Like the proverbial ostrich with its head in the sand, Nigeria has failed to properly interrogate the dwindling representation of women in elective positions and take corrective action. Meanwhile, over 130 countries worldwide are reported by the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) to have adopted one form of electoral quota to improve the numbers of women in elective office. Out of this number, 41 of them are African countries. Deeply conservative countries that had previously excluded women from politics are opening their political space to women. It is tempting to say that Nigeria remains stuck in limbo, but that would not capture the actual regression of women in elective office.
Nigeria presents an interesting puzzle regarding the quest for improved representation of women in politics. No real progress has been made in terms of the number of women elected to political positions since the country returned to democratic governance in 1999. The lack of progress with women’s political representation in Nigeria is particularly intriguing considering that women’s role in the country’s socio-economic and cultural landscape appears to be increasing; and that the country’s policy framework appears to support gender equity.
In the past three decades, Nigeria has witnessed the growing voice and rising profile of women in the economy, community, private sector and various spheres of professional and public engagement. The country has also seen gradual but steady withering of cultural restrictions on the perception of women in public affairs, as well as an increasing tendency of women to take up socio-economic roles in the family previously reserved for men. Furthermore, there has been rapid expansion in the work of activist women organisations supporting increased participation of women in politics and a resultant rise in the number of women joining politics and standing for elections. Yet, Nigeria continues to rank lower than many other African countries in terms of women’s political representation.
Any meaningful effort to enhance women representation must start with a deep and honest reflection of why women are underrepresented in the first place, to enable the devising of workable strategies to enhance representation. The assertion in this piece is that the slow progress of women’s political representation in Nigeria is intimately connected with the diagnosis of the problem – how the problem of women’s underrepresentation is perceived and understood as well as the strategies adopted to address it.
The slow progress of women’s political representation in Nigeria is intimately connected with the diagnosis of the problem – how the problem of women’s underrepresentation is perceived and understood as well as the strategies adopted to address it.
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This view is backed by a 2018 PLAC research study which found that Nigeria’s efforts to address women’s political underrepresentation in Nigeria have typically focused on expanding women’s political resources but that these efforts have produced marginal results and incremental change. The study recommended that stakeholders should see women’s political underrepresentation as a question of discrimination against women, rather than that of women’s lack of resources, thus locating the responsibility for dealing with the issue of political underrepresentation of women squarely with the political institutions.
Lack of progress with women’s political representation in Nigeria is likely to continue unless the country moves from what scholars, Drude Dahlerup and Lenita Freidenvall (2003) refer to as the incremental track, to the fast track. According to them, incremental track symbolizes “an inherent notion of gradualism, embedded in an optimistic, linear view of progress.”
Here, the assumption is that the gender gap in politics will close gradually as more women go to school, get empowered, scale up their resources, build political skills etc. This could however take decades. In fact, it is noted by the same authors that it took women in Scandinavian countries (noted for their high gender parity records) about 80 years using this track to get to a 20 to 30 percent threshold.
A feature of the incremental track, apart from its long and unpredictable timing, is that it often situates the remedy for fixing underrepresentation on the woman. Women are typically advised to simply work harder; raise more money; attend more political campaign classes; public speaking classes, etc. In Nigeria particularly, women are asked to just grit their teeth and bear it because it is hard for everyone else. This is then reinforced by patronising comments by men (and even some women) to women in politics that power is not served à la carte, as if power is not shared in Nigeria in the name of “Federal Character” to maintain national cohesion and stability.
In Nigeria particularly, women are asked to just grit their teeth and bear it because it is hard for everyone else. This is then reinforced by patronising comments by men (and even some women) to women in politics that power is not served à la carte, as if power is not shared in Nigeria in the name of “Federal Character” to maintain national cohesion and stability.
This notion of gradualism ignores Nigeria’s history of exclusion of women, clientelist political culture which is based on “quid pro quo,” as well as political party structures dominated by men for decades. Women are often forced to build their own political connections by navigating political spaces that are hostile to them. One author captured this type of environment succinctly by describing it as “informal and closed spaces, which are built upon and perpetuate gendered power structures.” Casual observers and politicians themselves know that candidate nominations in such environments usually happen via behind-the-scenes dealings and network of privileged insiders that most women lack access to. Such informal systems are notoriously difficult to dismantle or overcome, and especially not by women focused on getting more trainings.
