By Zika Bobby
Participation of Nigerian women in politics has been described as the lowest in Africa despite the fact that the country is regarded as the giant of Africa.
Omowonuola Okunnu, lecturer in politics at Bournemouth University, United Kingdom stated this while unfolding a programme to discuss the role of women in politics, with the theme, “Women and electoral outcome in Nigeria, North South variations with special focus on political, religious, ethnic and other differences.”
Okunnu, is also chairperson of The W²O Foundation, a non-profit organisation, which she established in 2022 to improve the lives of Nigerians, serving as a bridge between the governments and her citizens, spoke on the essence of the occasion.
“This is my research and I have been on this since 2021, looking forward to the election coming towards 2023, just for us to have an idea of what we had back in history. What is happening now, what are the issues, what are the implications, how can we change all of these biases, how can we have a change?” She said many women are relaxed because they believe that they have tried and nothing has been changed.
“I believe that we don’t have to give up, whichever way, I advise people, my peers, that it is better if you are knowledgeable and understand the system. You can’t just enter a room and you start what you want to start, you have to understand the system. So, it is more like you coming up from the grassroots. I call it, from the bottom to the top, instead of from top to the bottom. So it is more like you getting yourself knowledgeable, understanding what politics is, understanding your role as a voter, and why you need to exercise your franchise. We understand that there is research in 2023 that compares Africa. In Rwanda, the participation of women at the federal level is about 46 percent. In Senegal, it is about 40 percent, and to my surprise, Nigeria is just 6 percent which is very bad. As the giant of Africa, the women are just in the back seat. It is not something that we should be proud of because we believe that women have the power with their numbers.”
Speaking on political will on the part of the parliamentarian, Prof. Imran Oluwole Smith, Professorial Research Associate (SOAS) University of London and former dean of Law, University of Lagos, said the parliamentarians should be much more objective, and they should be more forward-looking.
“The era of patriarchy is gone, they should look and think beyond the box. And what I mean by this, they should look around and see that there are conventions, protocols and so on, to which Nigerians are signatories.
“They should also know that we have our national policy on gender, the same thing with INEC. And so if you have all these things in place. They are enough to change your mentality, to change your reasoning so that, of course, you will be able to give what it takes to implement what those laws and conventions actually dictate.
“Now we discovered that those bills that we have brought to the National Assembly on quota and all that, about three or four were thrown overboard because the men were against those bills.”
Other speakers at the event are Prof. Darren Lilleker, Director, Centre for Comparative Politics and Media Research, Bournemouth University, UK; Oloye Titilope Gbadamosi, Community Relations Expert and Founder, Women Too, Africa and Prof. Hauwau Evelyn Yusuf, Professor of Criminology and Gender Studies, Kaduna State University.