The Deputy President of the
Senate, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, has lamented what he described as Nigeria’s
abysmal global ranking in women representation in governance, especially in
parliaments.
Ekweremadu observed that
while Nigeria ranked 168th in women in parliament globally, Rwanda
ranked as world’s number one.
Ekweremadu spoke on Tuesday
at a stakeholders’ meeting to improve the representation of women organised by
the Policy and Legal Advocacy Center, PLAC, in Abuja.
According to a statement by his media aide, Uche Anichukwu, Ekweremadu lamented that while women,
including Kudirat Abiola, Ayo Obe, and Joe Okei-Odumakin, played key roles in
the struggle for the current democratic dispensation, women had been relegated in
the governance of the country.
“Ours has been a case of
one step forward, two, and sometimes, three steps backward. Our women have been
held down by factors ranging from the cultural to the religious, economic, and
political.
“Our society wrongly
believes that the role of the woman is that of a fosterer and in the kitchen.
There is the wrong notion that women are not meant to lead, thus placing a
glass ceiling over them. Those who vie for leadership positions are viewed as
overambitious and deviants.
“Women representation in
parliament where major policies are discussed and given legal backing is very
poor. According to the Inter-Parliamentary Union, IPU, Nigeria places a very
distant 168th position in women representation in national
parliaments worldwide, as at May 2018. Nigeria is just slightly better than a
few countries like Thailand, Kuwait, Lebanon, Haiti, and Oman.
“Conversely, the East
African nation of Rwanda is first in the world, while Namibia is 5th.
Ironically also, other African nations such as South Africa, Mozambique,
Ethiopia, and neighbouring Senegal are among the top 20”, he added.
Ekweremadu recommended an
amendment to Section 42 of the Constitution and a change to proportional
representation to boost women representation in governance.
He explained: “You cannot
confer any special political advantage on women under the 1999 Constitution as
amended because Section 42 of the 1999 Constitution clearly provides that you
cannot discriminate against any Nigerian by the reason of his or her community,
ethnic group, place of origin, sex, religion, or political opinion.
“Therefore, the first step is to amend
Section 42 of the Constitution to provide for an exception and also a special
quota for women in line with the 35 per cent Affirmative Action.
“What Rwandans did was to amend the
country’s constitution in 2003 to provide for a minimum 30 per cent quota for
women in all the decision-making bodies and organs, including the national
parliament and political parties leadership. Today, Rwandan women not only
control the majority in the country’s national parliament, Rwanda is also the
first country with women majority in a national parliament.
“However, a constitutional
provision for a quota for the women in elected positions will be difficult to
achieve under our current first-past-the-post voting system. We need to adopt
the proportional representation system in which each political party will
eventually be allocated parliamentary seats in proportion to the votes they
garnered at the polls. That way, they will effectively be in a position to distribute
the seats in a way that honours affirmative actions in favour of women,
minority groups, the physically challenged, among others”.
He observed that leading
African nations in women representation in parliament, such Namibia,
Senegal, South Africa, Mozambique, operate proportional representation voting
system.
Citing the last
constitution amendment effort during which the proposal to reserve 35 per cent of
the appointments into the federal and state cabinets for women was defeated,
Ekweremadu warned that ”Nigeria may never get to the Promised Land until
Nigerian women occupy their rightful place in governance”, noting that “they
have the integrity, knowledge, and empathy to build a better future”.
In their presentations, the Executive Director of PLAC, Clement
Nwankwo, and the Resident Electoral Commissioner, Anambra State, Nwachukwu
Orji, said that while the retrogression in women representation in Nigeria was
quite unexpected, progress was possible if Nigeria adopted the right policies
and legal reforms.
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