That Nigerian Women May Breathe

The Advocate

By Onikepo Braithwaite

Onikepo.braithwaite@thisdaylive.com

“If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.” – George Orwell

And, the truth is that, Nigeria has not done that well for womenfolk. Nevertheless, I celebrate the Nigerian woman, for being hardworking, for her resilience and ability to multitask, between keeping the home and making a living.

What is there to Celebrate on International Women’s Day in Nigeria?

International Women’s Day? I don’t think there’s anything much for the Nigerian woman to celebrate. After I finished writing this piece, I looked at what I wrote last year on International Women’s Day which fell on a Tuesday, and it is similar to what I have written today, which means that there hasn’t been any positive change in the circumstances of the Nigerian woman. If anything, going by the statistics, the circumstances of the Nigerian woman seems to be worse. This year’s theme is, “Invest in Women: Accelerate Progress”. Unfortunately, it seems that instead of investing in the numerous qualified and capable women with integrity that Nigeria is richly endowed with in order to accelerate our country’s progress, our official State policy seems to be scraping the bottom of the barrel, in the name of satisfying political and other irrelevant affiliations, so that many of the few women who have been selected into governance positions are not the brightest and the best.

Correct me, if I am wrong to think that governance is a serious business, and that the dire straits which the Buhari administration left us in, requires an enormous amount of expertise to get Nigeria onto the right track.

As a right-thinking Nigerian woman, I find it bizarre and incomprehensible when I hear that those alleged to be cosmetics sales women (sales marketers) and the like, are the ones who have been selected by the Tinubu administration to turn the fortunes of the country around! As we say in the Nigerian parlance, ‘How can?!’ Even some of the men – for instance, it is bizarre that a Governor who failed abysmally to curb the insecurity in his own State, should be placed at one of the highest levels of the security architecture of the country, when the primary purpose of government is the security and welfare of the people. Admittedly, the portfolios are different, but, I am curious to see how someone who failed on a narrower level, will succeed on a wider scope. See Section 14(2)(b) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended in 2023)(the Constitution). The Humanitarian Ministry is extremely important in the Nigeria of today, seeing as we are facing humanitarian crises that have not been experienced here since the Civil War. Such a Ministry should be run by a compassionate and highly intelligent person, who may have had prior experience with international agencies like the UN or the like, and has some idea as to how to alleviate the sufferings of the people. Some departments are simply too important, to play politics with.

My intention is not to disparage anyone, but I am certain that the skills-set required for being a successful cosmetics sales marketer for example, are quite different from those required for governance. Again, forgive me for sounding sour, but, anyone interested in national-building would be. Many who voted for President Tinubu, did so on the premise that he has the knack for assembling the right governance team. He has not displayed this prowess, in his selection of some of the women in his cabinet.

Gender Discrimination

Despite possibly being the highest number in terms of the composition of the population, and possibly being the highest number in terms of voters, women are under-represented in government and top leadership positions. Women are discriminated against on the basis of their gender, contrary to Section 42(1)(a) of the Constitution. The decisions in Anekwe & Anor v Nweke (2014) LPELR-22697(SC) per Olukayode Ariwoola, JSC (now CJN) and Ukeje & Anor v Ukeje 2014 11 N.W.L.R. Part 1418 Page 384 per Clara Bata Ogunbiyi, JSC concerning the prohibition of the discrimination against women and children born out of wedlock when it comes to matters of inheritance, must be extended to politics, governance and every area that women have been discriminated against, on account of their gender.

In this Fourth Republic, possibly aside from a few competent and capable women that have been part of the succeeding administrations, many of the women who have been chosen to serve in leadership positions are selected for the wrong reasons or reasons which have absolutely nothing to do with competencies, and they have subsequently, proven themselves to be square pegs in round holes.

The economic team recently assembled by President Bola Tinubu is a prime example of this gender discrimination, seeing as it is just another ‘Boys Brigade’, comprising of the same old Boys, whose names seem to be on every President’s Rolodex! Why could President Tinubu not stop at a group like Wimbiz, to select capable women to also join this team?

The issue of discrimination against the female gender, is a worldwide thing. Even the USA which is considered to be one of the most liberal and democratic nations only had its first female Vice President, Senator Kamala Harris, about 245 years after independence. Yale University trained Lawyer, Senator Hillary Clinton who won the majority vote during the 2016 American election, even though better qualified than Donald Trump, lost at the Electoral College. When Senator Clinton made her first attempt at the US Presidency against Barrack Obama, the Ku Klux Klan White Supremacist Group declared that, they would rather have a Black man as President than a woman (I have used Black man and woman, as substitutes for the derogatory words used by the KKK to describe Clinton and Obama). In Ireland, a referendum to amend Article 41 of the Constitution to enshrine gender equality, failed.

