According to the report, the national average of women’s political participation in Nigeria remain at 6.7 percent in elective and appointive positions, which it said, is far below the global average of 22.5 per cent, Africa regional average of 23.4 percent and West African Sub Regional Average of 15 percent.

Explaining why Nigeria ranked low, the report said, “The under representation of women in political participation gained root due to the patriarchal practice inherent in our society, much of which were obvious from pre-colonial era till date. Given the several talks, initiatives and policy directions of government, one would expect greater progress in Nigeria’s quest for increased women’s political participation.”

The report added that Nigeria ranked 181 of 193 countries on the Gender Equality Index, for countries with low women representation in governance.

It stated: “The country currently, ranks 181 of 193 countries on the Gender Equality Index for reasons such as poor resource allocation in the economic and social sectors, frequent conflicts, forced displacements and inadequate inclusion of women and girls’ perspectives in policy-making decisions.

“Other reasons include low representation of women in governance and politics; and inadequate legal framework and limited capacity to support women’s empowerment and equality efforts, (UN Women, 2020).

“Despite all efforts to promote the contribution of women in the domain of politics and decision making, women have continued to record low representation at all tiers and levels of governance although they constitute almost half of the electorate.

“Findings reveal that males constituted 94.2 per cent of the members of the National Assembly in the periods from 1999-2015 (on average) while female participation remained low at 5.8 percent (National Bureau of Statistics, 2019).”

INEC Director of Publicity and Voter Education, Mr Oluwole Osaze-Uzzi, made this commitment at the “review of the 2019 general election from a gender perspective’’ held on Thursday in Abuja, including the INEC Desk Officers from the 36 states and the FCT in collaboration with the European Centre for Electoral Support (ECES).

Osaze-Uzzi said that such action was important in order to address the poor participation of women in elections and the drop in the number of women who occupy elective positions.

He said that at the level of political parties, legislature and governance, the representation of women in Nigeria government fell short of the National Gender Policy benchmark of 35 per cent and other global and regional benchmarks to which Nigeria is a signatory.

He said that INEC would continue to collaborate with development partners and stakeholders to encourage and sensitise political parties to open up to changes in party politics.

The changes he said would enhance women’s participation in the electoral process as equal partners. Osaze-Uzzi said that the implementation of the INEC Gender policy (IGP) since 2014 had continuously impacted positively and enhanced the gender responsiveness of Nigeria’s electoral process.

The director said that the commission had indeed recorded some progress in increasing and enhancing all-inclusive participation and representation of women in the electoral process.

He added that this is through its sensitisation programme at the local, state and national levels.

Source: Vanguard