Political Leadership, Affirmative Actions, and Nigerian Women: A Tripartite Commentary

Affirmative action does not equal a loss of standards. It opens the door to eventually leveling the playing field.

NB: This paper was written in 2024 and hasn’t been updated since. Not like much has changed anyway.

Turn around and ask the closest Nigerian woman you find what she thinks about becoming a politician in her country. Her response will likely be one of apathy, decrying how distant the promise of political representation feels from the average Nigerian woman’s reality.

This is however not without cause. There are many reasons why Nigeria currently ranks 125th out of 146 on the Global Gender Gap Index 2024 with one of the lowest scores in political parity; the least representation of women in parliament (third to the last, in fact); and a disappointing overall ranking of 136 of 146 on the political empowerment scale.¹

But this is not the place where we unpack that.

It is not the intention of this essay to dig into the gory details of female exclusion in Nigerian politics. Instead, it seeks to evaluate the point where political leadership, affirmative actions, and Nigerian women converge, creating touchpoints for real action.

The Struggle for Affirmative Action

The first time Nigerian women were explicitly considered in the political agenda of a Nigerian government was in the 1985 transition government of the military Head of State, General Ibrahim Babaginda. In 1986, he set up a political bureau to fashion a new political order that would render military intervention unnecessary. After establishing that women were indeed marginalised in the socio-political life of Nigeria, the bureau made the following recommendations.²

The full involvement of women in politics is one method of defending women’s interests in society. They can participate fully if they are members of the legislative and executive arms of government. For this reason, we recommend the allocation of five per cent of the legislative seats to women in all three tiers of government. This five per cent seats allocated to women is to be filled by nominations through the political parties…and the formulation of a national policy on women and development.

Seems like a good start, does it not? Zero to 5% is good progress, if you ask me. But it was only a recommendation, one that was swiftly rejected by the government. In their words,

Government notes the reasons for the Bureau’s recommendation on the representation of women…[they do not however] accept the implications of reverse discrimination embedded in that recommendation. Government believes in equality of sexes, individuals and groups.

On the surface, this statement purports to champion equality by rejecting ‘reverse discrimination.’ However, this position is deeply disingenuous, given the system’s cultural and institutional biases that have long entrenched discrimination against women in the political sphere. Such a stance is not only pretentious but also harmful.

Another shot at affirmative action was taken with the 2006 National Gender Policy (NGP)³ which stated a plan to achieve 35% representation of women in governance at the national and state levels. This has so far been another pipe dream. Nigeria has never had a female Governor, President, or even Vice-President since October, the first. The gender policy has since been revised to be the 2021 National Gender Policy⁴, advocating for the gender affirmative action of 50:50 parity in all elective and appointive positions, in line with the global and regional best practices. This was launched in 2022 and as if in jest, current female parliamentary representation following the 2023 General Elections is at an all-time low, with only three women in the 109-member Senate and fourteen women in the 360-member House of Representatives of its 10th National Assembly.

Just in 2020, Honourable Taiwo Oluga presented before the House the Women’s Representation in Legislative Houses Bill with the objective to establish a legal framework that domesticates the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights of Women in Africa. A protocol that was ratified by Nigeria on 16 December 2004. Among others, the provisions of the bill mandated that at least one candidate from the three senatorial districts of each state would be a woman, at least 35% of the total number of honourable members at the House of Representatives would be women, at least 35% of the total number of candidates at the State Houses of Assembly would be women, and that political parties are to ensure that at least 35% of its total candidates presented for the electoral wards area councils of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) are women.⁵ It almost goes without saying that the bill did not pass the first reading.⁶

These are only some of the many propositions to increase female participation in Nigerian politics through affirmative action. It is worthy of note that “most of the countries that have achieved significant increases in women’s participation have done so through the use of quotas — a form of affirmative action in favour of women.”⁷

African countries with high political empowerment ranks in the Global Gender Gap Index 2024 owe some of this success to their implementation of affirmative action in their political representation. Mozambique (8th) and South Africa (9th) both operate voluntary party quotas at their parliamentary level, leading to a 43%⁸ and 45%⁹ female representation in their National Assemblies respectively. Rwanda (29th) has legislated quotas for its lower and upper house, and also at sub-national level, leading to 61%¹⁰ female representation.

Affirmative action works, at least as a temporary measure to balance the scale. And, if it is any indication, the several global and regional legal instruments signed by Nigeria means it looks good on paper too.¹¹

Unfortunately, it would seem that the Nigerian government intends for it to remain that way — only on paper.

