Progressive forces have rolled out a massive set of advocacy activities to address the persistent problem of the marginalisation of women in our political system through the provision of reserved seats for women in our electoral system. The instrument proposed is the Reserved Seats for Women Bill which proposes the creation of additional seats exclusively for women in both the National Assembly and State Houses of Assembly. Specifically, it calls for 37 new Senate seats — one for each state and the Federal Capital Territory—and 37 additional House of Representatives seats. State Houses of Assembly will each have three seats for women, one per senatorial zone.
This week, the Women’s Collective under the leadership of Hon Nkoyo Toyo and the organizational acumen of Princess Obel’s Electoral Hub engaged INEC in an advocacy meeting to sell the Bill. In his remarks, Prof Mahmoud Yakubu, the INEC Chairman assured the delegation of INEC’s commitment to more inclusive elections in general and increased representation for women in particular. Also, this week, UN Women in partnership with IPAC held a meeting with political parties on the same theme. For the past six months, I have been working with WRAPA preparing evidence led advocacy tools to ensure that we finally conclude the “unfinished business” of increasing the representation of women in our political system which we have been working on since 2000. The time for success, we believe, has arrived.
Currently, women occupy only 64 out of 1,460 legislative seats existing in Nigeria. They occupy 19 seats (4 in the Senate and 15 in the House of Representatives) in the National Assembly out of the 469 available seats, and a paltry 45 out of the 991 available legislative seats in the 36 Houses of Assembly. The Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Right Hon Kalu, who spoke at a roundtable on the reserved seats for women bill organised by The Osasu Show, said the dismal number of women representation makes the bill inevitable as it will provide for gender inclusion in governance space, adding that it is not born out of sentiments but current realities to deepen democracy in Nigeria. He informed Nigerians that the parliament is expected to vote on the special seats bill alongside other crucial constitutional amendment bills when they resume from their annual vacation while emphasizing the importance of continued advocacy for the Special Seats Bill. Next week, the Public Hearings on the Bill will commence in the House of Representatives and the Senate will follow.
Hon Kalu made the important point that: “As the sponsor of the Reserved Seats for Women Bill, I want to make this abundantly clear: this bill is not born out of sentiment. It is born out of reason, out of evidence, out of the stubborn facts of our current reality. It is rooted in the belief that justice delayed is democracy denied. Nigeria is a nation of over 220 million people, and nearly half (49.3 percent) of this population are women. And yet, the number of women who sit at the table of power in this country is painfully low.
It is very reasonable to argue that as women constitute half of Nigeria’s population, by sheer numbers alone, they should have a commensurate presence in governance. However, their political participation remains disproportionately low. Since the return to civilian rule in 1999, the debate surrounding women’s underrepresentation in electoral contests and appointive positions has gained traction. Civil society groups, women’s organisations, and academic voices, have all called for structural reforms and policy interventions to enhance the roles of women in political life. Policies like the National Gender Policy and initiatives by successive governments, have been aimed at bridging this gap, but their impacts so far have been minimal, with the road to equity remaining long and uncertain.
The female politician in Nigeria is a major victim of the lack of civility in the political process. She suffers from various modes of marginalisation, many of which are hurtful and full of invectives. In general, party officials refuse to take the candidature of female aspirants seriously. Ironically, one of their main reasons is the affirmative action policy adopted by some of the parties, which waives the nomination fees for female aspirants. Party executives in most constituencies set out to label women as aspirants with less than the required commitment to the party.
Party barons at the local level repeatedly argue that by convincing the national executives to remove nomination fees for them, women have demonstrated a lack of commitment to the development of the party. This argument was used to make declarations that male candidates are more committed to the party because they make their financial contributions willingly and that commitment should be recognised and rewarded. It is the existence of such blockages within political parties that led to the current advocacy for a constitutionally determined number of seats for women only.
It is important to recall that National Gender Policy (NGP) of 2007 was introduced to ensure a just society devoid of discrimination and to harness the full potential of all social groups, regardless of sex or circumstance. The objectives of the policy are to establish the framework for gender responsiveness in all public and private spheres and strengthen the capacities of all stakeholders to deliver their component mandates of the gender policy, using the national gender strategic framework. Specifically, the policy target is to adopt special measures, quotas and mechanisms for achieving the minimum critical threshold of women in political offices, party organs and public life by pursuing the 35 per cent affirmative action in favour of women, to bridge the gender gaps in political representation in both elective and appointive posts at all levels by 2015. It has obviously not worked.
The most effective way to implement the policy is through legally binding quota systems, which successive governments have refused to enact. Instead, they claim that a quota system is undemocratic and would work as tokenism, which does not deal with the underlying causes of discrimination. Moreover, they argue that guaranteeing 35 per cent of elective and appointive positions to women by quota would diminish the democratic credentials of elections and competence in public institutions.
That was why in 2022, women groups from within and outside the National Assembly mobilised and proposed a number of Bills that could use constitutional mechanisms to leap-frog the challenges to the low participation of women in the political process. Many of them had been inspired by some of the recommendations from the Justice Uwais Electoral Reform Committee. They were all designed to seek to promote more opportunities for women in political parties, governance and the society at large. All these bills were rejected by the “Distinguished” Senators and “Honourable” Members of the House of Representatives of the 9th National Assembly.
Inclusiveness for women will benefit not just them but Nigeria as a whole. More women in governance will only bring progress and respect for Nigeria in the comity of nations. Even more important, by ensuring that Nigerian women fully enjoy the rights that the Constitution says are for all citizens, we deepen our democracy and enhance respect and consideration to the other half of our citizens. It would simply make all of us better human beings. Let’s set the ball for corrective measures rolling by passing the special seats for women bill.
