiar situation caused by the incursion of themilitary into governance and its protracted stay in power. However theperception that democracy would automatically boost gender equality inpolitical participation has not been validated after five years of return tocivilian rule. Nigerian women’s low representation and participation at thehigher levels of political activity and decision-making despite the return ofdemocracy have been attributed to obstacles many of which have defiedall manner of solutions. The focus on Affirmative Action is based on thebelief that only remedial action can offset the setback suffered by womenas a result of many years of marginalization.

It was however observed by the Committee on Affirmative Action that thesame obstacles that had held women down are also working against theimplementation of Affirmative Action. They identified some of the majorhindrances to the implementation of Affirmative Action in Nigeria, whichhave linkages with the age-old constraints that keep women down in allthe other sectors.

Foremost among the barriers is ignorance; few people understand theissues involved in Affirmative Action and this is further compounded bythe pervasive belief that politics and decision-making is a man’s domain.This is not helped by the fact that both Christianity and Islam, the majorreligions in the country, preach subservience of women to men and therestriction of women to certain disciplines. But the greater burden is forwomen themselves to accept the principle that their equal representationin positions of power would promote their collective interests.

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The Constitution As A RestraintUnlike the constitutions of some African Countries notably South Africaand Uganda the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria takes nocognizance of the disadvantaged position of women and has no provisionfor gender equality and equity. Apart from the general reference to non-discrimination on the basis of sex etc, there is nothing in the constitutionthat is aimed at redressing the disparities that exist along gender lines inNigeria. Even though Nigeria ratified CEDAW in 1985 and is a signatoryto the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, the constitution doesnot recognize the enormous disparities along gender lines that promptedthe United Nations to call for special actions for women’s advancement.It does not provide any form of positive measure for accelerated redressof gender imbalance.

On the other, the Federal Character Principle, which is meant to ensureequitable representation of states and ethnic groups in nationalappointments, actually places women at additional disadvantage by implyingthat they can only represent their states of origin. Where culture does notpermit a woman to represent her place of birth, she loses a goldenopportunity. There have been many cases where a woman’s state oforigin disallows her appointment and the husband’s state also refuses toendorse her. In many of these instances the government plays safe byappointing a man instead. Because of these flaws the National Committeeon Affirmative Action has recommended establishment of an EqualOpportunities Commission to take care of gender inequality and alldisadvantaged groups in the society.

Apparently the lack of enthusiasm on the part of government to implementCEDAW is exacerbated by Section 21 of the 1999 Constitution, whichstates that international treaties cannot be enforced unless an act of theNational Assembly says it can. As long as CEDAW and the BeijingDeclaration and Platform for Action have not become domestic laws effortsto bring government to implement Affirmative Action will continue to meetserious challenges.

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Political PartiesThe political parties have so far not demonstrated any inclination tointroduce mechanisms for equal representation within the party executivesas required by the Platform for Action. Besides the creation of the post ofthe Women Leader, most parties have not adopted any other system toincrease the number of women holding party offices. The experiences ofwomen during the 1998/99 and 2003 elections as documented elsewherein this publication show that the political parties seem to have unwrittenpolicies against female aspirants. There were cases of women who wonin the parties’ primaries but were supplanted with men or were asked tostep down for men. Even though the parties tried to hide the actual reasonfor the injustice behind some oblique references to the women’s lifestyle,they later admitted that fear that the women would lose in the final electionswas the real motive. Such fears however might not have been unfoundedas the Nigeria electorate is still largely biased against women.

The various maneuvers against women clearly flout section 191 (b) of theBeijing Declaration and Platform for Action which require political partiesto

‘remove all barriers that directly or indirectly discriminateagainst the participation of women’

in elective and electoral nominating processes in compliance with article 7of the Convention for the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination AgainstWomen (CEDAW). The Nordic countries, Denmark, Norway andSweden that are well known for as high as 40 percent representation ofwomen in politics achieved it through positive actions taken by politicalparties. For instance as far back as 1983 the Norwegian Labour partydecided that both sexes must be represented by at least 40 percent at allelections and in 1988, the Danish Social Democratic Party took a similardecision. Political parties in the United Kingdom took a decisive step in1997 to create women-only parliamentary seats, while the Labour partyhad taken an initiative to increase the number of women in executivepositions in reaction to a research finding showing that women regardedthe party as male dominated.

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Political WillIt is pertinent to mention at this point that one of the greatest obstacles tothe implementation of Affirmative Action is the lack of political will on thepart of the Nigerian leadership. Apart from using tokenism in appointmentsto score cheap political points the Nigerian leadership has never reallygiven equal representation of women the attention it deserves in terms ofsustainable policies. Nothing stops the president for instance fromnominating a sizeable number of women for appointment to make up forthe short fall in elective posts.

Opportunities for implementationA wonderful opportunity for the implementation of affirmative action wascreated in 2002 with the adoption of the National Policy on Women, adocument that is commendable for identifying sectoral gender imbalances.It also contains broad –based actions to be taken for closing the gendergap including the implementation of the 30% Affirmative Action. Thepublication and yearly review of a special diary of appointable women willrender untenable the often repeated excuse that there is a dearth of qualifiedwomen to appoint into public office.

ConclusionIn Nigeria, political participation especially at the level of seeking electiveand appointive posts is related to economic empowerment and education.In conformity with the principle of Federal character, women must beassisted to gain greater control over economic resources through specialschemes and enhance their representation in public office throughconstitutional and legislative reforms that favour Affirmative Action. NGOsshould intensify their social advocacy towards changing negative attitudesand wrong perception of women in public life or leadership positions.They should also be unrelenting in their bid for legal reforms especiallyaimed at removing all vestiges of discrimination against women in all spheresof life.

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End Notes

1 UNESCO, Unit for the Promotion of the Status of Women andgender Equality (1999) Passport to Equality. Paris, Page 13

2 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Federal Republicof Nigeria Official Gazette Lagos 5th May 1999 (Sections 147(3), 171 (5), 153 (c), Part 3 Schedule 3

3 Ibid

4 Citizens Forum for Constitutional Reforms, (2002), ContentiousIssues in the Review of the 1999 Constitution of the FederalRepublic of Nigeria. Lagos, Pages 13,119

5 UNESCO, Unit for the Promotion of the Status of Women andGender Equality (1999), Passport to Equality. Paris,Page 6.

6 United Nations, Department of Public Information, (1996), FourthWorld Conference on Women Beijing, China 4th– 15th September1995, Platform for Action and Beijing Declaration. New York,Page 7

7 Ibid Page 112

8 Ibid Page 113

9 Nigerian NGOs Coalition for a Shadow Report on CEDAW,NGO CEDAW, (1999), Report for Nigeria. Lagos, Page 2

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CHAPTER FOUR

INTRICACIES OF WOMEN’S PARTICIPATIONIN PARTY POLITICS *

“Man is capable of justice, hence democracy ispossible but man is inclined to injustice, thereforedemocracy is necessary”1

This correct assertion underscores the imperativeness of womenparticipation in democratic governance. As an addition, it is obvious that itis because man (as in the male gender) has gone beyond inclination, buthas from time-to-time dished out unbelievable doses of injustice to thefemale gender all in the name of representative governance, that womenmust be part of the process that dictates their well-being, welfare, thedirection and content of their entire lives.

Politics is too important for people and women in particular to be lefttotally to men, who can hardly understand women’s concerns and questto participate in decision-making. Moreover, democracy, putmathematically and in the form of equation, is Mass Participation plusRepresentationDemocracy = Mass Participation + RepresentationThat is: Dem = MP + Rep

Thus, democracy is not complete when both conditions of MP andRep are absence. Also, it will be wrong to equate mass participationwith elections or Electoral Democracy. Representation throughelection is not enough to ensure mass participation while election isjust a medium or mechanism to get representation. Participation ofvoters or citizens should therefore not end there. There are other

* This chapter was put together by Raheemat Momodu, Gender analyst and former Chair-person, Lagos Chapter of Nigeria Association of Women Journalists, NAWOJ.

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channels and platforms of participation, especially when an election processis fraught with so much fraud that representation ceases to be a truereflection of voters’ choice.

Beyond the above however, there is also the point that representation indemocracy refers to representation that reflects or captures the diversityand character of the populace. In this case, true democratic representation,that will promote mass and popular participation, should reflect the differentinterests, including gender, race, caste, ethnic, religious, age, class andother identities in the proportions they exist in a society. This implies thatideally a truly democratic government of Nigeria should at least have 40%of women since the last population census in 1991 put women at about49%.

Meanwhile, many reasons have been advanced for the low participationand representation of women in Nigerian politics. But perhaps drawingfrom the last two general elections (1999 and 2003 respectively), especiallyfrom the latest one, the greatest challenge today to women politicalparticipation and representation is the party system. The reason for this isnot far fetched. This is because the political party is the engine of democracyas it drives the political process.

Global Overview of Women Political Participation“Without the active participation of women and theincorporation of women’s perspectives in all levels ofdecision-making, the goals of equality, developmentand peace cannot be achieved”2

In spite of the clamor for women’s political empowerment by manyinternational organizations, which has been championed by the UnitedNations and its agencies, women representation in government andother public decision making position is still very low; the worldover. Although there are regional differences, a situational analysis

still points to one fact, there is a huge gender gap between women andmen representation in political leadership as in other aspects of public life.

The issue of women’s political participation and representation in politicsand governance should be seen from four perspectives- Access,Participation, Representation and Transformation. Access to politicalinstitutions, participation (which includes control of power within suchinstitutions), quantitative and qualitative representation and the end resultwill be social and political transformation in the polity.

Women participation and representation are critical for the consolidationof democracy. Since democracy is all about mass participation andrepresentative leadership, the low participation and representation ofwomen are undemocratic and undermine sustainable development. Sosays the UNDP Human Development Report 2002;

• Of the 81 new democracies, only 47 are fully democratic. Othersdo not seem to be in transition to democracy or have lapsed intoauthoritarianism or conflict.

• Only 82 countries, with 57% of the world’s people, are fullydemocratic.

• Worldwide, only 14% of parliamentarians are women and in 10countries, none are women.

This statistics speak volumes of women’s political state vis-à-vis theirgeneral development. The situation is even worse in non-democratic andauthoritarian states, where in some cases women live in social seclusionand are denied their fundamental human rights all in the name of religion,tradition and culture.Although statistics above captures only electivepositions in the legislative arm of government, the story is the same if notworse in appointment or other elective positions in the executive. In fact,it appears that women find it easier to get elected into the legislative armthan get executive appointments.

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Regional averages are as follows: (3)

REGIONAL SINGLE HOUSE UPPER HOUSE BOTH HOUSESAVERAGES OR LOWER OR SENATE COMBINED

HOUSE

Nordiccountries 39.7% —— 39.7%Americas 18.4% 17.2% 18.2%Europe OSCEmemberCountriesincludingNordic countries 17.7% 15.2% 17.2%Europe OSCEmembersExcluding Nordiccountries 15.6% 15.2% 15.5%Asia 15.5% 13.8% 15.45Sub-Sahara Africa 14.1% 15.6% 14.35Pacific 12.1% 25.9% 13.6%Arab States 6.0% 4.1% 5.6% 3

The Sub-Saharan average of 14.3% is the 3rd among the lowest and is atrue reflection of the slow rate of progress in the struggle to increasewomen’s political participation and representation. It is pertinent to observe,however, that within the African Continent, there are national differenceswith huge gaps. For instance, two countries, South Africa and Ugandastand out in their advancement of women political participation andrepresentation in governance.

The sad situation in Africa prompted the African Parliamentary Union(APU), at its 25th Conference on the 24th of October 2002, in Khartoum,Sudan to pass “Resolution 107\25\02 on the Role of Women in DecisionMaking’’. Starting with a strongly worded preamble, the resolution gavethe following prescriptions:

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• URGES Parliaments to adopt legislative means aimed at creatinga propitious environment for the extension of decision-makingpower of women.

• INVITES governments to effectively apply instruments andconventions relating to the rights of women, which they have freelyratified and approved.

• ACKNOWLEDGES that a positive discrimination is practiced inthe educational program in order to make it possible for womento acquire the capacity and competence needed for their integrationat all levels of decision-making.

• REQUESTS that national strategies and program of action areput in place in all countries which aim at real participation of womenin the rural communities in decision-making

• URGES governments to set up mechanisms for financingremunerating activities of women.

• RECOMMENDS that the electoral codes, the basic instrumentof political parties and the financing of political parties and electoralcampaigns be re-adapted and encourage gender parity in theexecutive and legislative institutions.

• INVITES the General Secretariat of APU to study the ways andmeans for the institution of a Parliamentarian Women Committeewithin the Union.4

Although the resolution is a good step in the right direction, it is unclear ifAPU is pushing it to individual African parliaments and governments. It isalso very doubtful if APU has the political will to ensure the implementationof the resolution. And lastly, since it was passed just a year ago, it mayvery well not have been widely disseminated, not to mention acted uponby any government and even the APU itself. At least in Nigeria the resolutionis not well known and the government including the executive and thelegislature has not acted on it.

This is very sad because such a resolution, passed by parliamentarians,should easily be translated into local laws by the legislators from thedifferent countries, if they were indeed serious. The yawning gap

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between words and action characterizes pronouncements and declarationsmade by governments on women development, especially in Africa.

It always amounts to rhetoric’s, no resolve and no follow up action.Otherwise, going by the preamble of the resolution, which demonstrates adeep understanding and appreciation of the reasons for the struggle forwomen development, all APU needs to do is to instruct member parliamentsto domesticate CEDAW for a start. And in addition, institutionalize acocktail of affirmative actions for promoting increased women participationand representation in parties and government.

Part of the preamble reads thus: (5)• Recalling its (APU) Resolution on Women and Development in

Africa (Brazzaville, April 1988):• Mindful of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights;• Referring to the Conclusion of the Beijing Conference in 1995;• Recalling the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of

Discriminations in respect of women (CEDAW).

The lack of political will, sincerity and commitment on the part ofgovernment, local and regional organizations like APU have been the baneof the promotion of women development in Africa, compared to otherparts of the world.

Nigerian Women Participation in Party Politics“Political parties are the heart and soul ofdemocracies. In the post-Cold War era, democracyhas become the form of government widely consideredbest able to resolve internal conflicts of interestpeacefully. Respect the human rights of citizens andprovide the conditions for social and economicdevelopment and the reduction of poverty”5

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The pivotal/facilitating role of political parties in the political advancementof women is generally acknowledged the world over. This is because partiesserve as the singular most important arena, avenue and medium for politicalparticipation everywhere in the world. Thus, political participation mustbe channeled through the parties to access power and be part ofgovernment. And this in most cases has been the missing link in women’spolitical participation globally. Nigeria is not an exception.

Indeed political party is the door and the key to political participation andso the engine room of democracy. This implies that to enjoy the benefits ofdemocracy as stated above, one must actively and meaningful engage inparty politics. Parties must be seen as the main theatre and stage of politicsand as such it determines the direction, content and context of politicaldevelopment of the different stakeholders and interest groups. The relativelylow participation of women in party politics the world over is perhapsresponsible for the equally low participation and representation of womenin governance and other public decision making positions.

Since the commencement of local/indigenous politics in the mid 1950s,just before independence, one marked feature of Nigerian politics andgeneral polity has been the near total absence of women in parties,especially in party leadership. Although there has been improvement overthe years, the situation today leaves much to be desired. After 43years ofself-rule, Nigerian women’s political participation/activism in party politicsis abysmal. The same can be said of political parties’ gender sensitivity. Tosay the least, the gender sensitivity of parties has been cosmetic.

While women’s membership in parties has greatly improved fromthe days of the 1st Republic (1960-65), their positioning within theparty hierarchy and influence over party decisions are minimal. Thisbecame very evident during the last general elections (2003), whenin spite of the unprecedented number of female aspirants and the

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heightened local mobilization amongst the generality of women; only ahandful of women were nominated.

The reason for this is not far fetched. Nigerian political parties aretraditionally and intrinsically male-dominated. This trait and the trend ofwomen’s marginalization in party politics, which runs throughout the politicalhistory of Nigeria, is perhaps the most critical factor in the politicalunderdevelopment of Nigerian women. Almost all political parties, sincethe start of local politics, have at best paid lips service to women’s politicaldevelopment.

The main features and landmarks of Nigerian women’s involvement inparty politics are the granting of universal franchise to Southern women inthe mid 1950s and Northern women in 1975; and the creation and banningof women’s wings respectively. The evolution of women’s participation inparty politics presents a pattern, where women are often pushed to certainpositions that are in reality practically and strategically redundant.

The impact/role of parties in the gender outcome of the last military transitionto democratic rule and the last general elections exposed the fact thatwomen are still very much ‘outsiders’ in the game of party politics. All the30 registered parties ignored women’s gender concerns in their manifestosor in there actions, only a very few paid lip service to promoting womenpolitical development.

The political parties were virtually oblivious of women’s political needs/concerns and their agitations. For them, it was business as usual, businesswithout women. Cases were reported where women politicians werecheated out of been nominated as party candidates. The big question is‘why have Nigerian women still not been able to break through and intothe party machinery?’

