22 years after, women still poorly represented in Nigerian parliament

Since Nigeria returned to democratic rule in 1999, women have been, and are still, poorly represented in the federal parliament. Daily Trust on Sunday reports.   By Abdullateef Salau, Itodo Daniel Sule, Abbas Jimoh & Rosemary Etim Bassey   The country’s 109-seat Senate has had less than 10 women since the beginning of the fourth […]

Since Nigeria returned to democratic rule in 1999, women have been, and are still, poorly represented in the federal parliament. Daily Trust on Sunday reports.

 

By Abdullateef Salau, Itodo Daniel Sule, Abbas Jimoh & Rosemary Etim Bassey

 

The country’s 109-seat Senate has had less than 10 women since the beginning of the fourth Republic to date. The number of women in the 360-member House of Representatives is equally not pleasing. 

Women constitute only 19 out of 469 seats in both chambers of the National Assembly, one of the lowest in the world.

At state level, there are only 44 female lawmakers in state assemblies nationwide.

Nigerian women make up at least 50 per cent of the voting population but are under represented in political and appointed positions.

Statistics show that the overall female representation in Nigerian politics is at 7 per cent, a figure that is far below the Beijing Accord’s 30 per cent and National Gender Policy’s 35 per cent.

In 1950, privileges were extended to women in the southern region. Three women were appointed into the House of Chiefs for the western and eastern region.

However, the post-colonial times saw more female inclusion in politics.

The First Republic gave birth to powerful female political figures such as Mrs Wuraola Esan who became the first female member of parliament, Chief Mrs Margaret Ekpo contested and won the election, becoming a member of the eastern Nigeria House of Assembly.

In the Second Republic, Nigeria had its first female senator in the person of Mrs Franca Afegbua.

By the third Republic, more women had emerged at different political and appointed offices across the nation.

Few women secured the position of councillors, one woman emerged as the chairperson of a local government council, two females; Alhaja Sinatu Aderoju Ojikutu of Lagos State and Mrs Cecilia Ekpeyong from Cross River State emerged as deputy governors.

The fourth Republic, which was the return of democracy to Nigeria, created more opportunities for women to run for political positions.

Despite the opportunities, the number of women in various political positions, especially national parliament, is still low.

Women in Nigerian Senate

The 2007 polls witnessed a slight increase in the number of women in the federal legislature. In 2003, the percentage of females was 2.7 per cent for the Senate and five per cent for the House of Representatives. In 2007, the figure rose to 8.25 per cent in the Senate and 7.22 per cent in the House.

The number of female Senators hovers between seven and eight from the Seventh to the current Ninth National Assembly.

Only seven female Senators (7.63 per cent) and 19 Representatives (5.28 per cent) were elected in 2011 (7th Assembly) as opposed to nine senators and 25 Representatives that sailed through in 2007. Out of those elected in 2007, only three female senators and 11 Reps were re-elected in 2011.

The women who shaped the federal legislature in the 7th Senate were Chris Anyanwu, Zainab Kure, Nkechi Nwaogu, Nenadi Usman, Mrs Oluremi Tinubu, Helen Esuene and Aisha Jummai Alhassan, who died in May this year in an Egyptian hospital at the age of 61.

In the House of Representatives, the women were Hon. Abike Dabiri, Mulikat Adeola-Akande, Nkiru Onyeagocha, Uche Ekwunife, Nnenna Elendu-Ukeje, Olajumoke Okoya-Thomas, Beni Lar, Khadija Bukar Abba-Ibrahim, Elizabeth Ogbaga, Peace Uzoamaka Nnaji, Juliet Akano, Maimunat Adaji, Suleiman Oba Nimota, Folake Olunloyo, Martha Bodunrin, Betty Okogua-Apiafi, Rose Oko and Nkoyo Toyo among others.

There were eight senators in the 8th National Assembly, five of them were elected on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) while three are members of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

The female senators were: Stella Oduah (Anambra North), Uche Ekwunife (Anambra Central), Rose Oko (Cross River North), Fatimat Raji-Rasaki (Ekiti Central) and Biodun Olujimi (Ekiti South)

Others were: Oluremi Tinubu (Lagos Central), Binta Garba (Adamawa North) and Monsurat Jumoke Sunmonu (Oyo Central).

All of them, except Senator Tinubu, were first timers in the Red Chamber as of 2015.

Also, eight women are currently serving in the Ninth Senate, five of them are returning lawmakers.

They are Stella Oduah (Anambra North), Uche Ekwunife (Anambra Central), Biodun Olujimi (Ekiti South), Oluremi Tinubu (Lagos Central), Betty Apiafi (Rivers West), Aisha Dahiru Binani Ahmed (Adamawa Central), Akon Eyakenyi (Akwa Ibom South) and Nora Ladi Dadu’ut (Plateau South). Dadu’ut replaced Ignatius Longjan who died in February 2020.

Rose Oko, who was re-elected to represent Cross River North in the Ninth Senate, died in 2020. Jarigbe Agbom is currently occupying the seat.

Oko had served as the Chairman of the Committee on Diaspora and Civil societies in the Eight Senate.

She was known for her resoluteness on cases relating to women and gender issues. She sponsored several motions, including those on the death and burial of 26 Nigerian women in Italy; communal clash that occurred in her state; loopholes in the excess crude account; and the living conditions of Nigerians in Cameroon.

The female senators, though very few in the Red Chamber, were not bench warmers like some of their male counterparts.

Two of them, Stella Oduah and Uche Lilian Ekwunife, both from Anambra State, are among the top sponsors of bills in the current Senate.

