Pre election: A town hall meeting of women professionals took place on March 19, 2015, at the Habour Point hall, Lagos. At that meeting, President Muhammadu Buhari, who was then the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) pledged his support for women in all sectors of the economy. At that meeting, he specifically vowed to implement the 2005 National Gender Policy, which makes provision for women to occupy 35 percent appointive positions, and said it would serve as a roadmap for the promotion of gender equality.
Post election: While the nation waited for months for President Buhari to set up his cabinet, many were optimistic that based on his campaign promises, more women would be nominated to form part of the Federal Executive Council (FEC).
In trying to discountenance the accusations that he was a chauvinist, and would not be gender sensitive, he had revealed that he respects women because he was brought up by his grandmother. Among the numerous promises made by his party, he said that he was going to ensure that the National Gender Policy, which makes provision for women to occupy up to 35 percent appointive positions, would be implemented.
During his campaign, Buhari had said that his party has a new deal for women and this accounted for the overwhelming support he gathered. In one of his numerous campaign promises, he was reported to have said: “We shall commit ourselves to merit-based affirmative actions to level the playing field for women and provide them with opportunities to be part of decision making and governance at all levels.”
He said that his mission to restore Nigeria’s glory and reposition her on the path towards greatness would not be possible without addressing the needs of women, who he acknowledged constitutes half of the nation’s population. He promised that an APC-led government under his watch would ensure that gender is mainstreamed throughout all government’s commitment in all key areas of national development.
In its campaign manifesto, the APC promised to ensure that the rights of women were protected as provided by the constitution, and also guaranteed that women would be adequately represented in government appointments.
But his recent ministerial appointments, where only six women (Five from the north and one from the south), out of 36 nominees were appointed, prove that those promises may have been ‘mere’ talk.
Aisha Alhassan from Taraba State, Kemi Adeosun from Ogun State, Amina Mohammed from Gombe State, Khadija Bukar Ibrahim from Yobe State, Zainab Ahmed from Kaduna State and Aisha Abubakar, are the few women that eventually formed part of Buhari’s cabinet.
This number is a far cry from the percentage of women who were part of the last administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan.
In 1999, there was a slight increase in the participation of women compared to what the country used to have even though women did not perform well during the elections.
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo nominated nine women out of his 44 members of the Federal Executive Council. Out of the nine, four were senior ministers, representing 13. 7 percent of the nine ministries, and three were junior ministers, representing 16.6 percent of the 18 junior ministers.
When the late President Musa Yar’Adua’s administration came into office, it promised to give 30 percent of political appointments to women, a percentage which is less than the 35 percent in the National Gender Policy. But an assessment conducted by ActionAid after one year indicated that women appointment was only 11 percent. Jonathan increased it to 33 percent. For what many describe as an excuse, one of President Buhari’s aides, Gideon Samani, was reported to have said that the president did not include many women in his cabinet because he is “very shy dealing with the opposite sex.”
A lawyer and public affairs analyst, Martins Akpaka, who is based in Lagos says that from every indication, the APC-led government had again failed in its campaign promises. He said that the President, by his actions, has confirmed the fears expressed by many women before the elections that his administration would not be gender sensitive. “The gender policy, which the President promised to implement, and which was meant to balance the lopsided structure of political participation, has been discarded. Is he saying that there aren’t more competent women in his party? It is unfortunate, but I expected that he should have kept his promise of including more women in his administration”, he said.
Mrs Evelyn Agoziem, a gender activist and founder of Centre for Correction, Development and Rehabilitation, a non-governmental organisation, said that though the constitution makes provision to ensure geographical balance and was therefore required that ministerial appointments be given to representatives from all 36 states, many assumed that the President would make good his promise by giving women more representation. She said: “Having at least 35 percent of women in his cabinet would have been an important first step in showing that this administration plans to deliver for the women of the country as well as the men. Politicians often talk about parity while running campaigns but it’s a big deal to actually do it. There are very strong capable women in Nigeria. Some will make their mark. Some will soar to the highest heights of competency, recognition and accomplishment just as some men, and there will be some who turn out not to be so good at the job, just as some men.”
The Affirmative Action
The year 1975 was declared the International Women’s year by the United Nations, and the declaration paved the way for a debate on gender issues. This later gave way to the Fourth World conference on Women in 1995 which took place in Beijing. Though the conference recommended 35 percent allocation for women in political positions, this has not been the case as women barely boast of five percent.
In 2011, the World Bank projected that Nigerian women constitute nearly 49.36 percent of the entire population. Under Jonathan, women did not only celebrate 35 percent Affirmative Action, but women occupied offices that were previously seen as the exclusive preserve of men.
Despite the increasing attention that the issue of gender equality is attracting internationally, Nigeria seems to lag behind in terms of increased representation of women compared to other countries.
43-year-old Justin Trudeau, the newly elected Canadian Prime Minister, appointed women to 15 positions in his cabinet, making up half of the total of his 31-person cabinet (including himself).The appointment of a gender-equal Cabinet means Canada enjoys double the female representation of the United States; women make up just 25 percent of Washington’s Cabinet of 16.
Finland enjoys the best female representation at the top table of government. It has 10 women among its 16 ministers, according to the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), a trans-national body whose latest figures were released on January 1.
Close behind Finland were Sweden and the Atlantic archipelago of Cape Verde, with 52.9 percent female representation apiece, according to the IPU. Canada ranks in joint-third place, alongside France and the European principality of Liechtenstein.
While women make up just one-third of the United Kingdom’s cabinet, Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon unveiled a gender-equal 10-strong cabinet last year. Countries like Saudi Arabia and Pakistan have no women in their cabinets.
With the number of women in Buhari’s cabinet, it is unsure if his administration would eventually surpass the previous one in terms of appointing more women.
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