Perhaps the main reason is the fact that the parties are consciouslymale-biased, formed and run/operated based on male fraternalconnections and relationships. Essentially, all the political parties are

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run as ‘old boy’ networks, which leave little room for women to come in.This traditional trend and pattern of gender insensitivity is across partylines. Even the so-called progressive parties are equally guilty. The parties’efforts at presenting a gender agenda, through public pronouncements atcampaign rallies and references to women political development in theirmanifestos, are just gimmicks to woo women votes.

Starting from their manifestos, these parties, like their predecessors, displaya blatant disregard for women’s political contributions and their genderconcerns. There are only a few women in the national executives of all theparties. And most of them hold welfare, social organizer and ex-officioportfolios that in reality are politically redundant positions.

Many analysts have argued that generally formal institutions are male-dominated and intrinsically male biased. This is apparently true of politicalparties in Nigeria. Right from the commencement of local politics in themid 1950s, political parties in Nigeria without an exception have beenalmost entirely a male affair.

The report of a survey\workshop organized by Gender Action Team (GAT)in collaboration with Friedrich Ebert Foundation on the heels of partyprimaries aptly demonstrates the situation of women in party politics.Although the survey workshop focused on Kaduna State, its findingsrepresent the situation all over the country.

The participants\respondents, both male and female, were a good mix offailed and successful aspirants, party leaders and civil society actorsengaged in promoting women political participation. The consensus wasthat the following were the major obstacles and challenges to women’smeaningful participation in party politics and the general polity.

-Godfatherism: This entails a kind of mentoring of younger or newpoliticians by the older one. But in the Nigerian parlance, this is done

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in exclusion of other more logical issues. The cub politician hardly has anysay. The godfather, who often sponsors the new politician’s campaign,decides everything including choosing his or her cabinet.-Money Politics\ Pay Off Syndrome: It is very common for themoneybags and godfathers in the parties to buy off contestants to giveway to their own candidates. They will therefore do everything possible tomake sure their candidates win including paying off the entire partyexecutive.-Personality Politics: Persons, attitudes and behavior not ideas are oftenthe bone of contention. As such to win party elections one has to identifywith certain personalities.-Issue of Indigeneship: A woman is often accepted as being an indigeneof her state of origin or that of her husband, depending on what the issuesof contention are. Where they are largesse to be shared, her husband’speople will claim her but if it is a matter of sharing political office, she willbe declared a non-indigene. -Intra party conflict and divisions constitute a constant in Nigerian politicsoften distracting attention from important issues of government. Womenare of course the losers in all these as “ they can hardly stand in the overheated kitchen or polity’’.-Rigging: A permanent feature of election is often accompanied byviolence, which most will readily flee from.-Cross Carpeting: People move from party to party looking for betterdeals-High Registration fees militate against women in this country “ wherepoverty wears a woman’s face.’’-Sabotage\ Pull down Syndrome by other women, socialized by men tobelieve that women are not good enough to hold political positions.- Incessant Cancellation of Primaries. The process is repeated severaltimes until “the owners of the parties’’ are satisfied with the results.-Security; Women often fall prey to election violence and unless they aresure of their security, they will not venture into the political arena.-Financial Constraints: Few women have enough funds and those whodo, do not willingly invest in politics.

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-Male Dominated Executive: The cash and carry nature’’ of the politicalparties ensures that men buy executive positions for themselves. Womenconsequently rank very low in a pegging order of executive ladder becausethey do not contribute much to party coffers.-Undemocratic Political Parties: Women have proved to be more honestthan men. This means that they are often uncomfortable with theundemocratic and abnormal ways of decision-making.

The survey observed that the state of women in politics was a reflection ofwhat was happening in the general society. And that politics was maledominated in its content and character. It was a general consensus thattraditional belief\culture, male dominated political system, socio-economicfactors and the mass media’s negative portrayal and stereotyping of womenfurther undermined women’s political participation.

Of special mention was the use or better still the misuse of religion to deterwomen. It was revealed that some male opponents used religious leadersto apply pressure, when they were afraid of strong female opposition. Thearbitrary changing of the rules of the game and withholding of relevantinformation was discussed as some of the fraudulent ways women werecheated during the party primaries. Some women recounted how timesand venues of elections were changed just hours to election and informationof such a change not communicated to them.

On the flip side, women have been accused of some politicalmiscalculations. That rather than building themselves politically by engagingthe party structure constructively, they engage in distracting as well asdestructive behaviors and actions.

• Struggling to get positions without knowing the requirements ofsuch offices.

• Vying for positions that exceed their basic educational qualifications.

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• Vying for positions that they know they will not win but just for thepurpose of using them to get appointed positions.

• Contesting to help block the chance for the right woman and forthe purpose of helping a male to win.

• Contesting but expecting other people to foot the bills.• Contesting because other women who they feel superior to have

entered the race.• Disregarding the advice of older women who have been long in

the game.

Women politicians have been said not to be dogged or competitive becausethey do opt for ‘cheaper’ parties, where it is easier for them to get partytickets.

The workshop suggested the following as the way forward;• Elected women politicians should serve as role models and mentors

to younger ones.• Issue oriented politics should be encouraged. Only parties devoid

of issues to discourage money politics• Late night meetings should be abolished since women are purposely

denied access to such meetings.• Women should make women their constituency and be accountable

to them.• Women should take advantage of organizations that offer free legal

services when in distress.• There are some gender-sensitive men and they form a critical link

for women as entry point. They will also make good advocates toother men.

Election Process And Equal Opportunities“The lack of transparency in the electoral process inNigeria has been identified as the single mostimportant factor inhibiting any effort at dealing withgeneralized exclusion… Inaccessibility to appropriateinformation has restricted women’s ability to exercisetheir fundamental democratic rights. Without political

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consciousness in terms of knowledge of the process,civil culture and ethics, democratic norms, awarenessabout the institutions of governance and politics,women can only participate at certain levels.’’ 6

Generally speaking, the highly corrupt and monetized electoral processfrom party formation, membership, participation, party primaries, dealingwith the electoral body, intra party and general public campaigns to theelection proper, all put women at a greater disadvantage than the men,.This is not to say that all male politicians are rich, privileged and at anadvantage.

But in general terms, the number of male politicians who have the kind ofmoney that is required to win any election from ward to presidency faroutweighs the women. Consequently, in an electoral system like Nigeria,where the entire system is not transparent, where electoral victory is cashand carry and where the election process and procedures are shrouded insecrecy, comparatively the women are a minority and overwhelminglydisadvantaged.

Another factor, which works against women, is the relatively low level ofpolitical consciousness of both women politicians and women in general.While the men realistically speaking have always been in government,whether military and civilian, the women on the other hand only haveopportunity to participate under the very short time of civilian administration.Thus, the men have had much longer time of practice at governance ormis-governance.

The lack of transparency and access to the right information and near totalabsence of formal political structures and institutions worsens the lowpolitical consciousness of women vis-à-vis men. As has been statedrepeatedly in this chapter, unarguably the party is the most crucial formalpolitical structure that determines the level of women participation in politicsand therefore the level of women’s development.

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Like the political parties, the Nigerian electoral process and the entiresystem are run by men Perhaps only a very few men of same interestdetermine the direction and content of the process. The Governor Ngigeand Chris Mba of Anambra State saga points to this fact. And since womendo not belong to or even have access to the workings of these politicalmafias, kingmakers or godfathers, they will find it very difficult to bemainstream (or is it ‘male stream’ ) players in the election process of theirparties and the state.

From the foregoing, it is very clear that women do not have equalopportunities and access to the various structures and institutions in theelectoral process, at party or general level. This is why there is a dire needfor institutions of political processes and special mechanisms. The demandof the institutionalization of definite special mechanisms, better known asAffirmative Action, appears to be the quickest and most effective way tobridge the yawning political gap between men and women and to acceleratesustainable development.

It is pertinent to note here that the call for affirmative action for women toenhance women’s political participation is not unreasonable andunprecedented. In fact, the call is very much in line with the popular Nigeriangovernment culture of solving problems with task forces and creating specialagencies to take special actions. Some of these Affirmative Actions arethe “ mother of all’’ Federal Character, Educational Quota System, PowerShift Policy, Party Zoning System, Petroleum Trust Fund, Niger DeltaDevelopment Commission and of course Public Office Zoning that dictatesfor instance that Senate President must come from South East, Speakerfrom North West etc.

Thus the question is why can’t there be gender character in federal characterand in power shift. Why can’t there be Women Political Trust Fund, whycan’t there be gender zoning within the party zoning system and of coursewomen reserved seats within the public office zoning so that for instance,for starters, the Vice President must be a woman from South West. Suchan affirmative action will not upset

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the present zoning system in terms of federal character but will only addthe much needed gender value to the polity.

Gender Analysis of Party Constitutions and ManifestoesIt is no news that Nigerian political parties are bereft of ideological direction,are built on the selfish shared economic interest of just a few men, who runthe parties like extension of their family businesses. All political parties inNigeria today strictly speaking are not fit to be called political institutions.They are just loose platforms for people to contest elections and no more.

This is why parties in Nigeria only come alive a few months to generalelections and go to sleep in between elections except for the ruling party,which is barely kept alive because of the politics of patronage from thosein government, who reward party faithful with underserved publicappointments, ghost and inflated contracts,

A clear manifestation of the non-institutional nature and the non-ideologicalcharacter of political parties is the way and magnitude and wave of crosscarpeting before and after party nominations. This means that party loyaltyis very low and so it will be difficult for a party to grow or develop bycultivating and developing its own unique ideologies, culture, conduct,ethics, etc in the true nature of political institutions and pillars of democracy.

It is not therefore surprising that these parties almost without exception donot have formal structures, policies to talk of; most of theirconstitutions\manifestoes are disappointing especially in terms of gendersensitivity and sincerity to address women concerns and interests.

Only a few of the 30 constitutions\manifestoes analyzed and readappear to understand gender issues and willingly addressed themseriously and effectively. Starting from their gender bias language,using he and not he\she to the cosmetic treatment of their plan forwomen development, Nigerian parties have demonstrated a gross lack

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of understanding and willingness to promote greater women participationin politics.

The few parties that showed some level of understanding and appreciationof women concerns and who at least have serious recommendations are:

National Conscience Party (NCP)It attempted to mainstream women concerns in the following areas:Health care , promising visits to the sick, the aged, pregnant women andthe disabled in their residences by medical personnel on the ground ofinability of such categories of people to transport themselves to publichospitals (page 34) and “extension of paid maternity leave period forpregnant women” (page 35).Education;”Guarantee the right of education irrespective of ethnic, gender,religions or age differences” (page 45) and “Establish an affirmative actionprogram to address, regional and gender imbalances in education” Therewas no reference to or mention of women in the introduction and conclusion,the treatment of women as quoted above fall into two areas- Health andEducation.

Democratic Alternative (DA)The party emblem or logo is a clenched fist of a man and a woman shootingout of a mass of people (page 4). This depicts women and men in equalpartnership. Its aims and objective (6.13) reads “To struggle for genderequality, the redress and elimination of past and present injustices againstwomen” (page 5). Through out the constitution, he\she was used. Section13.8 makes provision for secretary for women, whose duties include insummary:

• Implementing programs at empowering women and redressingentrenched prejudices.

• Ensures programs reach and benefit rural and urban women and• Mobilizing women for political participation and economic

independence (page 13).

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In section 22.6 captioned “Geographical Spread and Gender,’’ it reads“In electing or appointing members into office or committees, specialconsideration shall be given to geography and gender without compromisingmerit.(page 220). Lastly, the secretary of women is part of the executivefrom national to ward levels.

Alliance for Democracy (AD)The 18th aim and objective in its constitution is “Creation of opportunitiesfor, and encouragement of the full development of the political, social,cultural and economic potentials of Nigerian women” (page 18). There isno specification of a woman’s position like women leader or some otherform of affirmative action in the composition of the party’s leadership atvarious levels.

National Democratic Party (NDP)Its chapter 20 on “Women Policy” the party promises to take active,practical and concrete steps to empower women and facilitate them tovarious organs of the party. Those women will be encouraged to contestelective party and public political posts and that as a matter of policy;women will be given their fare share of appointments. It says, it acceptsthe equality of men and women.The strategies for implementing NDP Women Policy include:

• Enactment of a national policy for women• Establishment of data bank to store information of the status and

position of women in Nigeria Public life.• Special educational Affirmative Actions for girls and women.• Deliberate efforts to appoint women to critical public offices• A commission will be set up to undertake a comprehensive review

of existing laws to repeal negative ones and update others.

In addition, one of the 3 objectives of the party is to field competentand able men and women of proven leadership quality for electiveoffices. The deliberate mention of men and women shows some level

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in the following chapters, 6-Agricultural Policy and 7-Rural Developmentand Poverty Eradication.

Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)The ruling party has been accused of gender insensitive in words and indeeds. In Article 6 of the party’s constitution under “The character of theparty”, it says it shall be a non-tribal, non-religious and non-sexistdemocratic organization (section 6.1) and shall promote the emancipationof women by encouraging their representation at all levels and combatsexism (6.5).

In the party hierarchy\leadership structure, although there is the positionof Women leader from ward to national even to senatorial level, there’s noprovision for women in the caucuses at different levels. We all know thatthe engine of the party is the caucus. But there is special provision forwomen in the composition of the National Executive Committee. In section16: A: xxix, it reads

“ Three (3) elected members, at least one of whom shall be awoman from each of the six geo-political zones.

The outlined duties of the National Women leader reveal the fact that PDPis not really serious about concrete political development of women. Theduties are;

• Be responsible for women mobilization and organization• Initiate and implement strategic programs and policies aimed at

endearing the party to Nigerian women• Co-ordinate activities of the zonal and state women leaders

Lastly, for a party that believes strongly in the principles of power-shift,power sharing, rotation of key political offices (Preamble iii) and federalcharacter (19: C), it is curious that it does not believe in Affirmative Actionfor women. If it was serious and sincere about women’s interests anddevelopment, it should work out a power shift, power sharing and rotationof key offices that ensures a specific percentage (more than 30%) forwomen. PDP should put gender in the federal character like the ANC didand that is the surest way of endearing women to the party.

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All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA)In the preamble of Chapter 16: “Policy on Women”, it gives a brief butincisive analysis of gender discrimination of women. It says in the spirit ofBeijing and for the achievement of gender purity and more inclusivedemocracy, APGA will undertake special measures. However the use of“Fair sex” exposes the insincerity and non-appreciation of gender issues.It proposes to do the following;

• Fight gender inequality and insensitivities in all aspects of ournational life through public enlightenment.

• Promote Affirmative Action in employment• Promote girl child education and compulsory education for girls

until age 16. Provide scholarships and special grants to girls andwomen

• Review credit guidelines in favor of women in agriculture and theinformal sector.

• Sponsor legislation forbidding marriage before age 18• Review labor laws that are insensitive to the special position of

women as mothers and homebuilders.• Encourage sports women• Encourage women to seek elective positions• Give women senior political appointments

Justice Party (JP)One of its objectives is to “empower our womenfolk politically,educationally and economically” (Objective f). It will provide adulteducation for girls and provide adult education facilities. In its “Women inNational Development’ section, the party promises to “remove all barriersplaced in the path of advancement of women”. To give practical impetusto the women policy it says, it “shall reserve 25% of all politicalappointments for women”. Although just 1\4 and not 1\3 as recommendedby Beijing Platform for Action, but it is the only party that promised aquota affirmative action. With this JP is not just a party of generationalchange, but also a change to include power sharing with women.

It is obvious from the foregoing that the gender factor is gradually becominga contending political issue. The parties discussed above and others triedwith degrees of success to address the issue of women under-development.Although most of their pronouncements and promises are more rhetoricthan real, the intention speaks of the level of political consciousness interms of women issues.

Best Practice/ Peer InfluenceOne of the paradigm shifts in development practice is the use orencouragement of the replication of successful strategies in other areas.This is often referred to as the ‘best practice’ approach. This simply meansthat if a particular strategy has been found effective in addressing a problem,other places with similar problems and with similar context are advised toadopt such a strategy, adapting if necessary to suit their own uniqueenvironment. In this case, a comparative analysis of the Nigerian and SouthAfrican experience presents a very interesting scenario.

South Africa is one of the leading countries in the world and definitely themost advanced in Africa in terms of women political participation andrepresentation. This is in sharp contrast to Nigeria, the giant of Africa,who boasts of ‘midget’ percentage of women political participation andrepresentation. Thus, in line with the new burning spirit of NEPAD (NewPartnership for Africa Development) and the African Union (AU), wherepeer monitoring, which effectively translates to peer pressure or influenceis one of its central pillars, Nigeria should learn from the South Africansuccess story.

It is interesting to know that the secret of South Africa success storyis just one organization, the ruling African National Congress (ANC).The ANC, which was formed in 1912, did not accept women asmembers at the time. It was only in 1931 that the Bantu Women’sLeague (BWL) was recognized as the women’s branch of the ANC.Although in 1943 women were formally admitted as ANC membersand in 1948 the African National Congress Women League (ANCWL)

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was formed, women were still discriminated against. They were used forcatering and voters’ mobilization as is currently the case in Nigeria. Howeverit was in 1984 that ANC took a giant step, accepting the attribute of“non-sexist” in its vision for South Africa. And this set the stage for theadoption of a one-third-quota affirmative action policy.

