WUNRN
NIGERIA - ELECTIONS REFLECT SLOW
PROGRESS FOR WOMEN
AWID - 19/05/2011
Young Nigerian women
The low numbers of women elected into public office in
By Kathambi Kinoti - AWID
During the last parliamentary term, only
7.3% of the representatives in
In the run-up to the elections, women’s
rights organizations made it a priority to advocate for the election and
appointment of women to parliament. “Many of these organizations carried out
intensive sensitization on gender equality and the need to vote for women,”
says Ajao. She worked with Kudirat Initiative for Democracy (KIND), which
launched a free2run campaign to promote women’s political
leadership, and the Women’s Technology Empowerment Centre, which encourages
women to use technology to build networks and promote women’s leadership. WARDC
has worked since the previous elections in 2007 building the capacity of
parliamentarians to engender policy frameworks and support better performance
of women parliamentarians. It also carries out advocacy work to encourage more
women to contest in elections.
Numerous obstacles
There are many barriers to women’s
political participation in
Nigeria has ratified the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’
Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (popularly known as the
Maputo Protocol), and the Convention for the Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). In doing so it has committed itself to
among other things, promoting affirmative action and taking other measures to
ensure that women participate equally in electoral processes. There is a
National Gender Policy that commits to ensuring affirmative action for women,
however, women’s representation remains below the 35% target. Akiyode says that
the manifestos and constitutions of political parties in
“The Government is not doing enough to
realize affirmative action,” says Ajao. Only one woman, Sarah Jubril, declared
her candidacy for President, but she failed to get her party’s nomination. Ajao
sees this as an indication that not enough is being done to promote women’s
equal participation and adds that many women who vied for elective positions
were dogged by unfounded political scandals. The efforts of Ebiti Ndok, a woman
who registered a political party and ran for presidency, were cut short when
she was arrested for issuing dud cheques, an allegation that in Ajao’s opinion
is difficult to believe.
She says that many women are side-lined by
their parties or ‘traded’ in favour of men candidates. “The political terrain
with its violence and ‘godfatherism’[3] is not favourable to
women,” says Ajao. Sceptical that this situation is going to change any time soon,
she adds that she hopes to see an increase in appointive posts for women.
Women invisibilized
Generally the voting public do not have
the opportunity to get to know about women candidates who contest for public
office. “The Nigerian electorate is now beginning to vote for credible leaders
and not those who are likely to engage in corruption and embezzle public funds
when they get to power,” says Ajao, but she adds that “The public only
gets to know about candidates that have enough money for their campaigns to
reach a wider audience.” Many women do not have the money for these kinds of
campaigns and according to Ajao, women who have fathers or husbands who were
political leaders in the past tend to get more media coverage and are thus
advantaged over other women. Even prominent women candidates are not well
received by the public. “If Professor Dora Akunyili (the Minister of
Information and Communications), who is well respected for her devotion and
work, did not get her senatorial seat,” says Ajao, “It shows we still need to
do much more work!”
While women are largely invisible as
political candidates, according to Ajao they are often active in campaigns for
men, organizing events, cooking and mobilizing. She says that women need to be
sensitized to back women candidates more.
The free2run website was
started because of the lack of adequate coverage and representation of women
and women’s issues in the media. Both Ajao and Akiyode agree that the fact that
most media houses in
Despite the increased use of social media in the elections,
television and radio remain the most widespread medium in this vast, populous
country. Most women candidates find it prohibitive to mount television and
radio campaigns.
Women’s rights issues not high on the
agenda
Women’s rights issues hardly featured on
the campaign platforms of most women candidates. One exception however, was
Yemisi Ransome-Kuti whom Ajao interviewed in the run-up
to the elections. According to Ajao, Ransome-Kuti has been an ardent and
long-time champion of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and has
implemented many women’s rights programmes. But despite this strong track
record, she did not retain her seat. “She lost her post to the wife of the ex-
governor of
Although most women candidates did not
make any election promises concerning women’s rights, some political parties
addressed the issue of representation of women. In some states, Akiyode’s
organization, WARDC, got some parties to sign a pact committing them to
increase appointive positions. The incumbent People’s Democratic Party (PDP) –
which went on to win the elections- promised to honour the 35% quota, while the
Action Congress of Nigeria committed to make increments.
Way ahead
Despite making some inroads, women’s
organizations and movements continue to face great challenges in holding the
government and political parties accountable. The government has done little to
fulfil national, regional and international commitments to increase women’s
political participation both as voters and decision-makers. The volatile
political situation and deeply held prejudices against women’s leadership
continue to work against them. Akiyode says that
There are several lessons to be learned
from the 2011 elections. Both Ajao and Akiyode emphasize that women candidates,
and women’s organizations and movements need to begin working now to ensure
better performances in future elections. Women candidates need to declare their
intentions to stand early and begin to fundraise well in advance of the
elections. Women’s rights organizations need to sustain their advocacy work in
post-election years.
Ajao sees the recent elections as a mirror
that allows for a critical assessment of the reasons why there are so few women
in power and provides an opportunity to address the situation.
[1] Interview with AWID,
April 2011.
[2] Interview with AWID,
April 2011.
[3] Political patronage
by powerful men.