Empowerment of women in politics.

Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung Nigeria

The panelists; from L-R. Barrister Mrs. Stella Odife, Priscilla Achakpa and Mrs. Hannatu Bugama

Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung Nigeria

Participants during the course of the seminar

Introduction

Nigerian women have encountered a number of problems while venturing into politics. This is as a result of large scale marginalization both in voting exercises and in allocation of political offices. Political violence and the social stigma that politics is a dirty game is a further stumbling block for women to enter politics in this country. These are the major causes for the low representation of women in the politics of the country.

This is why a seminar on Women’s Empowerment in Politics was organized by the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung Nigeria, and was held on December 13, 2012 at the Sokoto Hall of the Transcorp Hilton in Abuja. A 4 person panel consisting of 3 female experts and one male was invited to give their views and recommendations on the issue.

Top women politicians and some male colleagues from around the country and representatives from various organizations and government agencies convened at the venue to discuss the state of affairs concerning the activities of the Nigerian woman in the field of politics and national development, emphasizing on the need for more women to be politically involved and actively participate in decision making processes. The objective was to bring active women together in a forum where they could discuss the current situation and develop ideas on how to work together in order to improve the influence of women in politics.

The seminar was commenced by an opening speech by the country representative of the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung in Nigeria, Mrs. Hildegard Behrendt-Kigozi. The head of the Nigeria office of the foundation started by extending a special welcome to the guests for deeming it fit to come together at the core of the seminar of a very important topic and revealed that she saw the seminar as a platform for brainstorming and discussions that could lead to better participation of women in Nigerian politics. In stating this, she outlined what could be considered as the general topics of the seminar

1.What role do women play in politics currently in Nigeria?

2.What can the government do; what regulations and incentives should be put in place to encourage better participation of women in politics.

3.How can bodies like the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung help out in realizing these goals?

The director also stressed the need for a balance in the representation of the two genders in the corridors of politics in Nigeria. When women and men work together equally and in a fair and respective manner, the best results can be achieved. She encouraged a free exchange of ideas and opinions on the topic.

Presentations

This was followed by an opening remark presented by the honourable minister of women affairs and social development, Hajia Zainab Maina, who was represented by Dr. Olowoofeku. The Minister expressed her joy at being invited and congratulated the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung on her fiftieth anniversary of international cooperation and her ten years of active operation in Nigeria.

The minister in her speech pointed out that for a country with women making up approximately 50% of the entire population, the state of affairs regarding the participation of women in politics was unacceptable. According to her “democracy/governance is about fair representation of all interest groups in the society and the low representation of women violated the principle of democracy and good governance”.

She concluded that series of forums have called on the government to support the inclusion of women in all spheres of life and the support of at least 30% affirmative action for women in politics.

To focus the discussion on theoretical and conceptual issues surrounding the topic, Ms. Favour Omoye Irabor of Baobab for Women’s Human Rights (BAOBAB) presented a paper titled Women’s Participation and Performance in Nigerian Politics: Challenges and Solutions. Her paper gave the audience an insight to the challenges confronting women which included mainly Marginalization which she described as a global phenomenon. She pointed out that this marginalization is mainly enforced by the patriarchal nature of the Nigerian society, and also the socio-economic problems like poverty, illiteracy, religious and cultural norms.

While reviewing the performances of Nigerian women in politics, she presented a view of the participation of women from the first, second and third republics. The impact of the AU protocol and the Beijing Conference in 1995 was also covered during the paper presentation. It was noticed that the 2011 general elections showed a slight improvement from 2007, which painted an otherwise brighter future for the topic.However, she noted that despite the sensitization programmes of NGOs and partners, the percentage of women occupying elective positions has not been very encouraging and further outlined the lack of resources and corruption as some factors undermining women’s political participation. She also proffered solutions when she mentioned the amendment of the electoral law to encourage more female candidates, resource mobilization in communities and development partners.

In her conclusion, she expressed the notion that wherever women are empowered, there is an acceleration of development and that countries like those in Scandinavia who are on top of the human development index are those that have given premium to issues concerning women.

Finally, she urged women to participate in politics to make a difference.

After the presentation, another significant highlight of the day came when three women politicians were called upon to have a panel discussion on Nigerian Women in Politics – Personal Experience. These women were Barrister Stella Odife of Women’s Organization for Gender Issues (WOGI) and former deputy governor of Anambra State, Priscilla Achakpa, director of Women Environmental Programme (WEP) and Mrs. Hannatu Bugama, the former PDP Women Leader in Plateau State, who gave a very powerful and interesting insight on challenges and ways to succeed as a woman politician. In addition to the threesome, Dr. Otive Igbuzor of the African Centre for Leadership, Strategy & Development, gave his opinion from the view of strategies and leadership skills politicians especially women politicians need.

In her presentation, the former deputy governor attributed the rising number of politically involved women to a form of political reawakening and awareness. However, women are still affected by factors from our traditional perspectives which viewed women often as inferior to men, as second class citizens, weak and incapable of real strength.

All panelists revealed their personal experiences and highlighted the various challenges they faced as they tried to contest for these positions and the hurdles they all had to overcome while occupying leadership positions in various levels. Questions were directed at the panelists as suggestions and contributions were also made by the participants. From the questions and suggestions, it was gathered that most women who aspire to vie for political offices often faced opposition not just from men but also from fellow women who had limited themselves to household responsibilities.

The seminar ended with a closing remark from the country representative of the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung as she expressed her thanks towards the panelists and the participants for coming together to share ideas on the vital issues. She further emphasized that more efforts would be made to strongly assist women politically in the coming year 2013.