According to the historical narration of the growth of ANCWL titled“Women’s League: 50 years of Struggle” by Malibongwe IgamaLamakhosikazi. (10)

“The continuous struggle by the ANC Women’s Leagueagainst all forms of discrimination and genderimbalance subsequently led to the ANC resolution thatone third of its representatives in parliament shouldbe women, which had a far-reaching effect intransforming the newly-elected democraticParliament of South Africa” 7

Today, the writer continued, South Africa is seventh world wide in termsof representation of women in the legislature. The high representative ofwomen is not limited to the legislature alone; it is spread to other appointivepositions. This is a commendable practice that Nigeria’s ruling party, thePeople’s Democratic Party (PDP) can emulate. The PDP should not givethe excuse of its young age compared to the ANC because there is asaying that “it is better to learn from other people’s experience andmistakes”.

So the PDP and other parties for that matter should not wait to make thesame mistakes or continue to marginalize and discriminate against women.An African proverb also that says‘when a father rebukes his son, the boy without a father listens too’.Nigeria should listen and learn about how another African countryaddressed the problem of women’s low political representation.

Perhaps it is pertinent to add that the transformation that followedthe implementation of the one-third affirmative action quota was not

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just in the increase in the actual number of women in government as itmanifested in many other ways. In April 1999, in the discussion titled“Delivery to the Women; A Document for the ANC Women’s League”the following were listed as the ANC government deliverables to women;

• Signature and ratification of CEDAW (The Convention on theElimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women)

• Creating a National gender machinery to ensure the focus in theend of all forms of discrimination against women. These includethe office of the status of women and the commission on genderequality.

• 25% of lawmakers at both the national and provincial levels arewomen

• 30% of our ministers and deputy ministers are women.• Laws that have discriminated against women are being repealed

and replaced with laws and policies that will actively promotegender equality.

• A target has been set at 30% women in senior managementpositions in government departments by the year 2000.

In addition to these, according to the document, there were otherdeliverables to women in the form of internal achievements within lineministries and government departments. These deliverables were in thefollowing areas within each ministry and department, where applicable

• Policy and Legislation• Personnel• Programs and Activities• Budget Allocations

It suffices to add that South Africa is blazing the trail in the relatively newarea of gender budgeting as well. Nigeria and indeed the rest of Africaneed to emulate it especially for the economic development of womenand the de-feminization of poverty in Africa.

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ConclusionThe political party is the midwife of democracy. It ensures the safe deliveryor stillbirth of democracy. Consequently, the political party is the mostimportant and influential political institution in a democracy. Invariably the“the state of health” level of development of a democracy is determinedby the level of development of mostly the political parties within the system.In the case of Nigeria, as analyzed in this chapter, the underdevelopmentand the corruptive ways of the parties have ensured the low participationand representation of women in public leadership.

The underdevelopment of Nigerian parties and the lack of formal internalparty structures promote corruption in the party processes, and thismanifests in many ways. One of which is the undemocratic administrationof the party. The so-called “sponsors” hijack in most cases, the partyleaderships. Thus in reality, Nigerian parties operate as undemocraticinstitutions and it will be therefore wishful thinking to expect them to delivertrue democracy. It is a simple natural law, “you cannot give what you donot have.”

Secondly, the general “genderuptcy” (as in bankruptcy) in the parties furtherworks against greater women political participation and representation.There is a “male stream” culture generally that does not like political powerin the hands of women. This culture is upheld by weak intra-party policiesand structures that do not intend or have the capacity to address the issuesof gender and women’s interests in the short or long term.

Thirdly, the little gain of women in terms of elective and appointive postscannot be sustained and consolidated in 2007 if political parties continuewith the culture of business as usual. The parties must be convinced to“democratize” their operations. There must be concerted efforts fromwomen in and outside the party fold to “blackmail” the parties if necessaryto truly mainstream gender in all aspects of its operations. The gendermainstreaming should of course start from the constitution and manifestos.

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The issue of women’s access to information is also very crucial. Nigerianparties do not see the need to disseminate information about their operationsbecause a few individuals, who consistently demonstrate gross disregardfor stated party processes and policies, run them. The deliberate shortageof information also serves the purpose of frustrating the process ofmonitoring the level of accountability. The discovery that only the AD(Alliance for Democracy) and NCP (National Conscience Party) hadwebsites in the course of this research was a great surprise. But the siteshave not been updated for a long time. It means most of the information inthese sites are stale and in some cases incorrect. Political parties in otherAfrican countries meanwhile have active and regularly updated websites.

Gender studies and audits like this effort have helped to identify structuralfactors in the party and electoral system, as discussed above, as promotingunder representation of women. Since structural defects are difficult tochange in the short term, perhaps the short cut to redressing the situationis the institution of affirmative and special actions at all levels. Parties arevote-seeking organizations, so women voters can pressurize them ingeneral.

Special mechanisms and affirmative action, especially quotas is widelyused by political parties worldwide. According to the Inter-ParliamentaryUnion (IPU), there are at least 56 political parties in 24 countries thatrecognize the use of quota system. Nordic countries have among the highestlevel of political representation of women in the world. As at 1998 Swedenhad 40% women members of parliament, Finland and Denmark had 34%,Norway had 35% and Iceland had 25% (Women Parliament BeyondNumbers, 1998). In Africa, South Africa, Uganda and Eritrea stand outas success stories of quota affirmative action.

The following assertion further strengthens the case for Nigerian parties toadopt quotas if they are genuinely desirous to promote political participationand representation as they often claim.

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“… it is the quota system that works directly to openthe political arena to more, equally competent women.… experiences of countries that use quotas suggestthe positive - that quotas work to make women visiblein the political arena, in Parliaments and in politicalparties. This is crucial first steps towards the creationof a critical mass of women able to influence policyand decision-making effectively.8

It is hoped that such an exposition will inform the reconsideration of oldmethods, behaviors and practices of political mobilization of Nigerianwomen and a rethink of the entire Nigerian electoral and politicalregime\system to be more gender sensitive. In particular it is hoped thatthe findings of the gender audit would influence parties to adopt moregender sensitive and equitable postures in their operations and agendas. Itis obvious that women across party lines and other women voters mustcome together to demand for gender sensitive changes. It is the only wayto go and a formidable Women’s Voters League is highly recommended.

End Notes

1 Reinhold Niebuhr (www.nimd.org)

2 Beijing Platform of Action

3 (www.ipi.org\wmn-e\world.htm)

4 (www.uafpar\.org\story)

5 (www.nimd.org)

6 IDEA Democracy in Nigeria: Continuing (9) Dialogue(s) for NationBuilding 2001 (pg 120&121)

7 (www.anc.org.za\wl\docs\50years)

8 "Women Around the World” April 200 Volume 1, No. 3(http://www.cld.org/waw5.htm)

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CHAPTER FIVE

PERISCOPING THE ELECTORAL FIELD 2003 *

IntroductionA lot of women and civil society groups were sent to the drawing boardfollowing the abysmal performance of women in the 1999 election. Of the11,881 available positions throughout the country in that year, womencontested only 631. Out of these, a total of 181 positions were won bywomen, which came to a mere 1.62% of the total contested positions.1

The apparent poor performance in the 1999 election formed a majorbackground to a national summit for all women politicians held in Abujaon June 28, 2002. It was resolved that to stem the poor electoral tide,women needed to:l Present a united front, share information and experiences that will

enhance the participation of women in politics.l Strive to participate more actively in the political process, as political

power determines all other facets of life (economy, religion, education,etc.) and therefore cannot be left to only one section of society.

l Ensure that their participation in politics will contribute to thetransformation of society in a way that will lead to economic growth,balanced development and the eradication of poverty.

l Resist the temptation of acquiring money through corrupt means butinstead seek support from individuals, groups, unions and politicalparties and establish a Women Political Participation DevelopmentFund (WOPOPADEF)

l Support female aspirants irrespective of party affiliations and wherethere are no female aspirants, support male candidates on the conditionthat women will be appointed into positions on his assumption of office.2

This chapter was put together by Tony Iyare, public affairs analyst and stringer,New York Times.

The summit which was organised by the International Human Rights LawGroup, Centre for Development and Population Activities (CEDPA) andGender and Development Action (GADA), also called on the politicalparties to address the problem of violence as this constitutes a hindranceto women’s participation in politics.

Despite this and other efforts, the outcome of the 2003 electionunfortunately, did not bear significant fruit to ensure that women’sintervention in politics in Nigeria is on the upswing. Although two womencandidates ran for presidency while three others were running mates, aproduct of the liberal political space that led to the registration of moreparties, the total picture was not too cheery. Three senators were electedjust like 1999 while the election of only three more women pushed thefemale membership of the House of Representatives from 12 in 1999 to21 in 2003. No woman governor was elected, as was the case in 1999while the number of female deputy-governors shot up to two. Two womenspeakers of the state Houses of Assembly were also elected. Only onewoman each was elected as deputy governor, deputy speaker and speakerof the state House of Assembly in 1999.In attempting to unravel the mystery behind the continuous poorperformance, Okeke Anya notes that the outcome of the primaries seriouslyaffected the performance of women in the general election of 2003. In hisview,

These manoeuvres against women clearly flout section191 (b) of the Beijing Declaration and platform forAction which require parties to remove all barriers,that directly or indirectly, discriminate against theparticipation of women in elective and electoralnominating processes in compliance with article 7 ofthe Convention for the Elimination of All Forms ofDiscrimination Against Women (CEDAW).3

Meanwhile, women representation in other areas of government sincethe return of civil rule on May 29, 1999 has not been particularlyencouraging,4 though the government of President Olusegun

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Obasanjo, which won a second term ticket has tried to increase the numberof women ministers to six.

Women’s Experience in 2003 ElectionNot many conceive the need to evolve a new Republic of Nigeria in theframe of Susan Anthony who contends that the true Republic should befounded on

“ men, their rights and nothing more; women, theirrights and nothing less”.5

We prefer to perceive the dictum more in the breach here and build asociety that increasingly creates hurdle for the womenfolk. Even amongorganisations whose adherents claim to abhor gender discriminations andsupport women’s rights like the National Conscience Party (NCP), thecause of women does not seem to have faired better. The party’s list ofcandidates for the last election does not give the impression that it is genderfriendly. For instance out of the 33 governorship candidates presented bythe party in 2003 election, only Ms. Lorretta Aniagolu who contested inEnugu state is a woman.6

Although the arguments from chieftains of the party was that not manywomen showed sufficient interest in the gubernatorial position in the states,it was the responsibility of such a professed mass based party to galvanisesuch interest and provide for same through affirmative action. A partypeopled with members whose background is firmly rooted in mass agitation,could not have been short of women to present for front line roles. Thecase of Mrs Teju Abiola, 39 who emerged running mate to Mr LateefAbassi, governorship candidate of the NCP in Lagos State during the2003 election is often cited as a problem of a society far from being warmto a front role for women in the polity. Teju along with Mrs Dupe Abiolaare two vocal wives of acclaimed winner of the June 12, 1993 presidentialelection, Chief Moshood Kashimawo Abiola. They seem to have steppedinto the shoes of Kudirat who was shot by agents of the Abacha regimeon June 4, 1996.

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Even with what was perceived as a more promising political prospectthan Abassi, a virtual new comer to the pro-democracy fold, many membersin the party felt it was still not time to present a woman gubernatorialcandidate in Lagos. Outside the party, the choice of Abassi, whose namecould not be located in a sustained history of popular struggle in the country,was trailed with “Mr Who”? With a more critical disposition and a sharperunderstanding of issues, Teju, should have presented the NCP theopportunity to make a difference and rally the female votes behind her. Itis however simplistic to blame the poor showing of the party, which hadabout two months to campaign and was confronted with paucity of funds,largely on this. Leading party members also say that Teju was neverpressurised to abandon her Governorship ambition if she indeed had it.

Massive rigging, money politics and tainting of the electoral process, largelystage managed by the ruling Peoples’ Democratic Party PDP was a bighurdle for the NCP and other parties. But in committing this tactical blunder,the NCP also squandered the opportunity to reap bountifully from thegains of the post annulment struggle by presenting Abiola’s wife. But MrsAbiola who is chief executive of Karlat Construction Nigeria Limited prefersto blame her non-emergence as governorship candidate on “limited time”.She says:

I belong to a party where there were no genderdiscriminations. We had very limited time. That I’msure affected the women…one of the challenges as awoman was that it was very difficult getting peopleto donate to your campaign. Even at the last minutesome kept asking whether I was serious with myambition. They will call you and say madam, you meanyou are really serious about it. People still find it hardentrusting women with their funds. The generalperception is that politics is for men. It’s not a normalthing for a woman to do.7

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Shrugging off the charge that her party, NCP is not gender friendly, MrsAbiola says she went through the thick and thin of it all and never sufferedany exclusion on the ground of gender. She says,.

I attended all meetings and caucuses. I did not takethe back seat while the men were doing the strategisingand permutations.8

According to her,I survived all the caucuses. I was not an unwillingcandidate. I had prepared my mind. But I was fortunateto belong to a party that did not shove women aside.I did not experience men attending meetings andhanding out orders. I attended all caucuses.9

Even in Enugu State where the NCP finally summoned the courage topresent a woman as gubernatorial candidate, many thought she must beout of her mind gunning for the highest political seat in the state. But only awoman gubernatorial candidate and three running mates out of 33 staresis not a particularly good record for the NCP, an organisation whose historyis largely rooted in prolonged popular struggles in Nigeria.

It is the view that some women do not appear to have the staying powerto sustain their ambitions. Even when the stakes were very high for somewomen, they chose to take the back seat. The decision of Mrs AbiolaObadan to settle for the position of second fiddle in Osun State in the lastelection surprised many of her party supporters. In spite of her very highrating, which almost surpassed that of Senator Iyiola Omisore, now standingtrial for the assassination of former Attorney General and Minister of Justice,Chief Bola Ige, she still opted to be deputy governor, bowing to pressurethat a woman was not ripe for the chief executive of a state.

In the last election, the experiences of many women who contestedwere awry. Many could not survive the behind the scene manoeuvring,deals and backslapping that attended the primaries. Even when they

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got the party’s ticket, some were taunted and harangued at campaigngrounds by a populace that was not warm to women candidacy. Accordingto Chief Titi Sodunke-Oseni, Speaker, Ogun State House of Assembly,

When I went out on campaigns, some politiciansand area boys harassed me. They asked with

disdain, “You a woman, what do you want?”10

The experience of Mrs Nkoyo Toyo, who contested for PDP primary fora House of Representatives seat in Calabar/Uduakpani FederalConstituency in Cross River State, was quite pathetic. In spite of herresolve to contest the primary in the face of wanton malpractices, it soonbecame evident that there were no clear rules for the game. Toyo, executivedirector of Gender and Development Action GADA also found out thatsome people had a larger than life image and could not be hamstrung byany party rule. They conducted themselves in a way that gives theimpression that the party was in their pockets. They also would not brookany challenge from those considered as outsiders in the party. 11 Toyo, ahuman rights activist says,

Some people behaved as though they owned the partyand spent much effort and time making sure that thosethey considered as outsiders should not penetrateeither in terms of getting information or even gettinga fair chance to contest.12

Popular Nigerian Artiste, Onyeka Onwenu who also sought thechairmanship ticket for Ideato Local Government of Imo State had this tosay,

The intrigues were many as you have candidates whobrought money to the field and were distributing, youhave candidates who sent buses to get underage schoolchildren to vote for them, you had candidates whowhen they were through with this ward, they wouldget their supporters transported to another ward to

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stand on the line and vote for them, you had paidofficials…13

Although Princess Pat Ajudua started her political career by pitching campwith the PDP in 2000, she soon found out it was not a place that consideredwomen issues very seriously. She later dumped the party to team up withthe All Nigeria People’s Party ANPP where she got the ticket to contestthe House of Representatives from Eleme/Tai/Oyigbo Federal Constituencyin Rivers State. The PDP got back its pound of flesh, exploiting statemachinery to massively rig the election and denying her of victory. Angeredby the outcome of the obviously sham election, Mrs Ajudua has gone tothe election tribunal to reclaim her victory.

For some women however, it’s been a smooth sail. Hajia Fatima Talbawho contested the Potiskum/Fika Federal Constituency in Yobe Stateunder the ANPP dusted two male candidates including the incumbent inthe primary, to pick the ticket into the House of Representatives. Talba, aformer permanent secretary and director-general achieved a feat, walkingthrough a labyrinth of a sharia state to victory. She perceives this as amiracle.

Yobe is a sharia practising state and for them to haveeven chosen me to come and represent them at theHouse of Representatives is miracle enoughInitially there was the problem of being a womancontesting election in a sharia state. According to someof the men, where I belong as a woman should alwaysbe in the kitchen.14

Hajia Talba has the women in her constituency to thank for making theelection less cumbersome for her. She says,

The womenfolk gave me tremendous support. It wasthe first experience in that state and the women tookit as a challenge and came out en mass to vote for thefirst women ever to contest election at this level fromthe state.15

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She wants other women to take a cue from her victory and come out topitch their political gauntlet against men.