Women are often forced to build their own political connections by navigating political spaces that are hostile to them
The fast-track on the other hand, insists that gender balance will not come about by itself but rather through a conscious alteration of the way political institutions work. Instead of asking women to cope with political marginalisation and wait for another 50 to 80 years, the fast track shifts the responsibility for reform away from the individual woman to those institutions that are, consequently, expected to take action to identify and correct the causes of women’s underrepresentation. This includes not just political parties, but the legislature. The countries that use electoral quotas to elect women understand this fact and have come to the realisation that getting more women into governance means taking urgent special measures to close the gender gap.
Countries such as Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, etc. have successfully increased the number of women political representatives following aggressive gender parity campaigns and adoption of gender quotas. Special measures or gender quotas are interventions (sometimes temporary) used to remedy poor representation of women in decision making. Following unsuccessful campaigns and agitations by Nigerian women’s rights advocates for increased representation, there is now a growing belief and acceptance that legislation in the form of special measures is the quickest way to respond to the persistent problem of women’s under-representation in elective positions.
This is what informed the renewed agitations for constitutional recognition of affirmative action for women and particularly, the creation of Reserved or Special Seats for women in Nigeria’s National and State Houses of Assembly. Unfortunately, with the rejection of the Constitution Alteration Bill to create Special Seats for women by the 9th National Assembly, along with four other women issue bills, Nigerian lawmakers appear to have a firm resolve not to take lessons from other jurisdictions to advance women’s representation.
Lobbying by women NGOs and high-profile persons did very little to sway most legislators. In addition to back-channel advocacy, PLAC had distributed letters and advocacy materials to all 469 legislators explaining the bill, yet some of them still complained of not being briefed or enlightened on its provisions. Other reasons given on why the bill failed went from one extreme of inadequate lobbying of male legislators to another extreme of too aggressive lobbying by women.
What cannot be argued however, is that the voting results by the National Assembly reinforces the point made earlier that as a country, we have refused to confront the underrepresentation of women in elective office and take remedial action. Nigerian women’s political history is one of long years of confinement to political obscurity and irrelevance; and relegation to playing the role of supporting cast. The exclusion of women is so normalised that it has now become a permanent feature of our legislature. Yet, many Nigerians including policy makers, do not see this as a problem deserving urgent response. They also fail to recognise that the battle for the recognition of women’s political rights is one that has been going on for decades.
The exclusion of women is so normalised that it has now become a permanent feature of our legislature. Yet, many Nigerians including policy makers, do not see this as a problem deserving urgent response.
To provide a little context, the famous author, Flora Nwapa, wrote an article after the 1979 elections titled “Women in Politics” where she asked why political parties nominated very few women candidates for that election, which was the first under Nigeria’s then newly adopted presidential system. In the 1979 Senate elections, out of 475 candidates that contested, only 3 were women and none succeeded. About two women however managed to make it into the House of Representatives. She specifically noted that the constraints that operated against the nomination of women candidates in Nigeria’s 1979 elections were the same with the constraints faced by women in the 1959 and 1964 Federal elections, as well as the 1960, 1961 and 1965 regional elections. In the 1959 Federal election, Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti reportedly resigned from the NCNC party in disgust to contest as an independent after they failed to nominate a woman.
Nwapa further decried that in the years between 1965 and 1979, there was barely any improvement in the political power of Nigerian women. The reasons reeled out by political parties in 1979 for not nominating women are the same ones we hear in 2022: “that the electorate will not vote for women”, “male prejudice against female party members”, and “the lack of enough women of calibre, wealth and personal position to constitute a pool of talents from which the parties could draw.” She expressed hopes that the 1983 elections would be better, but only one woman, Franca Afegbua (who is specially profiled in this edition), was able to win a Senate seat while three others made it to the House of Representatives.
The reasons reeled out by political parties in 1979 for not nominating women are the same ones we hear in 2022: “that the electorate will not vote for women”, “male prejudice against female party members”, and “the lack of enough women of calibre, wealth and personal position to constitute a pool of talents from which the parties could draw.”
This historical background is very useful for understanding where women’s agitations are coming from and the ongoing campaign for reserved/special seats for women. Nigerian women have fought battles and pushed the frontiers. Affirmative action is not some fancy global trend that women groups are jumping on for the sake of it. It has been 62 years since independence, and 23 years since return to democracy in 1999, with negligible political gains for women. Incrementalism as a path towards improved representation is not looking like a feasible approach for Nigerian women, therefore, there must be a rethinking and retooling of strategy.
Looking at the current political environment, decline of democratic culture, and high levels of electoral malpractice, the projections are that the numbers of women in the legislature will not improve anytime soon. In light of this, Nigerian women and men are faced with two options – to remain on the “incremental track” and continue to “hope for the best” or fight to move to the “fast track” of legislated special measures to elect more women.