The caption of today's topic was a programme aired on ABC News Channel recently and which was anchored by a seasoned international journalist-Christian Amanpor. The programme featured some prominent female members of various civil societies around the world that are fighting for the female rights. Of course, as you should know, whenever you see a caption like that and the disposition of the people discussing it in such a programme, you can for sure predict the issues that are going to be discussed there. If you had thought of issues like women's emancipation, greater political participation by the women, then I have to say, you have thought exactly what this group of women discussed throughout the one hour programme! For the past few decades there have been growing calls by Civil Societies around the globe for more women's participation in the political arena in their respective regions and countries. While it is right when one looks at what the impact made by those calling for greater women political participation in some western countries to say that those agitations have yielded positive results, I think the reverse is the case when one looks at the situation in Africa and Nigeria in particular.
Nigeria came back to this current political dispensation in 1999 after an interval of more than 25 years! Some people will of course make reference to the Babangida's camouflage we had in the name of democracy in the early 90's, that in my opinion does not count at all. We are now in the 12th year of our so called "nascent" democracy, however, when you look at the statistics of women participation in these years, it is dismal to say the least! When you compare the number of female "honourable" members of the House of Representatives and the "distinguished" senators in the Senate with their male counterparts there, the figure is not so pleasing to write! The situation is even worse when one takes a glimpse at the Houses of Assemblies of various states across the federation. Some states have one, two, or up to three or slightly more female members, however, some are not so fortunate. In my state, since the beginning of this dispensation, the "Arewa House" never admitted a female member for the whole of 12 years! I can as well bet my last kobo that the situation is not likely to change in the forth coming elections as non of the major political parties has nominated a single woman for the state House of Assembly!
The question here is: why is it that women in this part of the world and in Nigeria in particular don't get so involved in politics? The answer to this poser was intelligently and succinctly provided for by one the women discussing the issue in the programme. According to her the problem faced by the female politicians especially in the third world countries are "lack of mobility and access to resources"! When she said that I didn't know when I shouted "YES" in agreement to what she said. This is exactly it! This is the exact problem that has bedevilled Nigerian female political class for long! The fact that Nigerian politics is solely driven by money, or in other words, it is "money politics" needs not be recounted here. The most recent incident that highlighted that fact like never before was the recently conducted PDP presidential primaries that was held at Eagle Square earlier this year. There was widely report of massive usage of money by the two leading contenders in that primaries in order to be able to get the delegates' votes. The other candidate, who is a female and who by no means is not in the same league with the other contestants in terms of resources, was humiliated having gotten only one single vote which many believed was her own vote. Meaning, nobody voted for her but herself!
There are other incidences that highlighted this problem as well. We all know how crowds are "rented" by politicians in this country for political rallies. These crowds apart from giving false belief to whoever buys into it that they are actually supporters of those that "rent" them, also give some measure of security to them so that the opposition thugs can not come close to those politicians to even think of harassing them. In a more recent incident in Kano, a female politician was going around campaigning for the forthcoming elections when she was harassed by some thugs who took advantage of the fact that she was not moving with such crowd probably because she did not have the resources to "rent" it!
Now having highlighted the problem faced by these women, what then could be the solution to this predicament that our female politicians are now? The solution to this also as for the first question was provided by one of the ladies discussing the topic in the programme. According to her there are civil societies around the world that are working in partnership with local based Non-Governmental Organisations in some countries especially in the middle east and Africa with the sole object of empowering and assisting those women financially and otherwise to be able to compete with their male counterparts in the political arena in those countries. This of course, is a laudable initiation, but however, in my opinion there is another alternative. Why won't the women resolve to vote for their female counterparts in various political posts? From the census figures we have in this country there are more women than men in this country. So they can't tell us it is not possible. If the women had agreed to do that at the Eagle Square at least, Mrs Sarah Jubril could have gotten more votes as there was considerable number of females delegates at the primaries. our first lady (who is the initiator of women empowerment project) was there too but, even her vote could not be secrificed for the women cause! It's shameful indeed! It makes one question the sincerity of our leaders. In my opinion, this is one of the few solutions for the women and until they are ready to do that, they will keep on distancing themselves to the corridor of power in this country and which we all know at least in Nigeria, it is the key to the resources that they lack at the moment!
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