Statistics

Back home in Nigeria, we have had only one female Speaker of the House of Representatives in this Republic – in 2007, Hon. Patricia Olubunmi Etteh, and she was chased out of office with alacrity, after barely four months in office.

According to Adenike Fapohunda, one of our young contributors who was still a Third Year Law Student at University of Witwatersrand, South Africa in 2018 when she wrote an article titled “Let My Mother Lead”, she stated that with a female population of over 90 million in Nigeria (about 49% of the population), female representation in the 8th National Assembly was less than 7%, to be precise, 7 female Senators and 22 Members of the House of Representatives. In the 9th National Assembly, this number was reduced to 7 and 11 female Senators and Members of the House of Representatives respectively. Today, in the 10th National Assembly, we have 3 female Senators and 17 Members of the House of Representatives (4.2%). Instead of improvement in female representation in the Legislature, there is regression. Adenike Fapohunda expressed her concerns about the paucity of women in lawmaking thus: “Male lawmakers, are notorious for not keeping the best interest of women in mind, when they draft and pass legislation. Issues such as the restriction of access to birth control in America, or the restriction of access to education for teenage girls in Tanzania, is proof of this claim. The legislative authority for issues that affect mainly women, is vested in men. Time and time again, we see patriarchy, the system of subjugation of women that already exists in the society itself, seep into legislation. The inability of women to voice discontent, or even have a say in the laws that affect them daily, has the impact of stripping autonomy from the section of society that is most vulnerable”.

Adenike went on to say: “Rwanda has more women in Parliament, than anywhere else in the world. It is also enshrined in Rwanda’s Constitution, that women should hold at least 30% of parliamentary seats, and in 2003, 48% of Rwanda’s parliamentary seats went to women. Today, it stands at a staggering 61%. Rwanda was the first country in the world, to cross over the threshold for 50% female representation in Parliament”.

“The South African Constitution, has the value of non-sexism in its preamble. This value is one of the founding provisions of a post-apartheid South Africa, and all laws in the Constitution must be in line with the vision, to further a non-sexist society. South Africa’s women parliamentary representation, is currently at 40%.”

Adenike’s concerns are obviously legitimate, at least, as far as Nigeria is concerned, and we see what played out during the 9th National Assembly, when five Bills that would have increased gender equality were rejected, like that of the reserving of seats for women in the Legislature and affirmative action. I remember seeing a clip where Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, then Speaker of the House of Representatives, urged the members to have a rethink of their rejection of the Gender Bills, and he was ignored.

Nigeria has never had a female President or Vice President, nor a female Senate President or Deputy, while we had Dame Virgy Etiaba as our only female Governor for the brief period when her Principal, then Anambra State Governor, Peter Obi was impeached. In fact, the former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, was alleged to have tweeted something to the effect that, how it would be a shame if the men of Adamawa State allowed Senator Aisha Binani to be Governor of the State. This regressive mindset, seems to be prevalent in the highest political echelons of our country.

Nigeria has had only one female Chief Justice of Nigeria, Hon. Justice Aloma Mukhtar, GCON. We have never had a female Attorney-General of the Federation, Inspector General of Police, or head of any of the branches of the Armed Forces, or CBN Governor.  Close to home, our Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) has had only one ever female President, Dame Priscilla Kuye, and there is a replication of this male domination syndrome in the leadership of the NBA Branches all over the country. The list of the exclusion of females from top positions, is endless. I was on a webinar last week, when the Chairperson of NBA Ibadan Branch, Folashade Aladeniyi mentioned that she was the first female Chairperson of her Branch in almost 70 years of its existence!

President Tinubu’s Cabinet: A Disappointment to Women

Today, the truth of the matter is that President Tinubu’s cabinet is a disappointment in terms gender parity, and even in the choices of most of the female Ministers. Out of 49 Ministers, only 9 are women, and one is presently on suspension (or has she been sacked?).

While some say that the third arm of Government, that is, the Judiciary is well populated by women, others argue that having taken complete and direct control of the Executive and the Legislature, the men have put their wives, consorts and female family members in judicial positions, so that they can also have a say in what happens in this arm of government too, even if it is indirectly.

Conclusion

Political Parties must be made to propose a certain number of women for political offices, and not just ‘Women Leader’ within the Party. I agree with those who say that, to bring about better representation of women in governance, top leadership and corporate positions, there must be constitutional and legislative reforms to make it a reality, as our Revised National Gender Policy seems to be nothing more than a theoretical framework that remains unimplemented, having failed to achieve its goal of building a society devoid of discrimination, where the needs and concerns of both genders are considered equally and equitably in all spheres of society and national development. Of course, some argue that women may be their own worst enemy, and their failure to lend themselves the necessary support and speak with one voice, may also be  obstacles to their progress.