Nigeria is a country contradictions and ironies. The most populous black nation on earth with a vibrant youth population but where productivity is low and consumerism reigns supreme. It is a land blessed with both human and natural resources including oil but with a staggering 137million leaving in multi-dimensional poverty. It is a nation with some of the most educated Africans but with more than 20million out-of-school children.
Nigeria has some of the most fertile lands and with a friendly all year weather but where food insecurity is giving a harvest of physically and mentally retarded malnourished kids. With the high illiteracy of women comes the high incidents of low life expectancy because illiteracy and poverty especially of women cannot yield good results. Maternal and child mortality is very high. It is just logical because any nation that does not invest in comprehensive healthcare, agriculture and education will logically harvest these outcomes.
Democracy has been described as the best form of government due to it being centered on the people as it is a government of the people, for the people and by the people. There is no mention of gender in the definition of democracy. Ironically, even monarchies seem to be gender-blind as most monarchies especially the ones done by inheritance often give women a chance to be functional queens. The late Queen Elizabeth II of Britain was queen for more than 70 years.
Nigeria practices the American Presidential model of democracy. Somehow, it is merely in form and not necessarily in practice. To start with, the political party structure in America imperfect as it might be is based on defined ideological models. The Republican and Democratic parties, the two most dominant political parties operate under identifiable ideological lines. The Red and Blue identities speak loudly of either side of the aisle.
Nigeria’s earliest political parties, the NCP, the NCNC, the AG, etc. were somehow fired by ethnic and religious leanings and so each region seemed to have been dominated by ethno-religiously rooted political parties. This has largely been the albatross of the Nigerian state. Development has been difficult because of flawed military interventions and politics fired by mundane colorations. With time, more political parties were formed but were still fired by the same parochially unproductive sentiments that informed the earliest post-independent political parties.
However, the Nigerian socio-political environment is male-dominated with sprinkles of cultural and religious sentiments equally influenced by the colonial history of mono governance. Even the earliest female political players are often omitted when the country references active players of the period. So the rhetoric is always, “our heroes past” leaving out the heroines of the time like Gambo Sawaba, Funmilayo Rasome-Kuti, Margaret Ekpo and many other heroic women of the period.
Today the male dominance of the political field in Nigeria is a continental if not global embarrassment. Smaller countries like Liberia, Namibia, Tanzania, Malawi etc have all produced female presidents. These are countries Nigerians often describe as ‘small’ countries. Kenya has seven female governors up from four in 2017. The women pushed for a constitutional review that made it unconstitutional for any single gender to occupy more than two thirds of any elective position. That is development. Nigeria has never had q woman nominated by any political party as president. There has never been an elected female governor or Vice President.
Rwanda, the African phoenix rose from the ashes of a 1994 genocidal war to become the world’s number one country in female representation in parliament with about 60.1%. Circumstantial as that may be, this fact has been noticed through the progress the country has made. Rwanda has become a big insetment and tourism hub in Africa. This is a testament to the value inclusion brings to the development table. Liberia was stabilized after the war by the presidency of former president Eileen Johnson Srileaf who the women of Liberia sacrificed everything to bring to power seeing what they had suffered during the male-induced and powered war.
As the world watches with dismay the drama in the Nigerian Senate between the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio and the Senator representing Kogi Central, Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, for the second time in less than a year, the Roundtable Conversation has a message for the women in Nigerian politics. As analysis and counter analysis go on around the incident that happened in the senate between the two senators, it is again time to call for a better strategy by the Nigerian women in politics rather than dwelling on mere analysis.
We might not yet fully understand the socio-political undercurrents that have led to the issues between Senators Akpabio and Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan. The duo is in the eye of the storm for a second time. The first time was the Senate President using the Nightclub innuendo as political satire while addressing Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan during plenary a few months ago. There was outrage and he later apologized and whipped up all the socio-political emotional PR to douse the national tension over allegations of misogyny given that he had equally crossed parts with another female Senator, Ireti Kingibe.
The Senate President is however not new to controversies of such nature as he had as Minister of Niger Delta had public confrontation with the former Interim MD of the NDDC, Dr. Joy Nunieh who claimed she had slapped the then minister Akpabio for alleged sexual harassment. Again, a Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan has alleged some sexual harassment by the same Senate President Akpabio yesterday on Arise TV Morning Show as journalists wanted to find out her side of the story over the incident.
As expected, there have been various angles to the incident with varied interpretations and many alleging marginalization of women not just in the National Assembly where out of 109 senators, there are just 4 females making it just about 2.7%. Out of 360 House of representative members, there are just about 17 women or 4.7%. With the declining number of women in the apex law-making arm of the government, progress cannot come to the country. Women bear the brunt of poverty and underdevelopment so something must give.
For state assemblies, there is an abysmally low female representation. To think that the legislature is the arm that makes laws in a democracy, it is horrifying that some state assemblies have no single female! What this means is that in those state assemblies, men and only men make laws about issues that affect women most of which they have no knowledge nor experience about. Development cannot happen with lopsided representations. No bird flies with one wing.
So as analysis and counter analysis go on about gender injustice and exclusion in Nigeria politics, again, the Roundtable Conversation has the same recurrent message for the Nigerian women in politics. Insist on internal party democracy. Fight for inclusion for party leadership positions that is where the power is. Stop accepting to be WOMEN LEADERS. That is the first acceptance of second class citizens. There are no MEN LEADERS. What you have and which makes men the most powerful political operators has no gender prefix. The are just party leaders.
Women should stop working for men given the proactive roles of the female demographic in voting. The women in politics should stop being errand girls to men who more often than not, they are more qualified and more experienced than. A Rosa Park needed no man to force her to sit down to make the history she made. AN Eileen Johnson-Sirleaf did not emerge Liberian President by being Woman Leader.
Make no mistakes about it, women can organize themselves internally as groups and possibly have leaders but not on a political party structure as mere political appendages to men. It has not worked, it will never work. The lamentations about the experiences of most women in politics happen because Nigerian women erroneously assume men will be their savior. The men gain from the status quo so they can’t fight your battles for you. Politics is not a tea party. The male privileges are enormous and they work together to grab power. Women must be ready to resist the bullying and name calling meant to discourage them from political participation and the onus is on the women who are armed with education and experience to be at the forefront. A they say in social parlance, ‘pick-misism’ can never save women. Lamentations cannot be a solution. Women must resist the urge to be seen as religio-culturally complaint in a self-defeatist way.
As we await the full investigations of the Senators Akpabio Vs Akpoti Uduaghan possibly by the Ethics and Privileges Committee of the senate, no one should expect any magic wand being waved thereafter to solve all the problems for women in Nigerian political space. Women must go beyond protests and analysis of this singular incident because while that is disturbing enough, there are women who have been killed, maimed or scared off politics by male intimidatory tactics and bullying.
While legislative debates and disagreements especially in legislative environments are common place on a global level, we must caution that the Nigerian state seems not to have fared very well in the committee of nations in terms of women participation due largely to no fault of the women. What has changed however is the culture of silence and ignorance. Education has helped unknot certain belief systems but the masculine arrogance of many men can be tamed by the courage and perseverance of women especially those in politics. They must re-strategize like the men in other to dismantle the chain of oppressive/abusive tendencies. The political structure must change and the women no matter how few can lead the battle…and win!
•Written by Nnedinso Ogaziechi