If Yobe, a sharia state can produce a woman torepresent them, I think it is an eye opener. We werethinking that men don’t support women but we havediscovered that it was largely our fault for refusing tocome out and participate. When I came out both menand women gave me tremendous support. So I willenjoin more women to show interest first and all otherthings will follow. They should muster the courage totake the bold steps and see whether they will be leftoutside alone. I believe that they should think alongthis direction.16

For Mrs Yetunde Sanni, who was a foundation member of the PDP inLagos State, it was easier for a Camel to pass through the eye of a needlethan for her to secure the party’s ticket in Ifako Ijaiye into the House ofRepresentatives. According to her,

When the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) wasintroduced to us in Ifako-Ijaiye Local Governmentarea of Lagos State in 1998, no politician was readyto associate with this party. Even those men who nowparade themselves as leaders of the party in the statewere not ready to host PDP meetings in their houses.I volunteered to use my house as the venue for theparty’s meeting. That was why I was elected un-opposed in 1998 to compete for the chairmanshipposition for Ifako-Ijaiye on the platform of PDP in1998. I lost that time not because people were notready to vote for me but for the propaganda by theopposition party that PDP people killed Abiola andvoting for the party was as good as a vote for theenslavement of the Yoruba race.17

She says it is difficult for any female candidate to make a meaningfulheadway in politics. Such a woman would need to have several

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millions of Naira to dole out, even if all she is eyeing is a council chairmanshipposition. Continuing, Mrs Sanni, a former secretary of Nigerian Union ofTeachers NUT says,

The implication of this is that even if a woman belongsto a group, the position given to that group would becontested for mostly by men.. So, a woman who doesnot have money to throw around should think twicebefore embarking on the race for any elective posteither at state or federal level. Even if you have somuch money you feel you could afford throwingaround, you need to be watchful because most of theseleaders are eager to live on you.18

A member of the defunct National Party of Nigeria (NPN) and DemocraticParty of Nigeria (DPN), one of the parties which contested election underthe regime of late dictator, General Sani Abacha, Mrs Sanni is of the viewthat

The leaders of the party at local government leveland the state (referring to Lagos) are self-centred. Theyare not interested in people who are capable of makingsome difference in the system or people withexperience. What they are after is money! Money!Money! When an aspirant comes forward, they chargehim or her between N100,000 and N300,000. Somepeople paid this money, yet they were barred fromtaking part in the primary elections or they simplyorganised a kangaroo meeting where a new candidatenot known in the area would be put forward as theparty’s choice.For example, I was victimised by the so-called leadersfor not giving them the required money demanded bythem to enable me become the party’s candidate forthe House of Representatives..19

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The 58-year-old politician admitted that money plays a vital role in Nigerianpolitics and warns that any female politician seeking elective position oughtto be on the lookout for political profiteers, who she said are mostly men.

Honourable Eva Hart who was a senatorial candidate of the NationalDemocratic Party NDP, is not new to politics. In the truncated ThirdRepublic, she was deputy majority leader in the Rivers State House ofAssembly, under the banner of the now defunct National RepublicanConvention (NRC). There were just two women in that law making bodythen. Her visibility and what she regarded as brilliant performance at thatparliament had made her assume that getting elected in the sameconstituency would not prove a difficult task. Her first contact with adifferent kind of reality than the one she had imagined occurred during theregime of late General Sani Abacha’s experiments in political transition.The chartered accountant had sought election into the office of chairmanof Bonny Local Government in Rivers State. The interest shown in thesame post by another female contestant perhaps made it easy for the onlymale candidate in the contest to secure the seat.

Her next attempt at political office was at the 2003 election when shemade a shot at the Senate. She did not want to take anything for grantedand therefore mapped out what she assumed was a foolproof strategy.Her first step was to get herself into the leadership structure of her party,National Democratic Party (NDP), by becoming the party’s national deputywomen leader. When it was time for party nominations, she indicatedinterest in running for the Rivers West Senatorial ticket. The first hurdleshe had to cross was the scheming within the party to knock off hercandidacy. She had to resort to her previous experience in intra-partytussle to break the opposition. She says

It was not easy. At first there were attempts here andthere to frustrate me but I was more determined thistime to secure the party’s ticket and I had worked hardenough for the party. 20

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One strategy she employed as part of the efforts at overwhelming heropponents then was to shift the battleground to the nation’s capital, Abujawhere the party’s national secretariat is located. She still had to keepcommuting between Abuja and Rivers State though, to ensure that nothingfunny happened while she was on flight. She eventually got the Senateticket of the party.

Ahead of the general elections, Eva Hart now NDP senatorial candidatedrew up a programme that she believed would enhance the lives of thepeople of her constituency. Apart from that, she also put together aneconomic endowment fund from which money can be raised to fund grants,scholarships and some sort of pension for the elderly. To also put the needof her people in proper perspective, she commenced collection of data.Her vision had been to use her enviable position to the state’s interest.

I had planned to use the influence acquired over theyears from my career and politics to ensure that needyprojects from the state are worked into the nationalbudget and see also that the state government spreadsprojects to this district.

Unfortunately, the ambiguities inherent in the Electoral Act and the resultingprotests from some of the newly registered political parties made the May12, elections a one-sided race. Apart from the incumbency factor, Mrs.Hart lamented the conscious out scheming of women by party officialsand the lean financial strength of women politicians.

You could see a deliberate attempt by the party officialsto sideline women candidates. As a woman leadercontesting for elective position, such should bementioned at our campaigns. But even in myconstituency, they simply presented the men.

In Anambra State where PDP kingpins and moneybags, Emeka Offorand Chris Uba were outdoing themselves in the line up of theircandidates, a bitter taste was waiting for Mrs Joy Emordi who

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contested the Anambra North senatorial seat. It presented someabracadabra show as these party bigwigs merely produced result sheetsshowing their hirelings as victors. The first day of primary was said to beinconclusive and the candidates were asked to come the following day forthe conclusion of nominations. By the second day, supporters of aspirantsclaiming to have been victorious in the primary were agog, displaying aresult sheet. They taunted and made fun of other party members whocame to cast their votes.

A different list of candidates, which included Emordi, Nicholas Ukachukwuand Ben Obi eventually contested the election and were duly declaredwinners by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).However, on the prompting of the power brokers, INEC withdrew thecertificates already issued to the victors and went ahead to declare threeothers, Ikechukwu Abana, Ugochukwu Uba and Emmanuel Anosike aswinners of the election. Piqued by what they saw as brazen robbery oftheir mandates from the electorates, Emordi, Ukachukwu and Obi wentto court. Ukachukwu and Obi won their suits to regain their seats at theElection Tribunal while the case involving Emordi and Abana is still on.

Mrs Oluremi Adiukwu-Bakare, now Commissioner for Local Governmentand Chieftaincy Affiars in Lagos State also had a raw deal. Adiukwu-Bakare who vied for the gubernatorial ticket under the platform of thePDP was asked at short notice to proceed to Akure, Ondo State forclearance before the primary. While she was away those who plotted andschemed for a particular candidate, Funsho Williams fixed the governorshipprimary for the next day. She left Akure at 2am and had to drive for fourhours in the wee hours of the morning to keep a date with the primary. Bythe time she got to the venue, the contest was virtually completed. Adiukwu-Bakare was so bitter about the episode that she decided to leave the PDPand go back to the Alliance of Democracy AD.

Mrs Betty Nnadi who indicated interest in the governorship contestunder the platform of the PDP in Imo State also got a bitter pill. For

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daring to eye the highest position in the state, she got mired in violence,which had the visible hands of some kingpin of the party. She eventuallycould not take part in the primary.

The outcome of the 2003 election still leaves women largely marginalisedfrom governance and the political process. In a state like Imo, which hadno female member in its House of Assembly elected in 1999, the picturein 2003 was not particularly different.The governorship and senate contests in the state were male dominatedas no woman was presented by any of the parties.

Out of 101 candidates from the various parties fielded for the House ofRepresentatives, only four were women. These four were presented bythe PDP, which had two, leaving one each to the National DemocraticParty NDP and United Nigeria People’s Party UNPP. Of the 290candidates who ran for the House of Assembly elections, only 16 werewomen. The Movement for Democracy and Justice MDJ led the packwith 12 candidates while the Justice Party JP, Progressive Action CongressPAC, United Nigeria People’s Party UNPP and the PDP had one each.21

Although 21 women as opposed to 12 in 1999 secured the tickets tothe 360 member House of Representatives in 2003 election, thenumber of senators still remains three like it was in 1999. Of the 108senators, only Mrs Daisy Danjuma, Mrs Gbemisola Saraki-Foworaand Mrs Iyabo Anishulowo won their Senate seats under the PDP inEdo South, Kwara Central and Ogun senatorial constituenciesrespectively. The three women senators elected in 1999, Mrs Ita Giwa,Hajia Khairat Gwadabe and Mrs Stella Omu could not scale theprimaries. Two women speakers of the House of Assembly in Ogunand Anambra states were elected in 2003. With the removal of thewoman speaker of the Anambra state House of Assembly, who gotmired in the political crisis leading to the abduction of the Governor,Dr Chris Ngige, the stake is back to 1999 when one woman got electedas speaker in Benue State House of Assembly. She eventually resigned

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complaining of pressure, intimidation and lack of support from the maledominated Assembly.

No woman governor was elected in 2003 just like 1999. Two womendeputy governors however emerged in 2003 as opposed to one, in Ogunand Osun states, both located in the South-West of Nigeria. Significantly,two women candidates, Mrs Sarah Jibril and Major Mojisola AdekunleObasanjo ran for presidency under the platform of Progressive ActionCongress (PAC) and Masses Movement of Nigeria (MMN) respectively.Three women, Hajia Mairo Baturiya Habib, Hajia Asmau AliyuMohammed and Hajia Maimunatu Lata Tombai also ran as presidentialrunning mates under the Justice Party JP, Africa Renaissance Party, ARPand Nigerian Advance Party, NAP. Unfortunately Mrs Jibril and MajorObasanjo who scored 157,560 votes (0.40%) and 3,757 votes (0.01%)respectively out of total votes of 39,480,489, did not make any majorimpact on the presidential race.

A review by the Centre for Development, Constitutionalism and PeaceAdvocacy puts it succinctly when it concluded in its report titled Womenand Politics in Nigeria Today that nothing has changed between 1999and 2003. According to the organisation which is based in Owerri, ImoState,

…many well qualified women who indicated interestto contest for certain elective posts under their partiesthis year were brutally intimidated out, and some wereasked to withdraw. Many of those who contested wereofficially rigged out in preference to malecontestants.22

That is why Mrs Tolani Akintunde Aderounmu , an actress and producersays though we are seeing more of women but they are still not enough.According to her,

Lets look at the National Assembly, its still far frombeing a voice for women. We have only three womenout of 109 senators. How many of them are

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chairpersons of committees? When women are incharge things happen unlike the men. Because womendo take the jobs personal, as something they aresupposed to do and not what the party leaders want.23

Impediments on Women’s Participation in PoliticsAlthough it can be argued that both colonialism, culture and protractedmilitary rule contributed largely to smouldering women’s participation inpolitics, the polity in Nigeria does not seem to be moving away from onethat deliberately frustrates women. Okeke Anya argues that

“colonialism, feudalism, imported religions,patriarchy, and military rule destroyed the spirit ofheroism, patriotic radicalism, and progressivevibrancy of Nigerian womanhood in the struggles forwoman rights, women development and nationaldevelopment”24

Colonialism, according to Anya discriminated against women in all spheresof life- property acquisition, commerce, corporate management, accessto (bank) credit etc. Feudalism also suppressed women’s interest andvalues. This in his view was further assisted by the imported religions,which preached total subjugation of women to men, thereby confiningtheir role to the kitchen and making babies.

This setting, which took place in June, 2002, exactly 10 months to the2003 election, provides a vivid example of how an inspiring political thrustby women could be stultified by prohibitive cultural factors. The womenof Ugborodo, an Itsekiri homestead located on the Escravos river in Deltastate decided they have had enough from the exploitation by the oilcompanies. In a swift political response, the women organisation mobilisedtheir folk in neighbouring communities of Madangho, Ogidigben and othersto take over the nearby expansive Chevron/Texaco oil platform thatmorning.

The move by the Itsekiri women evoked reminiscences of the 1929Aba Women’s Protest and the revolt of the 1947 Egba women.

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Galvanised by the Abeokuta Women’s Union, under the leadership ofMrs Funmilayo Ransome Kuti, the protest of the Egba women againstprohibitive taxes and lack of political representation for women, led to theabdication of Alake Ademola.

The revolt by the women of Ugborodo also gave fillip to the women atAbiteye and other nearby Ijaw communities to also overrun the Chevron/Texaco facility in their area. The women had taken the nation by stormand opened anew the whole debate about the debilitating living conditionsin the oil rich Niger Delta region of Nigeria, responsible for providing agreat chunk of the country’s resources.

The action of the women had been spurned on by what they interpretedas the failure of their men to win concessions from the oil companies,which make million of dollars by prospecting oil in the area but give only atrickle in return. Chevron/Texaco for instance drills about 400,000 barrels,which is close to a quarter of the countries’ annual oil production put at 2million barrels. At the end, the women’s struggle which attracted a lot ofinternational attention saw Chevron /Texaco signing a memorandum ofunderstanding with the community, opening the floodgates for more jobs,scholarship grants and other mouth watering benefits for the people.

Unfortunately this significant move could not be consummated for politicalleadership. Although the women of Ugborodo did not embark on thisaction solely to improve the lives of the womenfolk, the negotiations anddeals that took place thereafter have been largely expropriated and hijackedby the elders and leaders of the youth organisations, who are mostly men.In the face of mounting pressure by the women, now buoyed by theironslaught on the Chevron/Texaco Tank Farm to take front line roles in thesociety, the men resorted to blackmail by asking the women to comealong to the community’s ancestral shrine if they had the guts. Since onlymen are allowed to visit the shrine, the women had to abandon their hardstance. The women’s bravado had to be sacrificed on the altar of cultural

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imperatives that is not gender sensitive. According to Victor Omunu,secretary of the Ugborodo Youth Development Association,

“When the women started clamouring to berepresented in different levels of communityorganisation, the men retorted and said, then you mustalso follow us to the shrine. Since it was heresy for awoman to go to the shrine, they had to back off”.25

It is also the view that the male dominated military state reflected thelarger values of Nigerian society in patriarchal context and norms.

Such norms and values rendered women’s struggle toengender politics an uphill and complicated task, asthe “opponents” to the gender agenda tended to bein the most dominant institutions of power. 26

In several societies in Nigeria, prevalent culture seem to have conspiredwith colonialism and military rule in a ‘trinity of evil’ to hold back the thrustof women in politics.

Women are usually called upon in almost every struggle to fight forfreedom, change and democracy

But seldom are the fruits of battle shared equally.Women do not tend to get positions of power andresponsibility in the new system.27

The biggest hurdle against the participation of women in politics is theincreasing monetisation of political contest and the resort to violence throughthe use of thugs. Political contest in Nigeria is also dialectically linked tothe process of primitive accumulation. The inherent survival and sustenanceof the elite is tied to this. Therefore only those willing to put themselvesthrough a grindstone to oil this process would succeed.

The Centre for Development, Constitutionalism and Peace Advocacyin the repo rt prepared by Wisdom Dureke, puts it this way,

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Our national experience shows that party politics is ahuge commercial investment in the country; it is thetrue poverty eradication project. It gives thecontractor politicians access to our common wealthfor looting. So these contractors want their candidatesand their parties to win at all cost. Only those whoare ready to win at all cost get party tickets at all costtoo. Here lies the real headache for female aspirants.28

The female candidate is generally considered unusable because of the factthat they are not amenable to violence

The truth of the matter is that many political partiesin the country consider female candidacy a risk onthe ground that female politicians are not usually keenon doing violence. Political violence, we mustacknowledge, has remained one of the best strategiesby politicians in the country for electoral victories.Otherwise, how can you explain the increasingincidence of political violence in the country today?Candidates and political parties in different guisesrecruit thugs and show them off.29

In the South East of Nigeria, the political kingpins and their thugs are onrampage. The big power brokers even have the temerity to let loose theirthugs on senior state officials who administer only at their behest. Theabduction of Anambra State Governor, Dr Chris Ngige last July by thugsand hired security outfit led by Assistant Inspector General of Police, MrRaphael Ige, who were alleged to be acting under the instigation of amoney bag and power broker, Chris Uba is a relevant example.

Ifeyinwa Ofong isolated three main issues militating against the fullparticipation of women in politics in Nigeria. These, according to her, include culture, economic empowerment and persistence andaggressiveness.30 She argues that the traditional Nigerian attitude,

80

belief and norm say that a woman should stay at home and care for thechildren.

She is not expected to participate in politics, which isregarded as a male subject/ occupation. This culturallimitation has further constrained the full participationof women in politics. The few women that have daredto seek for elective positions in their political partieshave been booed and rigged out by their malecounterparts.31

Continuing further, Ofong contends that women, unlike their malecounterparts are not likely to receive positive reinforcement from theirsociety for participation in politics.

