The Advocate
By Onikepo Braithwaite
Onikepo.braithwaite@thisdaylive.com
“If liberty means something in any respect, it means the best to inform individuals what they don’t wish to hear.” – George Orwell
And, the reality is that, Nigeria has not achieved that properly for womenfolk. However, I have fun the Nigerian lady, for being hardworking, for her resilience and talent to multitask, between retaining the house and making a dwelling.
What’s there to Rejoice on Worldwide Ladies’s Day in Nigeria?
Worldwide Ladies’s Day? I don’t assume there’s something a lot for the Nigerian lady to have fun. After I completed penning this piece, I checked out what I wrote final yr on Worldwide Ladies’s Day which fell on a Tuesday, and it’s just like what I’ve written in the present day, which signifies that there hasn’t been any optimistic change within the circumstances of the Nigerian lady. If something, going by the statistics, the circumstances of the Nigerian lady appears to be worse. This yr’s theme is, “Spend money on Ladies: Speed up Progress”. Sadly, it appears that evidently as an alternative of investing within the quite a few certified and succesful ladies with integrity that Nigeria is richly endowed with with a purpose to speed up our nation’s progress, our official State coverage appears to be scraping the underside of the barrel, within the identify of satisfying political and different irrelevant affiliations, in order that lots of the few ladies who’ve been chosen into governance positions usually are not the brightest and the perfect.
Appropriate me, if I’m incorrect to assume that governance is a severe enterprise, and that the dire straits which the Buhari administration left us in, requires an infinite quantity of experience to get Nigeria onto the best monitor.
Without any consideration-thinking Nigerian lady, I discover it weird and incomprehensible after I hear that these alleged to be cosmetics gross sales ladies (gross sales entrepreneurs) and the like, are those who’ve been chosen by the Tinubu administration to show the fortunes of the nation round! As we are saying within the Nigerian parlance, ‘How can?!’ Even a number of the males – for example, it’s weird {that a} Governor who failed abysmally to curb the insecurity in his personal State, ought to be positioned at one of many highest ranges of the safety structure of the nation, when the first function of presidency is the safety and welfare of the individuals. Admittedly, the portfolios are completely different, however, I’m curious to see how somebody who failed on a narrower degree, will succeed on a wider scope. See Part 14(2)(b) of the 1999 Structure of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended in 2023)(the Structure). The Humanitarian Ministry is extraordinarily essential within the Nigeria of in the present day, seeing as we face humanitarian crises that haven’t been skilled right here because the Civil Battle. Such a Ministry ought to be run by a compassionate and very smart particular person, who could have had prior expertise with worldwide companies just like the UN or the like, and has some thought as to the best way to alleviate the sufferings of the individuals. Some departments are just too essential, to play politics with.
My intention is to not disparage anybody, however I’m sure that the skills-set required for being a profitable cosmetics gross sales marketer for instance, are fairly completely different from these required for governance. Once more, forgive me for sounding bitter, however, anybody excited by national-building could be. Many who voted for President Tinubu, did so on the premise that he has the knack for assembling the best governance staff. He has not displayed this prowess, in his number of a number of the ladies in his cupboard.
Gender Discrimination
Regardless of probably being the best quantity by way of the composition of the inhabitants, and probably being the best quantity by way of voters, ladies are under-represented in authorities and high management positions. Ladies are discriminated towards on the idea of their gender, opposite to Part 42(1)(a) of the Structure. The choices in Anekwe & Anor v Nweke (2014) LPELR-22697(SC) per Olukayode Ariwoola, JSC (now CJN) and Ukeje & Anor v Ukeje 2014 11 N.W.L.R. Half 1418 Web page 384 per Clara Bata Ogunbiyi, JSC in regards to the prohibition of the discrimination towards ladies and youngsters born out of wedlock in relation to issues of inheritance, should be prolonged to politics, governance and each space that ladies have been discriminated towards, on account of their gender.
On this Fourth Republic, probably except for just a few competent and succesful ladies which have been a part of the succeeding administrations, lots of the ladies who’ve been chosen to serve in management positions are chosen for the incorrect causes or causes which have completely nothing to do with competencies, and so they have subsequently, confirmed themselves to be sq. pegs in spherical holes.
The financial staff lately assembled by President Bola Tinubu is a first-rate instance of this gender discrimination, seeing as it’s simply one other ‘Boys Brigade’, comprising of the identical previous Boys, whose names appear to be on each President’s Rolodex! Why might President Tinubu not cease at a bunch like Wimbiz, to pick out succesful ladies to additionally be part of this staff?
The difficulty of discrimination towards the feminine gender, is a worldwide factor. Even the USA which is taken into account to be one of the liberal and democratic nations solely had its first feminine Vice President, Senator Kamala Harris, about 245 years after independence. Yale College educated Lawyer, Senator Hillary Clinton who received the bulk vote in the course of the 2016 American election, although higher certified than Donald Trump, misplaced on the Electoral School. When Senator Clinton made her first try on the US Presidency towards Barrack Obama, the Ku Klux Klan White Supremacist Group declared that, they’d quite have a Black man as President than a lady (I’ve used Black man and lady, as substitutes for the derogatory phrases utilized by the KKK to explain Clinton and Obama). In Eire, a referendum to amend Article 41 of the Structure to enshrine gender equality, failed.