Out of the over 700 bills introduced in the Ninth Senate, Stella Oduah topped the chart with over 35 bills to her credit. Next, is Mohammed Sani Musa (APC, Niger) who has 24 bills, closely followed by Uche Lilian Ekwunife with 22 bills.

Oluremi Tinubu, aside having six bills and several motions to her credit, also chairs the Senate Committee on Communications. She is passionate about the welfare of women, girls and children. She sponsored bill against gender discrimination in the police force and a motion on forced marriage of under-age girls and rape. She also sponsored a motion which called the attention of the Senate to the growing outrage from Nigerians regarding the nefarious activities and profiling of Nigerians by SARS personnel.

Betty Apiafi is one of the most active female lawmakers in the National Assembly. She is the vice chairman Senate Committee on Health and has sponsored 11 bills and a number of motions on issues of national importance.

Aishatu Dahiru Binani Ahmed is well known among her colleagues. With nine bills and several motions to her credit, Binani also has impressive attendance in the Red Chamber and often contributes on issues especially those that bother on women and children. She chairs the Senate Committee on Women Affairs.

Few women in House

The country’s 360-member House of Representatives currently has only 12 female lawmakers, a drop from the 14 in the Eighth Assembly.

Daily Trust on Sunday reports that the female lawmakers in the present National Assembly include Reps Taiwo Oluga – Ayedaade/Irewole/Isokan (Osun); Tolulope Tiwalola Akande-Sadipe – Oluyole (Oyo); Khadija Bukar Abba Ibrahim – Damaturu/Gujba/Gulani/Tarmuwa (Yobe); Boma Goodhead – Akuku Toru/Asari Toru (Rivers); Beni Butmak Lar – Langtang North/Langtang (Plateau); Onanuga Adewunmi Oriyomi – Ikenne/Shagamu/Remo North (Ogun) and Aishatu Jibril Dukku – Dukku/Nafada (Gombe).

Others include Ogunlola Omowumi Olubunmi – Ijero/Ekiti West/Efon (Ekiti); Zainab Gimba – Bama/Ngala/Kala-Balge (Borno); Onuh Onyeche Blessing – Otukpo/Ohimini (Benue); Lynda Chuba Ikpeazu – Onitsha North/Onitsha South (Anambra) and Nkeiruka C. Onyejeocha – Isuikwuato/Umuneochi (Abia).

A rep member, Taiwo Olukemi Oluga, who represents Ayedaade/Irewole/Isokan federal constituency of Osun State, said recently that it was unacceptable to have only 19 women in the country’s 469-seats federal parliament.

Oluga, who is chairman House of Representatives Committee on Women in Parliament, spoke at a round-table dialogue on legal barriers that inhibit women’s political participation in Nigeria.

She, however, said they were working to ensure more women get into the National Assembly as well as participate more in politics generally.

Worried by the poor representation of women in Parliament, Rep Nkeiruka Onyejeocha introduced a bill seeking more seats for women in parliament at both the national and state houses of assemblies.

The bill, which has passed second reading, seeks to make it compulsory for every state to have one additional senatorial seat reserved for a woman.

CSO speaks

However, Speaking on the matter, the Director of Programmes, Yiaga Africa, Cynthia Mbamalu, said that the passage of the Gender and Equal Opportunities Bill into law would in no small measure contribute to more women representation in the National Assembly and also the state assemblies.

She therefore urged President Muhammadu Buhari to speedily assent to the Bill when passed by the 9th Assembly who just resumed from recess.

“As a people we know that we build support to ensure that the Gender and Equal Opportunities Bill currently before the Senate is finally passed into law in the 9th Assembly. Remember, this bill sponsored by Senator Abiodun Olujimi, has been presented in the 8th Assembly, and it was not passed into law.

“In the 9th Assembly, advice was given for the review session of the bill, and to work with stakeholders that the final version is presented which we received and is to be passed by the 9th National Assembly.

“That legislation not just protects women and girls, but citizens generally because equal opportunity is about the system that allows everyone irrespective of our sex, where we come from, to utilize our potentials and usefulness,” Mbamalu said.

Female representation in other parliaments

Rwanda tops the list of countries with female majority in the parliament, according to a Global data by the World Bank in 2019.

The country’s two-chamber parliament has a female representation of 61 per cent in the lower House and 38.5 per cent in the upper House.

The Rwandan women parliamentary forum forms a part of the country’s gender machinery, which advocates for the consideration of gender within all national laws and policies including the country’s national budget.

Bolivia and Cuba follow Rwanda in the chart of countries with female-dominated parliament, with women representing 53 per cent.

Prior to 1994, the South African Parliament had a mere 2,7 per cent representation of women. In the current sixth Parliament, women Members of Parliament (MPs) now account for 46 per cent in the National Assembly and 36 per cent in the National Council of Provinces.

The figure was 40 per cent and 28 per cent for National Assembly and the National Council of Provinces respectively in the Fifth Parliament.

Malawi, in 2019, elected its first ever woman Speaker of parliament, Catherine Gotani Hara; the first ever woman mayor of the city of Lilongwe, Councillor Mariana Kudaya; and the youngest woman parliamentarian, 24-year-old Fynes Nwagonjwa.

Women also occupy 22.92 percent of seats in the country’s 193-member parliament, 45 at parliament and 67 at local councils.

In Ethiopia, the 547-seat parliament has 153 women, representing 38.76 per cent.

Women in Kenya hold 22 per cent of seats in the lower house of parliament, and 31 per cent in the upper house, despite the country’s 2010 constitution stating that no more than two-thirds of any elected or appointed body can be of the same gender.