The brand of politics being practised in Nigeria hasnot helped the matters, as a political aspirant wouldrecruit the services of thugs, praise singers andbodyguards32

If politics were to be a game of share numbers in Nigeria, then women arebound to occupy the major political positions available, Ofong says. Thisin her view is because women make up at least 40% of the nation’spopulation. Veering on the line of political economy, she says

However we know that those who control the economyof the state also control the politics. Thus those whocontrol state power in Nigeria use it to divert all kindsof resources, including state funds. Women lack accessto state resources and are handicapped financially tofund the Nigerian brand of politics.33

She says that due to the constraining influence stated above, some ofthe women who have been involved in politics do not last long in thegame. Some that are not able to stand the dirty tactics of the men bowout. Ofong says they lack the spirit of persistence and give up easily.Some claim they do not want their image tarnished or called names justbecause of politics. Some are easily “settled” out of the race with

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little promises or pressure. In some cases, family reasons have also pushedthe woman out of the political race. But success in electoral politics inNigeria according to her is

Associated with aggressiveness and dominance.Women in Nigeria have been socialised not toexemplify those characteristics in their relationshipwith men. These same characteristics that are howeverexemplified by males are rewarded in politics.34

Bolaji Adebiyi on his part isolated certain socio stereotypes arising fromage long cultural beliefs which have hindered women’s access to politics.He says,

Most political activities of consequence occur at nightand as such places as hotels and even social clubs. Alot of people, including women would find itirresponsible for a woman to be outside her home atthat time of the day or in such “ungodly” places.35

The Other DimensionsThe drawback for many women is that whatever happens in the domesticarena is translated to what is generally perceived as the public space.Charmaine Pereira contends that the citizenship crisis besetting the countrynegates women’s foray in politics. According to her,

Women who have successfully contested and won entryinto politics have been faced with concerted publicdenial of their right to contest. This has been the casefor women who contested in states in which theirhusbands were indigenes as much as it has applied towomen who contested in states where their fatherswere indigenes. The contradiction faced by marriedwomen in public life, undermine the notion thatcitizenship is primarily about the relations betweenindividuals and the state. Male contestants generallydo not have their citizenship questioned on maritalgrounds.36

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Contending that the Nigerian Constitution is discriminatory and fails toprotect women from such unfair practices, Pereira identifies the first culprit

as its language. She says.

The use of exclusively masculine language implies that thenorm is masculine and therefore the women are not full citizensof their own right.37

Secondly the ease to transfer citizenship by registration is conferred onlyon Nigerian men. While section 26.2a provides for Nigerian men to confercitizenship by registration to their non-Nigerian wives, there is no suchprovision for Nigerian women. Thirdly, marriage confers adulthood onwomen, which is not applicable to men. The provisions of section 29.1,states that any citizen of full age who wishes to renounce their citizenshipcan do so. Section 29.4b also states that married women are consideredto be adults of full age. These provisions are injurious to women. Accordingto Pereira,

Since young girls are often married off as early astwelve years of age, this means that girls who are tooyoung to vote may decide to be coerced intorenouncing their citizenship.38

Religious and customary laws have also been reprehensible in violatingwomen’s rights and denying them citizenship. This was particularly broughtto the fore with the implementation of the hudud aspect of sharia, whichsaw the enforcement of the criminal punishment like caning, stoning,amputation and so on. Zamfara state blazed the trail, with Sokoto, NigerKebbi, Kano, Katsina, Jigawa, Bornu, Yobe, Bauchi, Kaduna and Gombestates following this path. While punishment such as amputation, floggingand death by stoning may be used against men as well as women, Pereirasays,

Women are likely to be criminalized in circumstancesinvolving sexual relations. Muslim men havesucceeded in using provisions intended to protectwomen, in pursuit of the criminalization of certaincategories of Muslim women.

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The most celebrated case is that of Safiyatu Hussaini, a divorcee who wassentenced to death for adultery on October 2001 by a sharia court inSokoto state.. She had been raped three times by a man called YakubuAbubakar after she left her husband. She later became pregnant whichwas used to charge her for adultery. The man in the centre of the pregnancy,Abubakar was discharged while Safiyatu was condemned to death bystoning. This provoked both local and international outcry against thedecision. The sentence, was eventually quashed by the sharia appeal court.Another court in Bakori, Katsina state also sentenced another woman,Amina Lawal Kurami to death by stoning after she was found guilty ofadultery. The man charged with her, Yahaya Mohammed was alsodischarged after he refuted the allegation.

Why the Emergence of Male Dominated Parties?The reasons why the political landscape in Nigeria is replete with the historyof male dominated parties are legion. Some will be discussed here. Thefirst observation is that this is largely underscored by the patriarchal natureof the Nigerian society or what some prefer to call the masculine model ofpolitics. In almost every part of the Nigerian society, men are perceived assuperior to women. Lineage is therefore traced to men. According toOkeke Anya,

Rulership from this perspective is also seen as a maleaffair. This thus gives room for what has been termedmasculine model of politics. In this system, mendominate the political arena: men formulate the rulesof the game: and men define the standards forevaluation. The existence of this male-dominatedmodel results in either women rejecting politicsaltogether or rejecting male style politics.39

Most of the political parties have no definite policy on women. They preferto relegate women and use them only as supporters in the male dominatedparties.

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Women continue to play “cheer leaders” role for maledominated political actors. Party officials wouldrather share uniforms and flags to women than engagethem in activities that will uplift their political status.This comes to question the power of the so-calledwomen leaders of the political parties.40

Religion and cultural practices inherent in our society is also culpable inmaking fiddlesticks of women’s intervention in politics. Most of thesepractices confine women to the background. Even when they seized theinitiative to hijack the front row as was the case in Ugborodo, culturalpractices still acted as a break. Anya says,

The greatest danger to this practice is theinternalisation of these belief systems, which makewomen see politics as something out of their sphere.Women that go into politics are seen as rebels andprostitutes. This stereotypical attitude deters womenfrom participation in politics.41

For instance, Hajia Gambo Sawaba, leader of the women’s wing of theradical leaning Northern Elements Progressive Union (NEPU) was virtuallydemonised and criminalised for daring to galvanize the women in NorthernNigeria to resist the policies that tend to discriminate against women.

The rise in the role of money or what is derisively called Ghana must goin the politics of the country is a setback for women’s participation.Although some political parties gave waiver for female aspirants in thepayment of nomination fees, this was like a tiny drop in the ocean as hugeresources is still required to transport and entertain supporters, hire thugs,and bribe party and security officials. Frustrated by the antics of the maledominated parties, some women resorted to crystallising women onlyparties.

Even when the women have formed their own parties, their resilience inforging ahead with these gender biased political organisations have

85

not been sustained. For instance Mrs Funmilayo Ransome Kuti who wasreputed for spearheading the agitation for women enfranchisement in thecountry formed a party, the Common People’s Party. This was latersubsumed when she teamed up with the National Council of NigerianCitizens (NCNC). There was also the formation of a Women’s Party in1944 whose creation was informed by women’s anger with the NigerianYouth Movement NYM, then the country’s only political party. Led byMrs Oyinkan Abayomi, the party also got enmeshed in the Action Group.Nena Mba argues that

Despite its name, the Women’s Party was neverorganised as an active political party seeking to obtainrepresentation in government. It did contest the Lagostown Council election in 1950 but that was its onlyattempt to seek political power. It did not have apolitical programme as such, but its leaders sharedcertain definite political views, which were to leadthem to support another political party- the ActionGroup.42

The Structures/Caucuses of PartiesThe structures and caucuses of the political parties are mostly maledominated. They are therefore inevitably tilted to the promotion of theinterest of men. Scaling the hurdle of the parties whose web is anti-womenand not gender friendly, is a hard nut. For instance, of the 14 sub groupswithin the PDP, a woman heads only one. Mrs Yetunde Sanni says,

“With the structure on ground now, where there areso many sub-groups that are in themselves power-blocks, within a political party, I doubt if a womancould effectively win a post. For example, the PDPhas 14 such groups with a popular politician headingeach of them. Positions are shared in order toaccommodate all these groups. And you won’t believeit, out of the 14 groups in PDP, only one is headed by

86

a woman, Chief Onikepo Oshodi who founded WomenEmpowerment Group, WEG

The parties as a matter of routine, also conduct their meetings at oddhours that may not be gender sensitive. It is not friendly to women whohave to nurse their babies. It is also not friendly to those who have to helptheir children with their homework. Mrs Teju Abiola relives her experience.

Most times when I come home in the wee hours of thenight, my children are asleep. It was really not fun forme. I wonder whether if my husband were alive hewould have tolerated my being out at that time of thenight.43

Perhaps that is why those making it in politics in Mrs Abiola’s view areeither widows, divorcees, single parents or those women whose childrenwho are grown up.

Scaling the HurdleSince the welfare of women has been better advanced under civiliandemocracy, women and other civil society groups that seek to championthe cause of women should ensure the sustenance of democracy as it isinextricably linked to their struggle. As Anya puts it,

The prospects for women and politics remain brightin a democratic atmosphere. Everything must be doneto nurture democracy as it gives room for engagingstakeholders to uplift the political status of women.44

The first place to start is the 1999 Constitution, which should bereviewed to make it gender sensitive. The socio-economic rights ofthe citizenry must be made justiciable to help in empowering women.The issue of citizenship rights, which has put many women in jeopardyon their constituency status, should also be resolved. Since women,according to Anya remain a marginalised and disadvantaged group,

87

the affirmative action clause should be entrenched in the constitution tocreate a leeway for more women in decision-making positions. He alsowants the reform of the Electoral law to create a level playing field for menand women. This is also in addition to removing all the harmful culturalpractices in the way of women’s participation in politics.

Bolaji Adebiyi who has cut his professional teeth as a politicalcorrespondent, says that the women must be prepared to roughen it outlike anybody else in order to make a fundamental mark. In his words,

The women need to be more assertive in their politicalpursuit and brace up to dig in and break into all thecaucuses like the men.45

In a paper he presented at a forum to address women’s poor performancein politics in Abuja, Adebiyi argues that

Politics is a power game that gives access to manyopportunities. The quest for power cannot be achievedon a platter of gold. The women need to situate theirstruggle within the contest of the general struggle forpower. Just as the younger generation are strugglingto push out the older generation, so are the womenstruggling for space in the political space. They willhave to fight within the political space and refuse tobe bogged down by problems, which in most casesare applicable to many other sections of the society.46

Sodunke-Oseni, 39 and the only female member of Ogun State House ofAssembly advise women not to allow men bully them out of politics. Shecounsel that

Women should be bold. They can excel in politics, ifthey are focused. As a politician, some people maywant to drag you down, you have to be focused. Don’tbe discouraged.47

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Hart also believes that women must not give in because of the presentdifficulties.

it is definitely difficult for more women to contest andwin when money and violence dominate the politicalscene but we must not give up. I have a vision whichI intend to pursue but we must call for some measureof sanity to be re-introduced into politics for it wasnever like this.

She argues that the women ministry and the non-governmental organisationspromoting women participation in politics must go beyond the rhetoricand develop a workable plan of action that will assist women financially.She says,

I must tell you that most of what I did was withoutfemale support. Men operate in cliques and supportone another. We must emulate that. In addition, theministry of Women Affairs and women NGOs mustwork out an effective plan for putting money into thehands of women seeking elective position.48

End Notes

1 Statement and Declaration at the National Summit for All WomenPoliticians held in Abuja, June 28, 2002. Pp 2.

2 Op. Cit. Pp 3.

3 Anya, Okeke, Women and Politics in Nigeria’s Fourth Republicin The Constitution: A Journal Of Constitutional Development(Centre For Constitutionalism and Demilitarisation (CENCOD)2003) Panaf Press, Lagos. Pp. 71

4 Some Appointments Made By the Civilian Governments atthe Federal and State Levels Between May 29, 1999 Up to

89

the End of the Term in May 2003, cited in Anya, Okeke, Op. Cit. Pp.80-85.

5 Geddes & Grosset: Dictionary of Quotations (David dale House,New Lanark ML 11 9DJ, Scotland, 1994) pp. 189.

6 National Conscience Party (NCP) List of GovernorshipCandidates for the 2003 election.

7 Interview with Abiola, Teju.

8 Ibid.

9 Ibid.

10 The Punch, Wednesday, November 19, 2003. Pp. 14.

11 Anya, Okeke Op. Cit. Pp. 70.

12 Ibid.

13 Ibid.

14 Interview conducted by Gender and Development Action(GADA).

15 Ibid.

16 Ibid.

17 Ibid.

18 Ibid.

19 Ibid.

90

20 Ibid.21 Women in Politics in Nigeria Today (Centre for Development,

Constitutionalism and Peace Advocacy, Owerri) February 2003pp 1-2.

22 Op. Cit. Pp.1

23 Interview with Akintunde Aderounmu, Tolani

24 Anya, Okeke, Op. Cit. pp 64.

25 Onishi, Norimitsu, As Oil Riches Flow, Poor Village Cries Out,The New York Times, December 22, 2002. Pp. 1.

26 Democracy In Nigeria: Continuing Dialogue(s) for Nation Building,International Institute for Democracy and Electoral AssistanceIDEA 2001. Pp.112.

27 Op. Cit. Pp. 107

28 Centre for Development, Constitutionalism and Peace AdvocacyOp. Cit pp3.

29 Ibid.

30 Ofong, Ifeyinwa, Women’s Participation in Politics in Nigeria (APaper Presented at the 8th International Women’s World Congressin Kampala, Uganda, July 21-26, 2002) Pp 4.

31 Ibid.

32 Ibid.

33 Ibid.

34 Ibid.

91

35 Adebiyi, Bolaji, Women and the 2003 Election: Prospect andChallenges. Pp. 4.

36 Pereira, Charmaine, Understanding Women’s Experiences ofCitizenship In Nigeria: From Advocacy to Research Pp 1.

37 Pereira,Charmaine, Op. Cit. Pp3.

38 Ibid. Pp. 3.

39 Ibid. Pp. 73.

40 Ibid. Pp. 74.

41 Ibid. Pp. 75.

42 Mba, Nena, Nigerian Women Mobilised, 1982 Pp. 224.

43 Interview with Abiola, Teju.

44 Anya, Okeke, Op Cit. Pp.75.

45 Interview with Adebiyi, Bolaji, Assistant Editor of The Punch46 Adebiyi, Bolaji, Op. Cit. Pp. 7.

47 The Punch, Op Cit.

48 Interview conducted by GADA

92

93

CHAPTER SIX

ANALYSIS AND OBSERVATIONS *

Few and almost insignificant number of women were elected into variousposts in the last general elections held in the country between April andMay 2003. Against this background, the essence of this project is to findout why we have few women occupying various elective posts across thecountry. Also, it is to find out if the election of few women was based onvoters’ objectivity or voters’ gender attitude, prejudices and biases. Theresult of the survey shows that 39.02% of the respondents were femalewhile 60.98% were male.

The result of the survey shows that no woman was elected as governor ofany state in the federation. We only had few women as members of Housesof Assembly across the country and as members of the upper house(Senate) and lower house (House of Representative) of the NationalAssembly. The result of the survey shows a poor representation of womenin the last general elections. In states like Adamawa, Cross River, Ebonyi,Jigawa, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Nasarawa, Oyo, Sokoto, Yobe andZamfara, no woman was elected as member of the State House ofAssembly. In states where women were elected as members of House ofAssembly, they were very few.

The table below shows the percentage of women elected into House ofAssembly in thirty-six (36) states of the federation.

* This chapter was put together by Titi Salaam, Programme Officer, WARDC, Lanre Akinola,Accounts Officer, International Press Center, Lagos.

TABLE 1: SUMMARY OF WOMEN ELECTED INTO STATEHOUSES ASSEMBLY IN 2003

S/N States Number of Number of Percentage Constituencies Women (%) of

elected elected1 Abia 24 2 8.332 Akwa-Ibom 26 2 7.693 Anambra 30 4 13.334 Bauchi 31 1 3.235 Bayelsa 24 1 4.176 Benue 29 5 17.247 Borno 28 1 3.578 Delta 29 2 6.909 Edo 24 2 8.3310 Ekiti 26 1 3.8511 Enugu 24 1 4.1712 Gombe 24 1 4.1713 Imo 27 1 3.7014 Kaduna 34 1 2.9415 Kogi 25 2 8.0016 Kwara 24 1 4.1717 Lagos 40 2 5.0018 Niger 27 1 3.7019 Ogun 26 1 3.8520 Ondo 26 1 3.8521 Osun 26 1 3.8522 Plateau 24 2 8.3323 Rivers 32 1 3.1324 Taraba 24 1 4.1725 Adamawa 25 0 026 Cross River 25 0 027 Ebonyi 24 0 028 Jigawa 30 0 029 Kano 40 0 030 Katsina 34 0 0

94

95

31 Kebbi 24 0 032 Nasarawa 24 0 033 Oyo 32 0 034 Sokoto 30 0 035 Yobe 24 0 036 Zamfara 24 0 0

From the above TABLE 1, Benue state has the highest percentage(17.24%) of women elected into House of Assembly, while Kaduna statehas the least (2.94%).

Similarly, the number of women elected into the National Assembly wasalso few. The table below shows the number/percentage of women whogot elected into both the upper (Senate) and lower (House ofRepresentative) legislative chambers.