The Glass Ceiling

Two years after nine Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) filed a suit against the Nigerian government seeking the implementation of the NGP, particularly the allotment of 35% of political offices to women, the Federal High Court in the FCT finally passed a judgement, ordering its enforcement. That was two years ago, on 6 April 2022. Since then, female presentation in Nigerian politics has only dwindled.¹²

Women have been made to settle instead, staring at glass ceilings they may never break in their lifetime.

These glass ceilings — “unseen, yet unbreachable barrier[s] that keep minorities and women from rising to the upper rungs of the corporate ladder, regardless of their qualifications or achievements” — are often “greater at higher levels of an outcome than at lower levels of an outcome.”¹³

Which means, in the context of political leadership, women qualified for higher positions are placed in less threatening positions, positions that are practically and strategically redundant without any real power.

In the investigation of patriarchal party structures as one of the barriers to female political participation, one of the participants of the research group, a female politician, asserted,

Women are rarely involved at the formation stages of parties. Do the parties then make room for women when they join? Not really. Because when offices are assigned, one woman will be given the position of woman leader and yet, she will not be involved in policy making processes. She is only needed when the issue is about welfare and mobilisation of women during elections.¹⁴

It is also interesting to note that just after rejecting the recommendations of the Bureau, General Babanginda’s government instead created women and development departments in the state ministries of culture and social welfare, and appointed women to other administrative and political positions.¹⁵

Anything but real power.

Without doubt, these ‘alternatives’ reinforce a system where women’s roles in Nigerian politics are simply tokenistic, confined to areas that do not threaten the established power structures.

What Does Real Action Look Like?

In creating the NGP, Nigeria ratified several global and regional legal documents committing to gender parity across all levels of governance and state action. From the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1966), the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (1979), the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights (1981), the African Union Gender Policy (2009) and its very own National Gender Policy (2021).

What are the consequences of violating those agreements? And what does this mean for Nigeria’s standing on the global stage and her ability to contribute to global policies?

What does it mean for a people when its government cannot even keep its word?

Nigeria must move beyond superficial measures and commit to a genuine integration of women at all levels of political leadership. Starting with the enforcement of gender quotas within the public service and political parties.

Only then can we hope to see a political landscape that truly represents and empowers Nigerian women, paving the way for the real Giant of Africa to emerge.

Sources

1. World Economic Forum. “Global Gender Gap Report 2024.” World Economic Forum, 20 June 2023, https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_GGGR_2024.pdf2
2. Abdullah, H. (1993). Transition politics’ and the challenge of gender in Nigeria. Review of African Political Economy, 20(56), 27–41. https://doi.org/10.1080/03056249308703983
3. “National Gender Policy 2006.” PolicyVault.Africa, www.policyvault.africa/policy/national-gender-policy-2006/
4. Federal Ministry of Women and Gender Affairs. National Gender Policy [2021–2026], https://www.wrapanigeria.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/FINAL-NGP-COPY-AS-PRINTED.pdf
5. PLAC. Some Bills that Seek to Increase Women Representation in Politics. Review of Relevant Information on Nigeria’s Democracy. 2020.
6. PLAC. Overview of 9th National Assembly Bills on Women Issues Factsheet. Review of Relevant Information on Nigeria’s Democracy. 2024.
7. Okoiti, Okiya Omtatah. “The affirmative action debate: Developing winning strategies.” Perspectives on Gender Discourse: Enhancing Women’s Political Participation. Nairobi, Kenya: Heinrich Böll Stiftung (2008): 53–75.
8. “Country Data | International IDEA.” Www.idea.int, www.idea.int/data-tools/data/gender-quotas-database/country?country=152.
9. “Country Data | International IDEA.” Www.idea.int, www.idea.int/data-tools/data/gender-quotas-database/country?country=2
10. “Country Data | International IDEA.” Www.idea.int, www.idea.int/data-tools/data/gender-quotas-database/country?country=185.
11. Federal Ministry of Women and Gender Affairs. National Gender Policy [2021–2026], https://www.wrapanigeria.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/FINAL-NGP-COPY-AS-PRINTED.pdf
12. Ileyemi, Mariam. “Two Years after Judgement, Women Task Tinubu on 35% Affirmative Action.” Premium Times Nigeria, 10 Apr. 2024, www.premiumtimesng.com/news/top-news/685073-two-years-after-judgement-women-task-tinubu-on-35-affirmative-action.html.
13. “Glass Ceiling Commission Report (1995).” Oxford African American Studies Center. September 30, 2009. Oxford University Press, https://oxfordaasc.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780195301731.001.0001/acref-9780195301731-e-33792
14. Ette, M., & Akpan-Obong, P. (2023). Negotiating Access and Privilege: Politics of Female Participation and Representation in Nigeria. Journal of Asian and African Studies, 58(7), 1291–1306. https://doi.org/10.1177/00219096221084253
15. Ibid 1