eBusiness Weekly
Tapiwa Peter Njiva and Chantel Mandonye
From the birth of democracy women in ancient Athens to the modern era, there has been a consensus that women are incapable to participate in politics. This ideology has been used throughout the world. However, there have been attempts to correct this discourse. A report by Agora Policy, an Abuja-based think tank stated; “Low level of inclusion in Nigeria incapacitates not just the excluded groups but the country itself.”
ln 2022, Nigeria`s population amounted to over 215 million, while women constituted more than half of the total population. The capabilities of women are servery limited by unequal access to power, limited resources, exploratory norms and a lack of favourable policies that foster inclusion. This in turn affects society and women negatively as the environment does not pose conducive circumstances. Even as globalisation has become increasingly common in this world, women are still regarded as objects in the world of governance. Scholars in modern academics seek not to undermine the significance of men within society or the contribution they bring to the world. However, it is important to understand that governments are lacking in areas such as gender equality which can help the social institutions to encourage
Nigerian women and African governments at large to consider the proactive promotion and their participation of help in economic development. The goal is to foster gender awareness and gender competence among both women and men in the political arena, the policy process and in planning practice. This is because women are still considered inferior in the political arena.
According to the Agora Policy report, Nigeria’s gender policies of 2006 and 2020 which respectively assign 35 percent and 50 percent of appointments to women have been observed largely in breach. Up to this current period, women in the Nigerian Parliament amount to only 4.26 percent showing how women are largely marginalised. African countries have averaged 23.4 percent of women participation in Parliament, but also compares dismally with the 34 percent for Zimbabwe, 43 percent for Senegal and 47.95 percent for Rwanda. Nigeria ranks a lowly 139 out of 156 countries in the World Economic Forum’s Gender Gap Index and civil society groups have raised concerns that the country may be regressing in female representation in leadership. Thus, proving that Nigeria needs to improve its policies to enhance the inclusion of women.
Addressing these issues women and men should not be regarded in terms of gender because society gives roles because of the gender. An understanding of gender interests and social diversity in urban governance, together with gender-competent urban planning practice, can be equally adopted by women and men practitioners concerned with achieving equitable and participatory human settlements development. Thereby, there is a need for women’s presentation or involvement in politics or governance which the government of Nigeria seeks to address with policies such as the National Gender Policy 2020.
A gender-sensitivity and inclusion approach to the development of new urban partnerships is important. It is critical and important as it symbolizes as well as gives the practical value of raising the profile of women in public office. In terms of democratic processes, women in public office give meaning to the representative nature of democracy and institutionalise and legitimise women’s voices in the site of power.
Cultural constraints reinforce more generalised socio-economic handicaps in restricting women’s participation in governance. Moreover, the participation of women in the political arena increases ways in which women can be protected in terms of their rights and demolish the exploitative and discriminatory laws that somehow subjugate women because of their gender. Nigeria has tried to involve women as they are almost adding about 50 percent of the population they cannot boast an elected female governor nor vice president or president even though there has been an increase in women’s participation in politics.
It can be noted that the exclusion of women in politics is due to the fact of media visibility, lack of financial incentives and non-existent political sponsors. Thereby, this illustrates that the Nigerian political space weighs financial benefits to men more than it does to women. Due to gender biases women’s exclusion is because of the way they are portrayed, for instance, they are regarded as inferior and thus incapable of ruling and as sexual objectification which causes adverse consequences to the economic productivity of Nigeria or any other African state.
In today’s Nigeria, the power relations between men and women still undermine women’s role in politics, and their socioeconomic and diplomatic values due to the cultural consideration of women as only relevant to the social side of life, and the cultural composition of the society that perpetuates these gender roles. This is only a discourse of Nigeria shooting itself in the foot.
Complied by Tapiwa Peter Njiva and Chantel Mandonye
International Relations Researchers from Africa University