TABLE 2: SUMMARY OF WOMEN ELECTED INTONATIONAL ASSEMBLY IN 2003

S/N Houses Total Number of Percentage Number Elected Women (%) of

Elected Women Elected1 Senate 109 3 2.752 House of 360 21 5.83

Representatives

From the above TABLE 2, the percentage of women elected into theHouse of Representatives was more than that of Senate. The percentageof women elected into the House of Representatives was 5.83% whilethat of the Senate was 2.75%.

TABLE 3: COMPARISM OF WOMEN REPRESENTATION IN1999 AND 2003 GENERAL ELECTIONS

S/N Position No of Available No of women No of Women Seats Elected & % of Elected & %

Total in 1999 Total in 20031. Presidency 1 - 0% - 0%2. Senate 109 3 2.75% 3 2.75%3. House of

Representatives 360 12 3.33% 21 5.83%4. Governorship 36 - 0% - 0%5. State Houses of

Assembly 990 12 1.21% 38 3.84%

From TABLE 3 above, more women were elected into the House ofRepresentatives and State Houses of Assembly in the 2003 generalelections than in 1999, which shows a greater representation of women inelective posts in 2003 when compared with that of 1999. In 1999, 12women were elected into the House of Representative compared withthat 21 women elected into the same house in 2003. Also, in 1999, 12women were elected into the Houses of Assembly throughout the country,while in 2003 the number increased to 38. Significantly, however, no womanwas elected as president or governor both in 1999 and 2003.

Having shown the representation (in terms of number elected into variousposts) of the women in the last general elections, the next thing the surveyfocused on were the reasons why few women were elected into variousoffices.

Thus, for this purpose, a set of questions was administered to collate theviews of Nigerians (those who voted during the last general elections) inAbuja and Lagos on the reason(s) for low number of women in electiveposts as regards the 2003 general elections. The questionnaire was meantto find out if the poor performance of women at the last general electionscould be related to voters’ gender attitude, prejudices and biases orobjectivity.

96

The respondents cut across sex, profession, ethnic group, politicaldivide and religion. Among the questions asked the each respondentwere:

• Whether or not the respondent voted for a woman during the lastelection

• Main reasons for not voting a woman.• Whether or not the respondent will support a constitutional

amendment that will make it mandatory for the political parties toreserve at least 30% of elective offices for women.

• Whether or not the respondent is convinced that if women arevoted into elective posts, there will be accountability andtransparency, good governance and fairness, implementation ofpromises made to the electorates.

TABLE 4: SUMMARY OF RESPONSES ON WHETHER ORNOT THE RESPONDENT VOTED FOR A WOMAN DURINGTHE LAST ELECTION

Cities Yes (%) No (%)Abuja 23.3 76.7Lagos 31.2 68.8

From the above TABLE 4, in Abuja, 23.3% of the respondents votedfor women during the last general elections while 76.7% of the respondentsdid not vote for women. In Lagos only 31.2% voted for women while68.8% did not vote for women.

TABLE 5: SUMMARY OF RESPONSES ON MAIN REASONSFOR NOT VOTING A WOMAN DURING THE LASTELECTION.

Cities Gender attitude, prejudices and Objectivity (%) biases (%)

Abuja 75.5 24.5 Lagos 64.9 35.1

97

As shown in TABLE 5 above, in Abuja, out of the voters who did notvote for women in the last election, 75.5% did so because of genderattitude, prejudices and biases while only 24.5% did not vote womenbased on objectivity i.e. the reason for not voting women was not becauseof gender attitude, prejudices and biases but they believed the candidatesthey voted could perform better in office. Similarly, in Lagos, 64.9% ofthe respondents voted the way they did because of gender attitude,prejudices and biases while 35.1% of the respondents voted based onobjectivity.

From the above, it can be reasonably concluded that if most voters hadvoted based on the objectivity, it could have been possible to have morewomen elected into various offices during the last general elections.

TABLE 6: SUMMARY OF RESPONSES ON WHETHER ORNOT THE RESPONDENT WILL SUPPORT ACONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT THAT WILL MAKE ITMANDATORY FOR THE POLITICAL PARTIES TO RESERVEAT LEAST 30% OF ELECTIVE OFFICES FOR WOMEN.

Cities Yes (%) No (%)Abuja 45.9 54.1Lagos 40.7 59.3

As shown in TABLE 6, in Abuja, 45.9% of the respondents supported aconstitutional amendment that will make it mandatory for the political partiesto reserve at least 30% of elective offices for women, while 54.1% opposedit. In Lagos, however, 40.7% supported a constitutional amendment thatwill make it mandatory for the political parties to reserve at least 30% ofelective offices for women while 59.3% opposed it.

98

TABLE 7: SUMMARY OF RESPONSES ON WHETHER ORNOT THE RESPONDENT IS CONVINCED THAT IF WOMENARE VOTED INTO ELECTIVE POSTS, THERE WOULD BEACCOUNTABILITY AND TRANSPARENCY, GOODGOVERNANCE AND FAIRNESS, IMPLEMENTATION OFPROMISES MADE TO THE ELECTORATES

Cities Yes (%) No (%)Abuja 64.8 35.2Lagos 65.1 34.9

TABLE 7 shows that in Abuja, 64.8% of the respondents were convincedthat if women were voted into elective posts, there would be accountabilityand transparency, good governance and fairness, implementation ofpromises made to the electorates, while 35.2% were not convinced. InLagos, however, 65.1% were convinced that if women were voted intoelective posts, there would be accountability and transparency, goodgovernance and fairness, implementation of promises made to theelectorates while 34.9% were not convinced.

The survey was also meant to find out from the leadership of the politicalparties the following among others:

• The percentage of female membership• Number of women that sought party’s ticket to contest the last

elections.• Party’s policy on women.

Unfortunately, however, the information provided in the questionnaires bythe representatives of political parties was not sufficient enough for anyreasonable analysis and conclusions to be made. We observed that manypolitical parties did not have accurate records of their membership – bothmale and female while some gave outrageous figures of their membership.Also, many political parties did not have any policy on women.

99

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102

WOMEN IN THE STATE HOUSES OF ASSEMBLY, 2003

S/N STATE STATE NAMES OF PARTYCONSTITUENCY ELECTED MEMBER

1. Abia Aba North Hon. Blessing AzuruUkwa West Hon. Gold Nwaogugu PDP

2. Akwa Ibom Etinam Orkanam Mabel Etim Udongwo PDPEshiet I. Eneobong

3. Anambra Aguata I Eucharia Anazodo PDPOnitsha South II Hon. Tabaisi Anthonia PDP

OkoyeNjikoka Bridget Chkwuka PDPOgbaru I Bar. Njideka-Ezeigwe PDP

4. Bauchi Barazo Hon. Habiba Sabo PDP

5. Bayelsa

6. Benue Gwer East Maria Aikola Amedu PDPGwer West Hon. V. N. Gajir PDPOhimini Hon. Christy Adokwo PDPOkpokwu Dewa Cecilia N. T. PDP

Misho Elizabeth Fina PDP

7. Borno Gwoza Hon. Asabe Villita Bashir PDP

8. Delta Oshimili South Hon. C. M. Olanrewaju PDPOshimili North Hon. Felia Nwaeze PDP

9. Edo Oredo West Hon. Esohe Jacobs PDPEgor-Edo Hon. Elizabeth Ighodaro PDP

10. Ekiti Efon Ekiti Hon. OluwafemiChristiana (Mrs.) PDP

11. Enugu Udi South Hon. Ene Chika PDP

12. Gombe Kaltungo East Hon. Zainab AbubakarAlman PDP

13. Imo Owerri Municipa Mrs. Anthonia Ngoka PDP

14. Kaduna Chkuna Hon. Maria Dogo PDP

15. Kogi Omala Koogi Hon. Rosemary Moman PDPAdavi kogi Hon. Nana Ojebu PDP

16. Kwara Sao /Essa Hon. Banke Gbadamosi PDP

17. Lagos Mushin 1 Funmi Tejuosho Smith ADAmuwo Odofin Bola Badmus AD

18. Niger Munya Fati Tasala Ibrahim PDP

19. Ogun Abeokuta South Titi Sodunke Oseni PDP

20. Ondo Ondo West II Hon. Princess TitiAkinmade PDP

21. Osun Ifedayo Hon. Dr. Mrs. FunmilayoOlaseinde Mustpaha PDP

22. Plateau Langtang Central Hon. Tina Lar PDPMangu North East Hon. Rohilar Baleri PDP

23. Rivers Akuku-Toru I Mrs. Anthonia Membere PDP

24. Taraba Karim Lamido II Hon. Virginia Baba PDP

25. Adamawa No Female Legislator

26. Cross River No Female Legislator

27. Ebonyi No Female Legislator

28. Jigawa No Female Legislator

29. Kano No Female Legislator

30. Katsina No Female Legislator

31. Kebbi No Female Legislator

32. Nasarawa No Female Legislator

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33. Oyo No Female Legislator

34. Sokoto No Female Legislator

35. Yobe No Female Legislator

36. Zamfara No Female Legislator

1. 6 Women Ministers

2. 9 Presidential Assistants

3. 2 Presidential Advisers

4. 3 Women in a 109 Member Senate

5. 21 Women in 360 Members

6. 38 Women in the State Constituency

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CHAPTER SEVEN

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION*

The journey seems rather long and the task appears daunting but there isno alternative to using all means legal, lawful and political to emphasize theimperativeness of increased women participation in decision-makingprocess as a major key to the development of society.

Globally, it would seem progress has been slow, if one compares the factthat only few countries like Norway, Sweden, and South Africa have givenappreciable meaning to increased women representation through affirmativepolicies. But when viewed against where the journey commenced – aworld where women once did not even have voting right not to talk ofbeing elected – then it would be understandable if it is suggested that therehas also been some progress.

What must be properly understood in fighting for women rights is that nosingle country will achieve a hundred percent goal if there is no universalembrace of the ideals of equality between men and women. In this regarda uniting platform has been offered by the United Nation’s adoption ofthirty percent representation as the minimum proportion of women, inpublic life. As is well known, this is intended to serve the purpose ofincreasing women’s decision making power, changing practices and cultureand ensuring that the situation improves and normalize over time.

The real challenge of course is to translate theory into practice. Afterall in almost all countries, theoretically, women have the right to vote,are eligible for elections, appointment into public offices and theexercise of public functions on equal terms with men at local, nationaland international levels. However in reality, women’s representation

* This chapter was put together by Ms. Abiola Akiyode-Afolabi - National CoordinatorWARDC.

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in public life is abysmally low due to factors that range from the socio-cultural to the religious, the social and the political.

For women in Nigeria, the traditional informal control mechanism and thetripartite legal system raise the need for women’s empowerment. Hencethe task of strategizing towards evolving a new system, which transcendstraditional gender biases and incorporates social equity.

The need for equal participation and representation is not only a demandfor justice but also an imperative for the development of any nation. Henceour attitude to the issue is that it is a matter of right and not privilege.

The research has shown that various barriers and obstacles, prominentamongst which are the constitutional/systemic, the political and the social,often affect women politicians. Further more, that there is a need to improvethe constitutional framework to incorporate the needs of women. Thefederal character principle in the constitution is not adequate to addresswomen’s concerns, thus new strategies must be developed to assist womento gain greater control over economic resources through constitutionaland legislative reforms that favour affirmative action.

Also it is obvious from the research that the combination of electoral systemwith party politics reduced greatly the chances of women. The male-dominated party structures continue to sideline women and because ofthat both party characteristics and procedure have succeeded in frustratingwomen aspirations.

Other constraints of women are social obstacles, fewer resources; beingpoorer than men, stereotypes, family responsibilities and multiple roles athome and in the society.

Women who are in politics must begin to demand for a radical actionfor change. There is a need for a road map; women must begin to

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develop strategy on how to mainstream gender issues. There is a need fora minimum agenda across political parties. Politics is a game of numbersand women should start to effectively use their numerical strength to get tothe corridors of power. We therefore need an agenda, which we mustplace before our different parties as a platform for action.

It is also necessary to begin to look beyond the question of numbers toenhancing the quality and effectiveness of women politicians. Womenneed support to be able to counter the opposing male politicians. Weneed to build informal networks and also take steps at local and nationallevels to facilitate institutional political participation.

In order to increase the participation of women in politics women shoulduse the present dispensation to vote and be voted for. There should be acampaign to promote women’s issues on the political platforms andgenerate support, so that more women can campaign for public office atthe grass roots, state, national and regional levels. From maintaining rostersof qualified women for positions and circulating it within a network tocollection of data and publicize of women’s participation in high-leveldecision-making, there is a lot that can be done to promote qualified womento positions of power at every level with the goal of achieving parity withmen. Meanwhile women in power should be encouraged to serve asmentors to others and advocates for affirmative action within the parties.

Women should concentrate on building alliances, solidarity and networksthrough information, education and sensitization. There is the need tobuild a critical mass of women.

Nobody wants a woman president for women but a president who isa woman and can also solve the problems affecting everybodyirrespective of your gender or coloration. Then it is important toproperly situate the issue of gender within the social political context.

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However we need to understand the basic principle that womenempowerment cannot be achieved without making men critical partners inthe attainment of the above stated goals.

In conclusion, the government of Nigeria must as a matter of priority commitresources towards women’s empowerment and development.

The Recommendations

• Setting a firm timetable to end all manner of legal discrimination againstwomen along the line of CEDAW and Beijing Platform of Action.

• Establishing a framework to promote legal equality.• Campaigning to promote women’s issues on political platforms.• Encouraging women in power to serve as mentors and otherwise

support qualified women candidates in their career development.• Setting an agenda to increase the number of women in leadership

positions in public and private enterprises to at least 30% with theview of achieving future parity with men.

• Striving to eliminate feminization of poverty through provisions of basicamenities of life and access to employment because women are notonly mothers and wives but also agents of change.

• Radio programming in some local languages in addition to English forpolitical education of both men and women.

• Mobilizing public opinion through debates on women’s politicalinvolvement before, during and after elections.

• Reforming religious institutions so that there will be less bias when itcomes to women involvement in politics.

• Forming a powerful women’s voters league to further enhance women’spolitical participation.

• Adopting more gender sensitive and equitable policies in the agendaand operations of the political parties.

• Emphasizing the importance of the collective struggle of both sexes asa means of overcoming societal prejudices.

• Unrelenting bid by civil society groups for legal reforms especiallythose aimed at removing all vestiges of discrimination against womenin all spheres of life.

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Appendix 1

BIO DATA OF WOMEN IN THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY

NAME OF HONOURABLE: Temi Harriman

SENATORIAL ZONE /FEDERAL CONSTITUENCY: Delta State

POLITICAL PARTY: PDP

COMMITTEES:Justice, Petroleum, Defence

DATE OF BIRTH: NilPLACE OF BIRTH: Delta StateMARITAL STATUS: -EDUCATIONAL QUALIFICATION:PROFESSION: LawyerE-MAIL: temiharriman@hyperia.com

NAME OF HONOURABLE:Hon. Barr. Iquo Inyang

SENATORIAL ZONE /FEDERAL CONSTITUENCY:Ikono/Ini Fed. Constituency

POLITICAL PARTY: PDP

COMMITTEES: Deputy Chairman, PoliceAffairs Committee NDDC,Sports, Marine Transport, Aviation

DATE OF BIRTH: 28th Sept. 1965PLACE OF BIRTH: Anua NigeriaMARITAL STATUS: SeparatedEDUCATIONAL QUALIFICATION: LLB BL. NBAPROFESSION: Legal PractitionerTELEPHONE: 08033117167E-MAIL: iquoInyang@yahoo.com

NAME OF HONOURABLE:Hon. Hajia Maimunat U. Adaji

SENATORIAL ZONE /FEDERAL CONSTITUENCY:Baruten/Kaiama Fed. Constituency

POLITICAL PARTY: ANPP

COMMITTEES:House Services, Works, Women Affairs & Youth Development, Internal Affairs,Inter-parliamentary Relations and Anti-Corruption, National Ethics and Values

DATE OF BIRTH: 17th July, 1950PLACE OF BIRTH: Kaiama, Kwara StateMARITAL STATUS: MarriedEDUCATIONAL QUALIFICATION: Grade II, NCE (Advanced Eng)PROFESSION: LegislatureTELEPHONE: 08035978552E-MAIL: maidaji@yahoo.com

NAME OF HONOURABLE:Mercy Almona-Isei

FEDERAL CONSTITUENCY: Ndokwa/Ukwani

POLITICAL PARTY: PDP

COMMITTEES:Chair, House Committee on Gas Resources,Member: Water Resources, Environment,Petroleum Refineries/ProductMarketing,Special Duties, Women Affairs & Youth Development, Nation Security &Intelligence

DATE OF BIRTH: August 24, 1951PLACE OF BIRTH: Obiaruku, Delta StateMARITAL STATUS: Not ApplicableEDUCATIONAL QUALIFICATION: Mass Communication GraduatePROFESSION: JournalistTELEPHONE: 08037017274, 09-2341379E-MAIL: mercy@legislator.com

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NAME OF HONOURABLE:Hon. Azumi N. Bebeji

