Will Buhari government be gender sensitive?

Emeka Ibemere

Enough has been written about the magic wand which the President of the federal government of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari will come with as he assume the position of number one man in Nigerian’s political equation.

But one thing has not been said: gender sensitive!  Would Buhari’s government be sensitive to the aspiration, dreams, development and progress of the weaker sex-women, in his government?

Ahead of the March 28 general election campaigns, the then general Buhari, retired told everyone who cares to listen that he was going to scrap the position of First Lady, an unconstitutional position build by past leaders, including the military to include their women in the running of the government.

This action, if it adopted by Buhari, would be a novel approach to cut of financial profligacy associated with president and governors’ wives, which has been an illegal norms in the polity. However, gender sensitive activists are not sleeping well with Buhari’s yet to be implemented action. For them, they believed that the post can be retained but not the profligacy.

According to them, the First Ladyship position in Nigeria politics, is a kind of platform for women to make their demands through the wife of the President and this has in the past played well that women have not only benefitted from it but have used the platform as a lynching pad to get what they wanted with ease. In 2011, the Nigerian Women Trust Fund inaugurated on 24 March  2011  in  Abuja  by  the  Ministry  of  Women  and  Social Development  also  offered  a  launch  pad  for  female candidates at the poll.

It will be recalled that N100 million Trust Fund was set up to help offset the campaign costs of about 230 female aspirants no matter their political parties. In addition to these was the activity of the office of the wife of the president, Dame Patience Jonathan directed to the achievement of the political ambitions of Nigerian women in the 2011 elections.

The first lady at the peak of the campaigns rolled out her programme, Women for Change Initiatives. The programme is aimed at encouraging and promoting  the  political  ambition  of  Nigerian  women as  well  as  their  socio-economic  wellbeing.  To display her

Seriousness, Mrs. Jonathan embarked on rigorous tour of the 36 states of the federation, prodding the women to come out and make history. The zeal with which the president’s wife carried the message of change bolstered the hopes of many women who came to the venues carrying placards declaring their intentions to contest a number of political positions.

 Ex-president Goodluck Ebele Azikiwe would go down in history as the only Nigerian president dead or alive to give women serious attention during his reign. No wonder, Nigerian Women, under the auspices of the National Council of Women's Societies (NCWS), Nigeria honour President Goodluck Jonathan to acknowledge his administration's gender sensitiveness.

Jonathan’s government has the highest number of women political appointees since 1960. In all, there are over thirteen women in Jonathan's cabinet, not just ordinary positions which hitherto were the exclusive preserves of the men folk. Jonathan’s government was the first government in Nigeria to appoint a woman Chief Justice of Nigeria.

 “Jonathan's leadership is the most gender sensitive administration so far in the country. He empowered women and their political benefactors”, Pastor Chijioke Uwandu said.

Already, it has started showing where the gender sensitive pendulum of this government is headed to. Meanwhile the current House of Representatives, following the elections of April 11, 2015, has a total of 360 members who are elected in single-member constituencies using the simple majority or first-past-the-post system.

Only seven out of the 109 senators who will serve in the 8th National Assembly are women. Four of the female senators were elected on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) while three are members of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

The PDP senators-elect are Stella Oduah (Anambra North), Uche Ekwunife (Anambra Central), Rose Oko (Cross River North) and Fatimat Raji-Rasaki (Ekiti Central).

Those elected on APC platform are Oluremi Tinubu (Lagos Central) and Binta Garba (Adamawa North) and Monsurat Jumoke Sunmonu (Oyo Central), who is the current speaker of the Oyo State House of Assembly.

An examination of the list of the female senators-elect showed that all of them, except Senator Tinubu, are new members of the Red Chamber. No women senator is from the entire core north.

The number of female senators who will serve in the 8th assembly is 12.5 per cent less from the eight that are in the outgoing 7th assembly. Reports said statistics on the number of senators-elect for the 8th assembly revealed that 79 senators or 72 per cent are new while 30 senators or 28 per cent are old members returning for different terms in the upper chamber.

According to the statistics, APC with 61 senators or 56 per cent of the total number of senators will enjoy simple majority control in the chamber as against 44 per cent or 48 senators it has in the outgoing 7th Assembly. The reverse is the case for PDP, which lost its majority status in the Upper Chamber with 48 senators-elect as against 61 senators in the outgoing 7th assembly.

It was also gathered that only one in every 26 Member of the incoming House of Representative would be a woman, a comprehensive list of winners of the National Assembly elections has shown. Out of the 360 members of the House of Representatives that would be inaugurated on May 29, only 14 are women. The number is 13 less that the 27women in the outgoing 7th lower chamber. Eight out of those elected are staging a comeback having won their re-election bids. The Peoples Democratic Party outnumbered the All Progressives Congress in terms of female representation in the incoming House.