Statistics
Again residence in Nigeria, now we have had just one feminine Speaker of the Home of Representatives on this Republic – in 2007, Hon. Patricia Olubunmi Etteh, and she or he was chased out of workplace with alacrity, after barely 4 months in workplace.
In line with Adenike Fapohunda, certainly one of our younger contributors who was nonetheless a Third 12 months Regulation Pupil at College of Witwatersrand, South Africa in 2018 when she wrote an article titled “Let My Mom Lead”, she said that with a feminine inhabitants of over 90 million in Nigeria (about 49% of the inhabitants), feminine illustration within the eighth Nationwide Meeting was lower than 7%, to be exact, 7 feminine Senators and 22 Members of the Home of Representatives. Within the ninth Nationwide Meeting, this quantity was lowered to 7 and 11 feminine Senators and Members of the Home of Representatives respectively. Right this moment, within the tenth Nationwide Meeting, now we have 3 feminine Senators and 17 Members of the Home of Representatives (4.2%). As a substitute of enchancment in feminine illustration within the Legislature, there may be regression. Adenike Fapohunda expressed her considerations in regards to the paucity of ladies in lawmaking thus: “Male lawmakers, are infamous for not retaining the perfect curiosity of ladies in thoughts, once they draft and go laws. Points such because the restriction of entry to contraception in America, or the restriction of entry to training for teenage ladies in Tanzania, is proof of this declare. The legislative authority for points that have an effect on primarily ladies, is vested in males. Time and time once more, we see patriarchy, the system of subjugation of ladies that already exists within the society itself, seep into laws. The lack of ladies to voice discontent, or also have a say within the legal guidelines that have an effect on them day by day, has the affect of stripping autonomy from the part of society that’s most weak”.
Adenike went on to say: “Rwanda has extra ladies in Parliament, than wherever else on this planet. It’s also enshrined in Rwanda’s Structure, that ladies ought to maintain at the very least 30% of parliamentary seats, and in 2003, 48% of Rwanda’s parliamentary seats went to ladies. Right this moment, it stands at a staggering 61%. Rwanda was the primary nation on this planet, to cross over the edge for 50% feminine illustration in Parliament”.
“The South African Structure, has the worth of non-sexism in its preamble. This worth is without doubt one of the founding provisions of a post-apartheid South Africa, and all legal guidelines within the Structure should be in step with the imaginative and prescient, to additional a non-sexist society. South Africa’s ladies parliamentary illustration, is at present at 40%.”
Adenike’s considerations are clearly respectable, at the very least, so far as Nigeria is anxious, and we see what performed out in the course of the ninth Nationwide Meeting, when 5 Payments that might have elevated gender equality had been rejected, like that of the reserving of seats for girls within the Legislature and affirmative motion. I keep in mind seeing a clip the place Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, then Speaker of the Home of Representatives, urged the members to have a rethink of their rejection of the Gender Payments, and he was ignored.
Nigeria has by no means had a feminine President or Vice President, nor a feminine Senate President or Deputy, whereas we had Dame Virgy Etiaba as our solely feminine Governor for the temporary interval when her Principal, then Anambra State Governor, Peter Obi was impeached. The truth is, the previous Secretary to the Authorities of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, was alleged to have tweeted one thing to the impact that, how it might be a disgrace if the boys of Adamawa State allowed Senator Aisha Binani to be Governor of the State. This regressive mindset, appears to be prevalent within the highest political echelons of our nation.
Nigeria has had just one feminine Chief Justice of Nigeria, Hon. Justice Aloma Mukhtar, GCON. Now we have by no means had a feminine Lawyer-Normal of the Federation, Inspector Normal of Police, or head of any of the branches of the Armed Forces, or CBN Governor. Near residence, our Nigerian Bar Affiliation (NBA) has had just one ever feminine President, Dame Priscilla Kuye, and there’s a replication of this male domination syndrome within the management of the NBA Branches everywhere in the nation. The record of the exclusion of females from high positions, is infinite. I used to be on a webinar final week, when the Chairperson of NBA Ibadan Department, Folashade Aladeniyi talked about that she was the primary feminine Chairperson of her Department in virtually 70 years of its existence!
President Tinubu’s Cupboard: A Disappointment to Ladies
Right this moment, the reality of the matter is that President Tinubu’s cupboard is a disappointment in phrases gender parity, and even within the decisions of many of the feminine Ministers. Out of 49 Ministers, solely 9 are ladies, and one is presently on suspension (or has she been sacked?).
Whereas some say that the third arm of Authorities, that’s, the Judiciary is properly populated by ladies, others argue that having taken full and direct management of the Govt and the Legislature, the boys have put their wives, consorts and feminine relations in judicial positions, in order that they’ll even have a say in what occurs on this arm of presidency too, even whether it is not directly.
Conclusion
Political Events should be made to suggest a sure variety of ladies for political workplaces, and never simply ‘Ladies Chief’ throughout the Celebration. I agree with those that say that, to result in higher illustration of ladies in governance, high management and company positions, there should be constitutional and legislative reforms to make it a actuality, as our Revised Nationwide Gender Coverage appears to be nothing greater than a theoretical framework that is still unimplemented, having failed to attain its purpose of constructing a society devoid of discrimination, the place the wants and considerations of each genders are thought of equally and equitably in all spheres of society and nationwide improvement. In fact, some argue that ladies could also be their very own worst enemy, and their failure to lend themselves the mandatory assist and communicate with one voice, might also be obstacles to their progress.