SENATORIAL ZONE /FEDERAL CONSTITUENCY: Kiru/Bebeji

POLITICAL PARTY: A N P P

COMMITTEES: Aviation, Public Service,Education Inter-parliamentary Solid Mineral

DATE OF BIRTH: 1950PLACE OF BIRTH: BebejiMARITAL STATUS: MarriedEDUCATIONAL QUALIFICATION: BSc Political Science, and lot of

other coursesPROFESSION: Business / PoliticTELEPHONE: 08033155968E-MAIL: Nil

NAME OF HONOURABLE:Abike Dabiri

SENATORIAL ZONE /FEDERAL CONSTITUENCY: Ikorodu Fed

POLITICAL PARTY: A D

COMMITTEES:Chairman Committee on Media and Public Affairs

DATE OF BIRTH: Oct. 11PLACE OF BIRTH: JosMARITAL STATUS: MarriedEDUCATIONAL QUALIFICATION: MSC, PGD BAPROPFESSION: Legislator /JournalistTELEPHONE: 09-2341127E-MAIL: abikedabiri@hotmail.com

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NAME OF HONOURABLE:Ruth Jummai Ango

SENATORIAL ZONE / FEDERALCONSTITUENCY: Zango Kaiaf/Jaba

POLITICAL PARTY: P D P

COMMITTEES:Chairman Sub Committees on RuralElectrification / NAFDAC, Petroleum Resources,Information, Women Affairs Special Duties

DATE OF BIRTH: 19th April, 1966PLACE OF BIRTH: KadunaMARITAL STATUS: SingleEDUCATIONAL QUALIFICATION: Staff Nurse/Midwife LLB LawPROPFESSION: NursingTELEPHONE: 08033111295E-MAIL: Rumaza1965@yahoo.com

NAME OF HONOURABLE:Hon. Fanta Baba Shehu

SENATORIAL ZONE /FEDERAL CONSTITUENCY:Gubio, Magumeri, Kaga FedConstituency Borno State

POLITICAL PARTY: P D P

COMMITTEES:Chairman House Committee on Poverty Alleviation

DATE OF BIRTH: 1966PLACE OF BIRTH: GubioMARITAL STATUS: MarriedEDUCATIONAL QUALIFICATION: MBA (Management)PROPFESSION: HousewifeTELEPHONE: 08033528329

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NAME OF HONOURABLE:Saudatu Sani

FEDERAL CONSTITUENCY: LERE

POLITICAL PARTY: PDP

COMMITTEES:Chairman House Committee on Women AffairsMember House Committee on education

DATE OF BIRTH: 11/05/54PLACE OF BIRTH: MalunfajhiMARITAL STATUS: MarriedEDUCATIONAL QUALIFICATION: HND NutritionPROPFESSION: LegislatureTELEPHONE: 062-2484848E-MAIL: saudatu54@yahoo.com

NAME OF HONOURABLE:Fatima Taliba

SENATORIAL ZONE /FEDERAL CONSTITUENCY:Nangere/Potiskum – Yobe State

POLITICAL PARTY: A N P P

COMMITTEES:Women Affairs, Transport Oil & Gas Media &Publicity Environment Poverty Alleviation

DATE OF BIRTH: 30/6/1959PLACE OF BIRTH: TikauMARITAL STATUS: MarriedEDUCATIONAL QUALIFICATION: S/N S/M Public OfficerPROFESSION: LegislatureTELEPHONE: 0803589799, 08042164469

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NAME OF HONOURABLE:Binta K. Garba

SENATORIAL ZONE /FEDERAL CONSTITUENCY:Kaduna South

POLITICAL PARTY: A N P P

COMMITTEES: Appropriation Foreign AffairsWomen Affairs

DATE OF BIRTH: 17th April 1967PLACE OF BIRTH: KadunaEDUCATIONAL QUALIFICATION: HND MarketingPROFESSION: MarketingTELEPHONE: 08037041354E-MAIL: honbinta@yahoo.com

NAME OF HONOURABLE:Patrician Naomi Akwashiki

SENATORIAL ZONE /FEDERAL CONSTITUENCY:Akwanga/Wambbi Nasarawa Eggon

POLITICAL PARTY: P D P

COMMITTEES:Banking & Currency, Sports, Transport,Women & Youth, House Service, Habitat

DATE OF BIRTH: 2-11-1953PLACE OF BIRTH: Jos - Plateau StateMARITAL STATUS: MarriedEDUCATIONAL QUALIFICATION: BA, EducationPROFESSION: Banking - PoliticianTELEPHONE: 08033153990, 08044180148

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NAME OF HONOURABLE:Etteh Patricia Olubunmi

SENATORIAL ZONE /FEDERAL CONSTITUENCY:Ayedaade /Isokan/Irewole

POLITICAL PARTY: P D P

COMMITTEES: Deputy Chief Whip

DATE OF BIRTH: 17th August 1953PLACE OF BIRTH: IkireMARITAL STATUS: MarriedEDUCATIONAL QUALIFICATION: Diploma in LawPROFESSION: LegislatorTELEPHONE: 08033036672E-MAIL: patriciaetteh@yahoo.com

NAME OF HONOURABLE:Akindahunsi Titilayo Melodia

FEDERAL CONSTITUENCY:Ekiti South Fed. Const. II, Ekiti State

POLITICAL PARTY: P D P

COMMITTEES:Agric, Women Affairs & Youth DevelopmentPublic Petition, Education, Peace & NationalReconciliation

DATE OF BIRTH: 29th November 1940PLACE OF BIRTH: OgbomosoMARITAL STATUS: MarriedEDUCATIONAL QUALIFICATION: B A (Ed)PROFESSION: Retired TeacherTELEPHONE: 08033599535

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NAME OF HONOURABLE:Edewor Abiola Omolola

SENATORIAL ZONE /FEDERAL CONSTITUENCY:

POLITICAL PARTY: A D

COMMITTEES: Member Petroleum Resources

DATE OF BIRTH: 19 – 05 – 61PLACE OF BIRTH: ApapaMARITAL STATUS: MarriedEDUCATIONAL QUALIFICATION: MBA MarketingPROPFESSION: Insurance BrokerTELEPHONE: 09 – 2310453, 01-5452950

NAME OF HONOURABLE:Ogodo Uwa Patience

SENATORIAL ZONE /FEDERAL CONSTITUENCY:

POLITICAL PARTY: P D P

COMMITTEES:

DATE OF BIRTH: 18 – 11 – 58PLACE OF BIRTH: OhankwuMARITAL STATUS: MarriedEDUCATIONAL QUALIFICATION: NCEPROFESSION: House wifeTELEPHONE: 09-2310177

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NAME OF HONOURABLE:Hon. Aondona Dabo Adzuana

SENATORIAL ZONE /FEDERAL CONSTITUENCY:Benue

POLITICAL PARTY: U N P P

COMMITTEES:Poverty Alleviation, Foreign Affairs, Sports,FCT, Women Affairs, Inter Parliamentary Affairs

TELEPHONE: 08033000626

NAME OF HONOURABLE:Hon. Jumoke Okoya Thomas

SENATORIAL ZONE /FEDERAL CONSTITUENCY:Lagos Island I

POLITICAL PARTY: A D

COMMITTEES: Chairman Sub Committee onPrison

TELEPHONE: 08033226121

NAME OF HONOURABLE:Hon. Fakeye Eniola

SENATORIAL ZONE /FEDERAL CONSTITUENCY:Atakunmosa East & West Ilesa

POLITICAL PARTY: P D P

COMMITTEES: Women Affairs,

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NAME OF HONOURABLE:Hon. Nkechi Nwaogu

SENATORIAL ZONE /FEDERAL CONSTITUENCY:Obinwa Ugumnagbo Osisioma

POLITICAL PARTY: A N P P

COMMITTEES: Women Affairs

NAME OF SENATOR:Fawora Gbemisola S.

SENATORIAL ZONE /FEDERAL CONSTITUENCY:

POLITICAL PARTY: P D P

COMMITTEES:

DATE OF BIRTH: 3 – 05 – 65PLACE OF BIRTH: IlorinMARITAL STATUS: MarriedEDUCATIONAL QUALIFICATION: Bsc EconomicsPROFESSION: Insurance BrokerTELEPHONE: 09-2310223, 031-220141

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NAME OF SENATOR:Senator Daisy Danjuma

SENATORIAL ZONE /FEDERAL CONSTITUENCY:Edo South

POLITICAL PARTY: P D P

COMMITTEES: Women Affairs

DATE OF BIRTH: -PLACE OF BIRTH: -MARITAL STATUS: MarriedEDUCATIONAL QUALIFICATION: -PROFESSION: LawyerTELEPHONE: -

NAME OF SENATOR:Iyabode Anike Anisulowo

SENATORIAL ZONE /FEDERAL CONSTITUENCY:Ogun West

POLITICAL PARTY: P D P

COMMITTEES: Industry (Ag Ch, Vice Ch.)

DATE OF BIRTH: 21-3-51PLACE OF BIRTH: LagosMARITAL STATUS: MarriedEDUCATIONAL QUALIFICATION:PROFESSION:TELEPHONE: 08034714352E-MAIL: anisulowo@yahoo.com

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Appendix 2

WOMEN ADVOCATES RESEARCH ANDDOCUMENTATION CENTRE (WARDC)

QUESTIONNAIRE ON WOMEN AND VOTERS’ ATTITUDE 

Introduction and explanation:

This questionnaire is being administered to assist an on-going processto conduct and publish a gender audit of the 2003 elections. It isbeing suggested that while there might be the problem of a smallpercentage of women contesting elections, there is perhaps a greaterproblem with the electorate who usually only vote few out of thesmall number of women running in elections. It is considered necessaryto know from voters who voted women why they did and those whodidn’t why they failed to do so.

The key question is: Could the poor performance of women at thepolls be related to voters’ gender attitude, prejudices and biases?Your answers to these questions, which shall be treated in fullconfidentiality, will go a long way in helping the gender audit tosucceed.  

Part 1 - elected

1. How did you emerge as the presidential/governorship/deputy-governorship/senatorial/house of representative/house of assemblycandidate of your party?

2. Did your party constitution or rules/guidelines make it easy foryou to emerge as a candidate?

3. Did you face any form of discrimination or bias in trying to seekthe support of your party members during your party primaries?

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121

4. How much support did you receive from your party after beingselected as a candidate?

5. Was the bulk of your campaign team drawn from among womenor men?

6. Do you think the fact of your being a woman contributedsignificantly to your being elected?

7. What was the attitude of the electorate towards you duringcampaigns? Do you think it was influenced by your gender?

8. hat measures would you suggest to encourage parties to selectmore women candidates and for the electorate to vote morewomen into offices?

9. In general or specific terms what problems did you face as a femalecandidate?

10. How optimistic are you that in future Nigeria will have a femalePresident and Vice-President, and more Senators, moreRepresentatives and more assembly-women?

 

 

WOMEN ADVOCATES RESEARCH ANDDOCUMENTATION CENTRE (WARDC)

QUESTIONNAIRE ON WOMEN AND VOTERS’ ATTITUDE 

Introduction and explanation:

This questionnaire is being administered to assist an on-going processto conduct and publish a gender audit of the 2003 elections. It isbeing suggested that while there might be the problem of a smallpercentage of women contesting elections, there is perhaps a greaterproblem with the electorate who usually only vote few out of thesmall number of women running in elections. It is considered necessaryto know from voters who voted women why they did and those whodidn’t why they failed to do so.

The key question is: Could the poor performance of women at thepolls be related to voters’ gender attitude, prejudices and biases?Your answers to these questions, which shall be treated in fullconfidentiality, will go a long way in helping the gender audit tosucceed.  

Part 2 – not elected  

1. How did you emerge as the presidential/governorship/deputy-governorship/senatorial/house of representative/house of assemblycandidate of your party?

2. Did your party constitution or rules/guidelines make it easy foryou to emerge as a candidate?

3. Did you face any form of discrimination or bias in trying to seekthe support of your party members during your party primaries?

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4. How much support did you receive from your party after beingselected as a candidate?

5. Was the bulk of your campaign team drawn from among womenor men?

6. Do you think the fact of your being a woman contributedsignificantly to your Not being elected?

7. What was the attitude of the electorate towards you duringcampaigns? Do you think it was influenced by your gender?

8. What measures would you suggest to encourage parties to selectmore women candidates and for the electorate to vote morewomen into offices?

9. In general or specific terms what problems did you face as a femalecandidate?

10. How optimistic are you that in future Nigeria will have a femalePresident and Vice-President, and more Senators, moreRepresentatives and more assembly-women?

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Appendix 3

Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination AgainstWomen General recommendation No 23 (1997)(articles 7 and 8) (1997) Article 7 (political and publiclife)States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to eliminatediscrimination against women in the political and public life of thecountry and, in particular, shall ensure to women, on equal termswith men, the right:

(a) To vote in all elections and public referenda and to be eligiblefor election to all publicly elected bodies;

(b) To participate in the formulation of government policy andthe implementation thereof and to hold public office andperform all public functions at all levels of government;

(c) To participate in non-governmental organizations andassociations concerned with the public and political life ofthe country.

Background

1. The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discriminationagainst Women places special importance on the participation ofwomen in the public life of their countries. The preamble to theConvention states in part:

“Recalling that discrimination against women violatesthe principles of equality of rights and respect forhuman dignity, is an obstacle to the participation ofwomen, on equal terms with men, in the political,social, economic and cultural life of their countries,hampers the growth of the prosperity of society andthe family and makes more difficult the fulldevelopment of the potentialities of women in theservice of their countries and of humanity”.

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2. The Convention further reiterates in its preamble the importanceof women’s participation in decision-making as follows:

“Convinced that the full and complete development of acountry, the welfare of the world and the cause of peacerequire the maximum participation of women on equalterms with men in all fields”.

3. Moreover, in article 1 of the Convention, the term “discriminationagainst women” is interpreted to mean:

“Any distinction, exclusion or restriction made on thebasis of sex which has the effect or purpose ofimpairing or nullifying the recognition, enjoyment orexercise by women, irrespective of their marital status,on a basis of equality of men and women, of humanrights and fundamental freedoms in the political,economic, social, cultural, civil or any other field”.

4. Other conventions, declarations and international analyses placegreat importance on the participation of women in public life andhave set a framework of international standards of equality. Theseinclude the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,1 theInternational Covenant on Civil and Political Rights,2 theConvention on the Political Rights of Women,3 the ViennaDeclaration,4 paragraph 13 of the Beijing Declaration and Platformfor Action, 5 general recommendations 5 and 8 under theConvention,6 general comment 25 adopted by the Human RightsCommittee,7 the recommendation adopted by the Council of theEuropean Union on balanced participation of women and men inthe decision-making process8 and the European Commission’s“How to Create a Gender Balance in Political Decision-making”.9

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5. Article 7 obliges States parties to take all appropriate measuresto eliminate discrimination against women in political and publiclife and to ensure that they enjoy equality with men in political andpublic life. The obligation specified in article 7 extends to all areasof public and political life and is not limited to those areas specifiedin subparagraphs (a), (b) and (c). The political and public life of acountry is a broad concept. It refers to the exercise of politicalpower, in particular the exercise of legislative, judicial, executiveand administrative powers. The term covers all aspects of publicadministration and the formulation and implementation of policyat the international, national, regional and local levels. The conceptalso includes many aspects of civil society, including public boardsand local councils and the activities of organizations such as politicalparties, trade unions, professional or industry associations,women’s organizations, community-based organizations and otherorganizations concerned with public and political life.

6. The Convention envisages that, to be effective, this equality mustbe achieved within the framework of a political system in whicheach citizen enjoys the right to vote and be elected at genuineperiodic elections held on the basis of universal suffrage and bysecret ballot, in such a way as to guarantee the free expression ofthe will of the electorate, as provided for under international humanrights instruments, such as article 21 of the Universal Declarationof Human Rights and article 25 of the International Covenant onCivil and Political Rights.

7. The Convention’s emphasis on the importance of equality ofopportunity and of participation in public life and decision-makinghas led the Committee to review article 7 and to suggest to Statesparties that in reviewing their laws and policies and in reportingunder the Convention, they should take into account the commentsand recommendations set out below.

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Comments

8. Public and private spheres of human activity have always beenconsidered distinct, and have been regulated accordingly.Invariably, women have been assigned to the private or domesticsphere, associated with reproduction and the raising of children,and in all societies these activities have been treated as inferior.By contrast, public life, which is respected and honoured, extendsto a broad range of activity outside the private and domestic sphere.Men historically have both dominated public life and exercisedthe power to confine and subordinate women within the privatesphere.

9. Despite women’s central role in sustaining the family and societyand their contribution to development, they have been excludedfrom political life and the decision-making process, whichnonetheless determine the pattern of their daily lives and the futureof societies. Particularly in times of crisis, this exclusion has silencedwomen’s voices and rendered invisible their contribution andexperiences.

10. In all nations, the most significant factors inhibiting women’s abilityto participate in public life have been the cultural framework ofvalues and religious beliefs, the lack of services and men’s failureto share the tasks associated with the organization of the householdand with the care and raising of children. In all nations, culturaltraditions and religious beliefs have played a part in confiningwomen to the private spheres of activity and excluding them fromactive participation in public life.

