By Angela Atabo, News Agency of Nigeria (NAN)/Mathew Abi, Classic 9.4 FM/Beat 97.9 FM,Tope Ponle ,NAN
On Feb.28, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), declared Ms Ireti Kingibe of the Labour Party the winner of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Senatorial seat.
By that declaration, Kingibe became the second female politician to win an elected office to represent the residents of the FCT in the Red Chamber, after Khairat Abdulrazaq-Gwadabe who served from 1999 to 2003.
Kingibe’s emergence also broke the over 19 year’s jinx of male dominance in the FCT senatorial seat.
However, this feat did not come without a fight, as the result of the FCT senatorial election was almost upturned amidst challenges of electoral manipulation among others.
In spite of the confidence of residents on the capacity of women to occupy leadership positions, the unending religious and traditional debate on whether women should hold such important positions became a threat to her ambition.
“I didn’t want to contest for the senatorial election, but I realised that the country is getting worse, and we will use the Labour Party which has a good ideology to win elections in the FCT.
“I have built my structure for more than 20 years and people in the grassroots know me very well because of what I am doing in the rural areas.
“I thank FCT residents for their resounding support and the labour party for believing in me and for giving me the ticket to contest,” Kingibe had said after she was declared the winner,’’she said
However, not all female politicians were as lucky as Kingibe in the 2023 General Elections.
This is because while a significant number of women have been contesting for various electoral positions, many of them were usually schemed out during the party primary elections, where the men hold sway.
For instance, during the Local Government Elections held in 2,229 pooling units across 62 wards in the six Area Councils of the FCT, a total of 55 candidates contested for the chairmanship.
Of the figure, only three were women, representing nine per cent, while out of the 55 running mates of the contestants, only eight were women, representing 15 per cent.
For the councilor’s positions, a total of 363 candidates contested for the 62 wards in the area councils, of which only 39 of the candidates, representing 11per percent were women.
Regrettably, none of the women won any seat in the local government elections, a development stakeholders described as “very disturbing”.
Some female politicians who spoke to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reporter during the investigation, listed reasons for the poor outing for women to include ; lack of funds, poor party structure and ‘stereotyping’ as some of the challenges they faced.
Mrs Anita Obaje Ocheja, Deputy Area Council Woman Leader, Labour Party, Kuje Area Council, said “if you look at the Nigerian terrain, women are disadvantaged due to insecurity, family burden and low education level.
“Women fear to be in governance due to the high insecurity attached with elections these days; campaigns, elections and politics generally scare them away since they are frequently accompanied with violence, which they are no match for because of the dirty games in politics.
“It is dirty because one’s opponent can just go the extra mile to launch an attack on them so women are scared for their families.
“In addition, in this society, a lot of people don’t believe that the voice of the women count, therefore, they should be left in the kitchen, some husbands do not even give support to their wives.’’
According to Mrs Selina Omoake, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) State Women Leader, women are not participating in governance because there is no backup, the males don’t also give women a chance to participate as it should be.
“Besides the men have the funds to throw around too unlike the women, Nigerian politics is money, let’s tell ourselves the truth and meetings hold at odd times that are not favourable for women.
“Even in getting appointive positions, you have to know someone or be recommended and that’s a major hindrance for women.
“Women are ready to serve. We have capable women, why can’t a woman be the president of this country? Until we deliberately put measures in place to support women, we are not ready yet’’ she said
“Until Nigeria changes this system by playing politics without money at the core of it and allowing people to vote willingly choosing who they want, then governance would not be flexible enough for women to thrive.’’
According to Mrs Abiodun Essiet, a Nurse, a Politician and Activists, the political party system is patriarchal in nature, which makes it a little bit difficult for women to get into the system, from the process of getting a ticket and also scaling through the primary elections.
“One of the major issues is finance and the price of some nomination form is high, although some political party has reduced the price by 50 per cent for women, however, that is also the excuse they use to take it away.
“They will say women did not contribute anything to the party and the nomination form price was even slashed for them and so they won’t give you a ticket when the stakes are high based on patriarchy because the men who have the money are the ones controlling and managing the political parties.
“So it’s not been easy for women and we can see from the result of the National Assembly election how the number of women have dropped from what we had in the last assembly because women didn’t get tickets through the electoral process, says Essiet.
