Various foreign observer groups in Nigeria have lamented the low turnout of women in the ongoing 2023 national elections.
The groups made this known through various preliminary reports shared with journalists in Abuja on Monday.
He african union Observers led by former Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta noted that although the Nigerian Constitution guarantees equal rights for men and women in political, social and economic life, the electoral system does not appear to encourage affirmative action for women. women, youth and people with disabilities.
Women-in-Nigeria-Parliament Women-in-Nigeria-Parliament
The group recommended a “multi-stakeholder approach, considering affirmative action measures in the electoral system for women, people with disabilities and youth. Such measures could include the consideration of special seats through a quota system, among others.
While noting the scarcity of female representation in public life, the ECOWAS Observer group leader and former Sierra Leone president Ernest Bai Koroma called for enhancing women’s participation in the electoral process, including encouraging champions in championing “He Party Members” and enhanced and meaningful roles from “Members of the Ella Party”.
Women-in-Nigeria-Parliament Women-in-the-National-Assembly
Thabo Mbeki, former president of South Africa and head of the Commonwealth observers, in his preliminary report, noted that there was only one female presidential candidate out of the total of 18.
He considered that this was despite concerted efforts to make progress on increasing the political participation of women as candidates since the 2019 elections, including the introduction of a private members bill in parliament to promote gender equality. , we noticed that this bill did not pass.
Women-in-the-National-Assembly. Women-in-the-State-Assembly
The EU, through its senior observer, Barry Andrews, pointed out that this is a continuous decline since 2010. This underlines the lack of affirmative action contrary to the Convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women and the guarantees equality constitutionals.
She denounced the challenges faced by female candidates who dared to try, including a lack of genuine support from their parties, abuse and intimidation, including online, financial constraints, and social resistance.
“Prior to these elections, at least two women candidates, including one for governor, faced unsuccessful efforts by their parties to exclude them,” Mr. Andrews commented.
Representation-of-women-in-SHAs-by-political-parties
He also accused INEC of complicity; “INEC claims that more than 60 percent of its staff are women, yet key decision-making positions are overwhelmingly held by men. Among 36 RECs, only three are women”.
“After controversial candidate registration processes, there were 18 candidates for the presidential office and more than 4,200 for 461 seats in the national assembly. They were selected in party primaries that reportedly lacked transparency and inclusiveness, and were characterized by chronically low levels of participation by women and youth,” added Mr. Andrews.
According to the International Republican Institute (IRI) and the National Democratic Institute (NDI), women in Nigeria remain woefully underrepresented at all levels of government and face both structural and social barriers to participating fully and meaningfully in the 2023 elections.
Representation of women in the Senate and the House of Representatives Representation of women in the Senate and the House of Representatives1
Regretting the attitude of the parties towards their female candidates, she cited that the Allied Popular Movement (APM) withdrew its support for her candidacy, the only female presidential candidate for the 2023 elections, just a week before the elections, endorsing another presidential candidate. male.
Nigerian women in politics
Despite being one of the largest economies in Africa, Nigeria ranks lowest in Africa for the number of women in political office, which has continued to decline since 2015.
Participations Participations
By 2023, women accounted for less than 10 percent of presidential and National Assembly candidates, a visible decline from 12 percent in 2019.
ALSO READ: #NigeriaDecide2023: CSOs urge women to vote for gender-sensitive candidates
Of the 1,100 candidates for senators, only 92 are women, which represents 8.4%; only 286 of the 3,114 candidates for the House of Representatives are women, which represents 9.2%.
For the state house of assembly, out of 10,087 candidates, only 1,050 are women making up just nine percent of the total number.
Nigeria, according to the 2022 report on women in politics by the Inter-Parliamentary Union, was ranked 184 out of 192 representing women in the national parliament.
True to this ranking, there are only 21 women in the ninth national assembly of 469 members. At the sub-national level, Invictus Africa data shows that there are only 45 women out of 990 members of the House of Assembly; 15 of the 36 states do not have female members.
2023 STATE ASSEMBLY-INVICTUS AFRICA
In early 2022, Nigerian women staged the mother of all protests urging the National Assembly to enact five constitutional reform bills aimed at promoting women’s rights and political empowerment; unfortunately, they were all thrown out the window.