2019 General Elections…Where are the Women?

^{Picture Source: The Guardian}

The International Women’s Day (IWD) is a day commemorated globally to bring visibility to the issues of women and the need to step up efforts at greater inclusion and equality across all key sectors of the society. It is also a day to reflect on current actions aimed at promoting a gender balanced world with a call to duty bearers to plug the loopholes and address the obstacles that have historically prevented many women from participating fully in governance and the elimination of gender based violence.

This year’s theme #BalanceforBetter of the IWD is strategic and it is coming at a time in the history of our nation when elections are ongoing which has seen Nigerians actively voting for candidates who will lead them for the next four years. In terms of gender disaggregated data, the statistics we have for the 2019 general elections showed that about 47% of the total number of registered voters are females while 53% are males respectively. With these numbers, the question begging for an answer is: where are the women who should be candidates and voters? In the 2019 presidential race, Nigeria started out having about six women running as presidential candidates of different political parties. Equally impressive at that time was the presentation of women as vice presidential candidates. However, for the Presidential, one by one, they all dropped out of the race leaving only the men to contest the elections as presidential candidates.

Further, at the National Assembly, the number of women in the current 8th Assembly that is gradually winding down is worrisome with the number of female legislators abysmally low and a far cry from their male counterparts. Currently, Nigeria has one of the lowest rates of female representation in parliament across Africa (UNWomen). At the global levels, the country ranks 181st out of 193 countries, according to the International Parliamentary Union. The Premium Times Newspapers also notes that at the National Assembly, women’s candidature is put at 12% of the total seats available, given that a total of 763 women are vying for seats for the Senate and House of Representatives out of 6,563 places available. We can almost be sure that the figures for women will steep lower when the results are announced…and the results are already speaking to a potential 9^th Assembly with lower figures for female legislators.

In mapping the candidates for the 2019 governorship elections, the Community Life Project (ReclaimNaija), a Non-governmental organisation puts the number of women that contested for governorship positions at 80 out of a total of 1067 candidates across states where elections were held. Are women not seeing themselves as candidates to steer the affairs of the nation, state etc? How is it that we keep getting skewed out of the game when it is almost certain we are clinching the ticket as potential female governor, NASS members etc?.

Numerous issues that affect women in the political landscape include but are not limited to the harassment of women candidates at party primaries (including violent party primaries), financial constraints, calls from party members to step down for male counterparts, intimidation, unfavorable intra-party politicking, sexism just to mention a few. However, the business case for gender parity remains valid. How can we achieve an equal representation of women in all spheres of the economy especially in the political space? Secondly, how can these hurdles be removed to enable more women come to the decision making table; thus paving way for greater women’s participation in governance?

At a one day dialogue to celebrate the International Women’s Day, CLEEN Foundation within its mandate on election security management, organized an Election Security  Dialogue with an all female panel of development practitioners and lawyers to discuss these issues. Representatives in the panel spoke extensively on the efforts made for the 2019 general elections aimed at improving women’s participation. Most of the discussion also focused on the support to young female candidates to build their leadership skills, run issue-based campaigns and tell their stories. From the panel discussion, it was also discovered that some of the young female aspirants ran on the platforms of new parties which for most of the time, do not have the financial influence like the big political parties. Finance and god-fatherism still have a strong hold on who emerges as the preferred flag bearer of political parties. In the 2015 and 2019 general elections, women played active roles as party supporters and well-wishers but were rewarded with wrappers, packs of food items etc thus deepening the tokenistic nature of our politics in this part of the globe. Yet, women’s places at the top echelons of governance remain conspicuously missing. Little wonder, our issues are still not prioritized since our interests and concerns are not adequately represented. It is one thing for men to dominate these tables and it is another thing for them to actually represent women's interests or take up issues relating to campaigning for more women counterparts while levelling the space for greater inclusion.

The panel also examined the various legal instruments,  gender equality policies and quota systems in place and agreed that despite the plethora of these frameworks, women still face the challenge of weak representation at the decision making table and in governance generally. We are witnessing a scenario where there are more laws and more impunity taking place. The increasingly violent nature of our electoral process following from the violence recorded in the 2019 general elections puts a big threat to women’s participation in future elections. However, it is still important to have these laws and frameworks as reference points and tools to continually demand for accountability for actions from duty bearers and from the ‘men’ who hold the power to change things, support opening up the space for women’s constructive engagement in the political process.

The conversation ended on the need for women to also get their priorities right and set strategies for pushing their political careers, self development etc. One thing is clear,  there is need for mentorship in politics and in politicking in Nigeria. Female leaders who have made it to the top of their political career and those within circles of influence need to mentor a critical mass of young female aspirants to step into their shoes. Going into 2023, we need to incentivize the political/electoral system to encourage greater women’s participation at all levels of governance and leadership. The security framework for elections should deliberately protect women to encourage their participation. #BalanceforBetter is about equal numbers across the Senate, House of Representatives, at the national and state levels. The journey to 2023 actually starts now and not one month to the general elections.

Ruth Olofin

Abuja

ruthie.okugbeni@gmail.com

Issues in this post were first discussed at the CLEEN Foundation’s Election Security Management Dialogue held on the 8th of March, 2019 at the Transcorp Hilton, Abuja.