11. Relieving women of some of the burdens of domestic work wouldallow them to engage more fully in the life of their communities.Women’s economic dependence on men often prevents them frommaking important political decisions and from participating activelyin public life. Their double burden of work and their economicdependence, coupled with the

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long or inflexible hours of both public and political work, preventwomen from being more active.

12. Stereotyping, including that perpetrated by the media, confineswomen in political life to issues such as the environment, childrenand health, and excludes them from responsibility for finance,budgetary control and conflict resolution. The low involvement ofwomen in the professions from which politicians are recruited cancreate another obstacle. In countries where women leaders doassume power this can be the result of the influence of their fathers,husbands or male relatives rather than electoral success in theirown right.

Political systems

13. The principle of equality of women and men has been affirmed inthe constitutions and laws of most countries and in all internationalinstruments. Nonetheless, in the last 50 years, women have notachieved equality, and their inequality has been reinforced by theirlow level of participation in public and political life. Policiesdeveloped and decisions made by men alone reflect only part ofhuman experience and potential. The just and effective organizationof society demands the inclusion and participation of all itsmembers.

14. No political system has conferred on women both the right toand the benefit of full and equal participation. Whiledemocratic systems have improved women’s opportunitiesfor involvement in political life, the many economic, socialand cultural barriers they continue to face have seriouslylimited their participation. Even historically stabledemocracies have failed to integrate fully and equally theopinions and interests of the female half of the population.Societies in which women are excluded from public life anddecision-making cannot be described as democratic. Theconcept of democracy will have real and dynamic meaningand lasting effect only when political decision-making is

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shared by women and men and takes equal account of the interestsof both. The examination of States parties’ reports shows thatwhere there is full and equal participation of women in public lifeand decision- making, the implementation of their rights andcompliance with the Convention improves.

Temporary special measures

15. While removal of de jure barriers is necessary, it is not sufficient.Failure to achieve full and equal participation of women can beunintentional and the result of outmoded practices and procedureswhich inadvertently promote men. Under article 4, the Conventionencourages the use of temporary special measures in order togive full effect to articles 7 and 8. Where countries have developedeffective temporary strategies in an attempt to achieve equality ofparticipation, a wide range of measures has been implemented,including recruiting, financially assisting and training womencandidates, amending electoral procedures, developing campaignsdirected at equal participation, setting numerical goals and quotasand targeting women for appointment to public positions such asthe judiciary or other professional groups that play an essentialpart in the everyday life of all societies. The formal removal ofbarriers and the introduction of temporary special measures toencourage the equal participation of both men and women in thepublic life of their societies are essential prerequisites to true equalityin political life. In order, however, to overcome centuries of maledomination of the public sphere, women also require theencouragement and support of all sectors of society to achievefull and effective participation, encouragement which must be ledby States parties to the Convention, as well as by political partiesand public officials. States parties have an obligation to ensurethat temporary special measures are clearly designed to supportthe principle of equality and therefore comply with constitutionalprinciples, which guarantee equality to all citizens.

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Summary

16. The critical issue, emphasized in the Beijing Platform for Action,5

is the gap between the de jure and de facto, or the right as againstthe reality of women’s participation in politics and public lifegenerally. Research demonstrates that if women’s participationreaches 30 to 35 per cent (generally termed a “critical mass”),there is a real impact on political style and the content of decisions,and political life is revitalized.

17. In order to achieve broad representation in public life, womenmust have full equality in the exercise of political and economicpower; they must be fully and equally involved in decision-makingat all levels, both nationally and internationally, so that they maymake their contribution to the goals of equality, development andthe achievement of peace. A gender perspective is critical if thesegoals are to be met and if true democracy is to be assured. Forthese reasons, it is essential to involve women in public life to takeadvantage of their contribution, to assure their interests areprotected and to fulfill the guarantee that the enjoyment of humanrights is for all people regardless of gender. Women’s fullparticipation is essential not only for their empowerment but alsofor the advancement of society as a whole.

The right to vote and to be elected (article 7, para. (a))

18. The Convention obliges States parties in constitutions orlegislation to take appropriate steps to ensure that women, onthe basis of equality with men, enjoy the right to vote in allelections and referendums, and to be elected. These rightsmust be enjoyed both de jure and de facto. 19. The examinationof the reports of States parties demonstrates that, while almostall have adopted constitutional or other legal provisions that

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grant to both women and men the equal right to vote in all electionsand public referendums, in many nations women continue toexperience difficulties in exercising this right.

19. Factors, which impede these rights, include the following:

(a) Women frequently have less access than men to information aboutcandidates and about party political platforms and votingprocedures, information which Governments and political partieshave failed to provide. Other important factors that inhibit women’sfull and equal exercise of their right to vote include their illiteracy,their lack of knowledge and understanding of political systems orabout the impact that political initiatives and policies will have upontheir lives. Failure to understand the rights, responsibilities andopportunities for change conferred by franchise also means thatwomen are not always registered to vote;

(b) Women’s double burden of work, as well as financial constraints,will limit women’s time or opportunity to follow electoral campaignsand to have the full freedom to exercise their vote;

(c) In many nations, traditions and social and cultural stereotypesdiscourage women from exercising their right to vote. Many meninfluence or control the votes of women by persuasion or directaction, including voting on their behalf. Any such practices shouldbe prevented;2

(d) Other factors that in some countries inhibit women’s involvementin the public or political lives of their communities include restrictionson their freedom of movement or right to participate, prevailingnegative attitudes towards women’s political participation, or alack of confidence in and support for female candidates by theelectorate. In addition, some women consider involvement inpolitics to be distasteful and avoid participation in politicalcampaigns.

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21. These factors at least partially explain the paradox that women,who represent half of all electorates, do not wield their politicalpower or form blocs, which would promote their interests orchange government, or eliminate discriminatory policies.

22. The system of balloting, the distribution of seats in Parliament, thechoice of district, all have a significant impact on the proportion ofwomen elected to Parliament. Political parties must embrace theprinciples of equal opportunity and democracy and endeavour tobalance the number of male and female candidates.

23. The enjoyment of the right to vote by women should not be subjectto restrictions or conditions that do not apply to men or that havea disproportionate impact on women. For example, limiting theright to vote to persons who have a specified level of education,who possess a minimum property qualification or who are literateis not only unreasonable, it may violate the universal guarantee ofhuman rights. It is also likely to have a disproportionate impact onwomen, thereby contravening the provisions of the Convention.

The right to participate in formulation of government policy (article7, para. (b))

24. The participation of women in government at the policy levelcontinues to be low in general. Although significant progress hasbeen made and in some countries equality has been achieved, inmany countries women’s participation has actually been reduced.

25. Article 7 (b) also requires States parties to ensure that womenhave the right to participate fully in and be represented in publicpolicy formulation in all sectors and at all levels. This would facilitatethe mainstreaming of gender issues and contribute a genderperspective to public policy-making.

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26. States parties have a responsibility, where it is within their control,both to appoint women to senior decision-making roles and, as amatter of course, to consult and incorporate the advice of groupswhich are broadly representative of women’s views and interests.

27. States parties have a further obligation to ensure that barriers towomen’s full participation in the formulation of government policyare identified and overcome. These barriers include complacencywhen token women are appointed, and traditional and customaryattitudes that discourage women’s participation. When womenare not broadly represented in the senior levels of government orare inadequately or not consulted at all, government policy willnot be comprehensive and effective.

28. While States parties generally hold the power to appoint womento senior cabinet and administrative positions, political parties alsohave a responsibility to ensure that women are included in partylists and nominated for election in areas where they have alikelihood of electoral success. States parties should also endeavourto ensure that women are appointed to government advisory bodieson an equal basis with men and that these bodies take into account,as appropriate, the views of representative women’s groups. It isthe Government’s fundamental responsibility to encourage theseinitiatives to lead and guide public opinion and change attitudesthat discriminate against women or discourage women’sinvolvement in political and public life.

29. Measures that have been adopted by a number of States partiesin order to ensure equal participation by women in seniorcabinet and administrative positions and as members ofgovernment advisory bodies include: adoption of a rulewhereby, when potential appointees are equally qualified,preference will be given to a woman nominee; the adoption

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of a rule that neither sex should constitute less than 40 per cent ofthe members of a public body; a quota for women members ofcabinet and for appointment to public office; and consultation withwomen’s organizations to ensure that qualified women arenominated for membership in public bodies and offices and thedevelopment and maintenance of registers of such women in orderto facilitate the nomination of women for appointment to publicbodies and posts. Where members are appointed to advisorybodies upon the nomination of private organizations, States partiesshould encourage these organizations to nominate qualified andsuitable women for membership in these bodies.

The right to hold public office and to perform all public functions(article 7, para. (b))

30. The examination of the reports of States parties demonstrates thatwomen are excluded from top-ranking positions in cabinets, thecivil service and in public administration, in the judiciary and injustice systems. Women are rarely appointed to these senior orinfluential positions and while their numbers may in some Statesbe increasing at the lower levels and in posts usually associatedwith the home or the family, they form only a tiny minority indecision-making positions concerned with economic policy ordevelopment, political affairs, defence, peacemaking missions,conflict resolution or constitutional interpretation and determination.

31. Examination of the reports of States parties also demonstratesthat in certain cases the law excludes women from exercisingroyal powers, from serving as judges in religious or traditionaltribunals vested with jurisdiction on behalf of the State orfrom full participation in the military. These provisionsdiscriminate against women, deny to society the advantagesof their involvement and skills in these areas of the life oftheir communities and contravene the principles of the

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Convention. The right to participate in non-governmental and publicand political organizations (article 7, para. (c))

32. An examination of the reports of States parties demonstrates that,on the few occasions when information concerning political partiesis provided, women are under-represented or concentrated in lessinfluential roles than men. As political parties are an importantvehicle in decision-making roles, Governments should encouragepolitical parties to examine the extent to which women are full andequal participants in their activities and, where this is not the case,should identify the reasons for this. Political parties should beencouraged to adopt effective measures, including the provisionof information, financial and other resources, to overcomeobstacles to women’s full participation and representation andensure that women have an equal opportunity in practice to serveas party officials and to be nominated as candidates for election.

33. Measures that have been adopted by some political parties includesetting aside for women a certain minimum number or percentageof positions on their executive bodies, ensuring that there is abalance between the number of male and female candidatesnominated for election, and ensuring that women are notconsistently assigned to less favourable constituencies or to theleast advantageous positions on a party list. States parties shouldensure that such temporary special measures are specificallypermitted under anti-discrimination legislation or other constitutionalguarantees of equality.

34. Other organizations such as trade unions and political partieshave an obligation to demonstrate their commitment to theprinciple of gender equality in their constitutions, in theapplication of those rules and in the composition of theirmemberships with gender-balanced representation on theirexecutive boards so that these bodies may benefit from the

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full and equal participation of all sectors of society and fromcontributions made by both sexes. These organizations also providea valuable training ground for women in political skills, participationand leadership, as do non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

Article 8 (international level)

States Parties shall take all appropriate measures toensure to women, on equal terms with men and withoutany discrimination, the opportunity to represent theirGovernments at the international level and toparticipate in the work of international organizations.

Comments

35. Under article 8, Governments are obliged to ensure the presenceof women at all levels and in all areas of international affairs. Thisrequires that they be included in economic and military matters, inboth multilateral and bilateral diplomacy, and in official delegationsto international and regional conferences.

36. From an examination of the reports of States parties, it is evidentthat women are grossly under-represented in the diplomatic andforeign services of most Governments, and particularly at thehighest ranks. Women tend to be assigned to embassies of lesserimportance to the country’s foreign relations and in some caseswomen are discriminated against in terms of their appointmentsby restrictions pertaining to their marital status. In other instancesspousal and family benefits accorded to male diplomats are notavailable to women in parallel positions. Opportunities for womento engage in international work are often denied because ofassumptions about their domestic responsibilities, including thatthe care of family dependants will prevent them acceptingappointment.

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37. Many permanent missions to the United Nations and to otherinternational organizations have no women among their diplomatsand very few at senior levels. The situation is similar at expertmeetings and conferences that establish international and globalgoals, agendas and priorities. Organizations of the United Nationssystem and various economic, political and military structures atthe regional level have become important international publicemployers, but here, too, women have remained a minorityconcentrated in lower-level positions.

38. There are few opportunities for women and men, on equal terms,to represent Governments at the international level and toparticipate in the work of international organizations. This isfrequently the result of an absence of objective criteria andprocesses for appointment and promotion to relevant positionsand official delegations.

39. The globalization of the contemporary world makes the inclusionof women and their participation in international organizations, onequal terms with men, increasingly important. The integration of agender perspective and women’s human rights into the agenda ofall international bodies is a government imperative. Many crucialdecisions on global issues, such as peacemaking and conflictresolution, military expenditure and nuclear disarmament,development and the environment, foreign aid and economicrestructuring, are taken with limited participation of women. Thisis in stark contrast to their participation in these areas at the non-governmental level.

40. The inclusion of a critical mass of women in internationalnegotiations, peacekeeping activities, all levels of preventivediplomacy, mediation, humanitarian assistance, socialreconciliation, peace negotiations and the internationalcriminal justice system will make a difference. In addressingarmed or other conflicts, a gender perspective and analysis is

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necessary to understand their differing effects on women andmen.1010/

RECOMMENDATIONS

Articles 7 and 8

41. States parties should ensure that their constitutions and legislationcomply with the principles of the Convention, and in particularwith articles 7 and 8.

42. States parties are under an obligation to take all appropriatemeasures, including the enactment of appropriate legislation thatcomplies with their Constitution, to ensure that organizations suchas political parties and trade unions, which may not be subjectdirectly to obligations under the Convention, do not discriminateagainst women and respect the principles contained in articles 7and 8.

43. States parties should identify and implement temporary specialmeasures to ensure the equal representation of women in all fieldscovered by articles 7 and 8.

44. States parties should explain the reason for, and effect of, anyreservations to articles 7 or 8 and indicate where the reservationsreflect traditional, customary or stereotyped attitudes towardswomen’s roles in society, as well as the steps being taken by theStates parties to change those attitudes. States parties should keepthe necessity for such reservations under close review and in theirreports include a timetable for their removal.

Article 7

45. Measures that should be identified, implemented and monitoredfor effectiveness include, under article 7, paragraph (a), thosedesigned to:

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(a) Achieve a balance between women and men holding publiclyelected positions;

(b) Ensure that women understand their right to vote, the importanceof this right and how to exercise it;

(c) Ensure that barriers to equality are overcome, including thoseresulting from illiteracy, language, poverty and impediments towomen’s freedom of movement;

(d) (d) Assist women experiencing such disadvantages to exercisetheir right to vote and to be elected.

46. Under article 7, paragraph (b), such measures include thosedesigned to ensure:

(a) Equality of representation of women in the formulation ofgovernment policy;

(b) Women’s enjoyment in practice of the equal right to hold publicoffice;

(c) Recruiting processes directed at women that are open and subjectto appeal.

47. Under article 7, paragraph (c), such measures include thosedesigned to:

(a) Ensure that effective legislation is enacted prohibiting discriminationagainst women;

(b) Encourage non-governmental organizations and public and politicalassociations to adopt strategies that encourage women’srepresentation and participation in their work.

48. When reporting under article 7, States parties should:

(a) Describe the legal provisions that give effect to the rights containedin article 7;

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(b) Provide details of any restrictions to those rights, whether arisingfrom legal provisions or from traditional, religious or culturalpractices;

(c) Describe the measures introduced and designed to overcomebarriers to the exercise of those rights;

(d) Include statistical data, disaggregated by sex, showing thepercentage of women relative to men who enjoy those rights;

(e) Describe the types of policy formulation, including that associatedwith development programmes, in which women participate andthe level and extent of their participation;

(f) Under article 7, paragraph (c), describe the extent to which womenparticipate in non-governmental organizations in their countries,including in women’s organizations;

(g) Analyse the extent to which the State party ensures that thoseorganizations are consulted and the impact of their advice on alllevels of government policy formulation and implementation;

(h) Provide information concerning, and analyse factors contributingto, the under-representation of women as members and officialsof political parties, trade unions, employers organizations andprofessional associations.

Article 8

49. Measures which should be identified, implemented and monitoredfor effectiveness include those designed to ensure a better genderbalance in membership of all United Nations bodies, including theMain Committees of the General Assembly, the Economic andSocial Council and expert bodies, including treaty bodies, and inappointments to independent working groups or as country orspecial rapporteurs.

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50. When reporting under article 8, States parties should:

(a) Provide statistics, disaggregated by sex, showing the percentageof women in their foreign service or regularly engaged ininternational representation or in work on behalf of the State,including membership in government delegations to internationalconferences and nominations for peacekeeping or conflictresolution roles, and their seniority in the relevant sector;

(b) Describe efforts to establish objective criteria and processes forappointment and promotion of women to relevant positions andofficial delegations;

(c) Describe steps taken to disseminate widely information on theGovernment’s international commitments affecting women andofficial documents issued by multilateral forums, in particular, toboth governmental and non-governmental bodies responsible forthe advancement of women;

(d) Provide information concerning discrimination against womenbecause of their political activities, whether as individuals or asmembers of women’s or other organizations.

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