Essiet said she contested for vice chairmanship election in the FCT under the All Progressives Congress (APC), because she thought she had what it takes and also felt there was a need for women’s inclusion in leadership.
According to her, some incidences recorded during the last primary elections showed that venue changes a few hours before primary elections and delegate also changes which makes things so difficult for women.
She added that the society also uses religious and traditional beliefs to blackmail people who are also following or supporting women. So basically, it’s been a rough ride for women.
She said this was revealed in the low percentage of women across the country adding that the best way to solve it was accepting the quota system, and also establishing institutions to hold political parties accountable to their constitution for quota system.
A female politician, Aisha Yakubu-Abdulhameed, a former counselor, a former speaker, and an All Progressive s Congress (APC) member, said women are not always given the opportunity and privileges of being decision makers at the table.
“Looking at the African mentality and settings, the belief is always there that women are under men, so you have to be loyal to men always or else they won’t want to give you the chance because they feel you are raising your shoulder with them.
“I was once a former counselor and a former speaker, but it wasn’t palatable from the beginning. But then I was courageous.
“So with the support I had from people at the end of the day, I won but it’s always not easy. It’s not an easy one.
“Running for offices starting from the counsellorship, chairmanship and then House of Reps and Senator in the history of FCT you can see that there are low participation in the women aspect because of these challenges.’’
Yakubu-Abdulhameed said that right from ward levels, men dominate politics and even when women contest and win tickets sometimes they are robbed and not allowed to be the party flag bearer.
She said that to tackle this trend, deliberate measures have to be put in place to encourage women, like empowerment and women should learn to support women and be dodged in politics and always come out en masse to vote in elections.
According to the Gender Desk Officer, INEC, FCT Elizabeth Nanayi-Tita, who interacts with women and political parties, economic factors, suppression and inadequate support for women were some of the factors affecting women.
“When we say economy, we are talking about affordability. You will agree that Nigerian politics is becoming expensive by the day.
“So even if women have the interest to participate, how are they able to fund some of the campaigns into such offices?
“Secondly, suppression of females by male through tradition and religion is a serious one; it comes from our traditional belief of men being the head and then women have to take up the lower role which is just supporting from the background.
“So because of that, men should be given the leadership positions, while the women are just supporting in the background and that belief has already gotten into the head of women resulting in low self-esteem not to engage in governance. ‘’
Nanayi-Tita said that women don’t enjoy adequate support while running for elective offices and electoral violence is also discouraging them from contesting, more so political parties don’t help the matter as they are too patriarchal in operations.
According to Cynthia Mbamalu,Programme Director ,Yiaga Africa ,there are women with vision, the requisite capacity and competence to lead in any sector or leadership position.
Mbamalu said that a major need is an enabling system that does not directly or indirectly discriminate against women or judge women based on standards that their male counterparts are not subjected to.
“Nigeria needs legislation to promote women political representation and inclusion. Countries that made progress in women leadership achieved that through legislative and policy reforms that forced the system to gradually adjust.
“For some countries, it was an amendment to their constitution. We are still performing poorly when it comes to women representation, with Nigeria ranking 123 of the 146 countries with respect to our gender gaps across different sectors that ought to enable sustainable development.
“Another major need is education and social reorientation at all levels on the important role of women as leaders and equal partners in development. In addition is building women leaders from childhood through gender-inclusive socialisation processes.
“Lastly is deliberate expansion of needs-specific capacity development opportunities for young women who will carry the baton for the young generation,’’she said
Following the trends and happenings around the political environment in Nigeria, experts say it is becoming clearer that women may never achieve the mandated 30 per cent affirmation as enshrined in the Beijing plan of action.
They recommended building of a mass coalition of women support and advocacy groups at the grassroots to coordinate to garner support for women aspirants.
Others are : establishment funds to assist women politicians, introduction of quota system, mentorship especially by men, creation of support networks for women by political parties among others.
To achieve political participation for women ;there is need to address biases, amplify women’s voices, advocate for gender equality, challenge gender stereotypes and promote inclusive and diverse political environments that value and respect women’s contributions.
By actively supporting and advocating for women’s political participation, men can contribute to creating a more inclusive and equitable political landscape, that way, there will be a ray of hope for women.
This report is sponsored by Connected Development (CODE),with support from Oxfam .