By Evangeline Anumba, Abuja 

The National Policy on Women that was adopted in 2000, reserved 30 per cent of positions for women, under affirmative action guidelines. In 2011, former President Goodluck Jonathan administration’s cabinet set a new record with women occupying 33 per cent of key positions. Though women appreciated the developmen,  they were still vociferous that the figure should be further raised to 35 per cent as was the case  in some African countries.

However, rather than improve, women representation regressed in 2015. Fewer than seven women made it to the cabinet of President Muhammadu Buhari as ministers. With the first ministerial list released, Nigeria women were optimistic that the 35 per cent affirmative action they yearned for would be achieved. While waiting for the next list, groups of women made sure that they stressed the neede for the President to adhere to the 35 per cent affirmative action enshrined in the National Gender Policy to instigate redress and make the President add more women to the list.

However, their hope was crushed severely as the number didn’t increase. The second list didn’t help.

Available statistics shows that, out of the 109 senators in the National Assembly, only seven are women, while only 15 out of the 360 members of the House of Representatives are women. Besides, out of the 990 members of state Houses of Assembly, only 54 are women.

The picture markedly depicts a lopsided membership of the legislature in favor of men and observers say that the story is similar at the local level, where only a few women function as chairpersons or councillors of local government areas. The whole scenario tends to validate widespread concerns that women are grossly under-represented in the legislative and executive arms of government across the country.

Generally, researchers have not failed to emphasise that factors such as socio-economic, ecological, cultural practices, political violence, illiteracy among women, and contradictory nature of government policies led to the lower level of women’s political participation, and these factors became an obstacle to the full realisation of 35 per cent affirmative action in the Nigerian political system.

According to the president of Career Women in Politics Organisation (CWIPO), Barr. Ugonna Uzor Kalu, Nigerian women are marginalised in all the country’s democratisation processes, even when women have evolved.

She lamented that, in spite of the fact that many women are literate, they still hold less than 5 per cent of important decision-making positions in the country.

She said, “At the local and community level, all the way to the highest levels of government, women are often underrepresented in leadership positions, left without a voice in decision-making and ignored as an electorate.

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“Women hold only 22 per cent of national parliamentary positions globally. This means that women are underrepresented in all facets of the political process often due to socio-cultural barriers, the absence of training and resources for women’s political organising, standards of living and precarious economic challenges.”

She emphasised that, although the disparity in the proportion of men to women in political and decision-making positions is often said to be because women are not participating actively in politics, the low participation and  representation of women in politics was due to little or no political education. Kalu stressed that women need mentoring and motivation to actively participate in politics and eventually beat the expectations of Nigerians.

She said: “Many women are educated but are still naive when it comes to politics and leadership. Many women out there don’t know their rights, they don’t know how to vote rightly, and we are actively mentoring and motivating girls and women politically. We start with girls because, if they start being conscious of who they are and know their rights, they will start on time and achieve more in their life time.

“Because we keep promoting the affirmative action and allocation of quotas to women, we hammer on political representation by women. We have competent women who are grounded to lead but they hide under their profession. We hinge on seminars, because they need guidance to build, shape their poise and charisma to withstand the heat of men. So, we will consistently organise capacity building training for women, coordinate conferences, discussions, congress, conventions and supporting  the development of women. We simply organise Network of Professional Women to mentor women to vie for political positions.

“People often discredit women saying they can’t do well in politics, but the thing is women are competent to be in politics because women are near to the children and the community; it is then vital that women stand up, get out of their shell and let their voice out to be heard. The problem is, they feel it’s not in their place to do it, but for the maenfolk. That’s not a problem for us because we are massively working on that. The present regime may have failed women, but 2019 will be entirely different.”

Mrs Kalu noted that the group would continue to advocate for the revision of legislations to favor the protection of women from abuse, empower them economically, socially and politically, especially through the strengthening of affirmative action and allocation of quotas for women in politics and decision making positions.

With the threat to use their voting power to effect change in the 2019 elections, she said the organization will take it upon themselves to prop up women who are interested in politics, owning that they will form political clout to support female candidacy and candidacy that will empower women.

 Mrs Kalu predicted “2019 election will be more tough and technical than other ones, those days of brain washing are in the past because of social media and all. We are forming political clout for women. The woman candidate coming out will be massively supported by women. Asides that, a man that does not like women, we will not support him,  but male candidate that loves women, we will support him because its all about women empowerment in 2019. Of course by next year, the candidates will start their campaigns and all, from there we will know what they are about.”

She noted that CWIPO is specifically for women who are committed to Inspire and strengthen women rights, engage women in political participation, leadership and decision making processes in government and working with governments, stakeholders and groups to achieve their purpose.

 She called on women to join women political caucuses to elevate women.