Nine out of the 14 women are from the PDP, while only five belong to the APC. The number of women who will be at the 8th House of Representatives has decreased to 14 from the 27 in the outgoing 7th lower chamber.

According to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, list, Abia and Gombe states are the highest contributors of female members to the House of Reps. Both states produced two female winners each. Yobe, the hotbed of Boko Haram insurgency, also produced one female Representatives m​ember.

Most of the female Rep Members are out 14, nine belonged to the would-be opposition People’s Democratic Party, and all but one holds at least a bachelors degree. What it implies is that in a crowd of 360 lawmakers, there will be only 14 females.

For example, out of the 27 females in the current House, only eight were re-elected for the 8th Assembly. Investigations showed that most of them lost out because of lack of support by the state governors. APC women were denied tickets especially those from the north. However, the Peoples Democratic Party outnumbered the All Progressives Congress in terms of female representation in the House, as nine out of the 14 women who won election to the incoming House were from the PDP, while only five belong to the APC.

It would be recalled that the 2007 to 2011 Assembly had 24 women, which further increased to 27 in the 2011-2015 Assembly. But these numbers have gone down in the current dispensation.

It will be recalled that women participation in politics in Nigeria is a thing of concern to many because of the continuous low record of female representation after elections.  Whereas men occupy large number of seats in elections women are constantly left with few positions.

The 2015 general elections with all the promises it held for women, at the end scored one of the lowest female representations in the history of elections in the country.  This came in spite of the 35 percent affirmative action and the huge campaign of the Women for Change Initiatives aimed at providing a soft landing for women.

Gender sensitization refers to the modification of behaviour by raising awareness of gender equality concerns.  Gender sensitizing is about changing behaviour and instilling empathy into the views that we hold about our own and the other gender. It helps people in examining their personal attitudes and beliefs and questioning the 'realities' they thought they know. Even as the president is yet to make announcement on his cabinet, there are fears that women may be short-changed in the present government considering the hard posture of the president.

Even when he appoints women, some women felt that key positions wouldn’t be given to women just like they enjoined during Jonathan’s era. Titilayo Abraham, a teacher said the president is coming from the region where women are seen and not heard and express concern that many women would be onlookers in Buhari’s government.

Roseline Okeke, a nurse said there was no way that the Buhari’s cabinet won’t have at least eight women as ministers no matter how he tried to shun women.

 According to her, the only way for women to reach Buhari is through his wife but now that he will operate without First Ladyship, it will be difficult to reach and persuade the president just like Patience Jonathan did.  

Meanwhile, a group of women, who came under the auspices of the Nigerian Women for Transparency and Good Governance, urged the President-elect to complement the enormous efforts and support of the women by availing them the opportunity in his government to contribute their quota towards the collective development of the country.

Addressing reporters in Abuja, convener of the group, Hajia Talatu Ibrahim, maintained that Nigerian women having ensured the emergence of the Gen. Buhari in the last elections with their massive support were fully resolved to further support and partner with the incoming administration to achieve its agenda of rebuilding the nation for better.

She said: “It is noteworthy that the Nigerian women, who represent the larger percentage of the country’s voting population, came out in their large numbers during the last concluded elections to advocate change in the polity. We also thank God that our individual and collective efforts clearly paid off with the resounding electoral victory of Major Gen. Muhammadu Buhari rtd, as the President-elect”.

“Nigerian women are very happy that this well-deserved victory came at a time when our country seriously needed change in its political life to effectively initiate policies and programmes which would help in rebuilding the country and restoring it back to the path of national unity and development as enunciated by our founding fathers. It is indeed, a welcome development for the women and a dream comes true for our country Nigeria”.

Hajia Talatu Ibrahim, also pointed out that it was imperative for the incoming administration to harness the enviable potentials of some of the Nigerian women, whom according to her, have distinguished themselves in the service of the country and the society in their different capacities, by appointing them into various deserving positions of trust, as this would help give the women a sense of belonging in the emerging new Nigeria.

According to her, Gen. Buhari, should look inwards and appoint women with competence and antecedent in empowering and involving Nigerian rural women into governance, such like, Sen. Hajia Jumai Alhassan, Hon. Abike Dabiri, Mrs Fati Betara, Mrs Aveer Maag Dr. Chidinma Uwajumogu whom she said played a pivotal role in the birthing of the Women for Change Initiative, which ensured the electoral success of President Goodluck Jonathan in the 2011 Presidential election.

The Women in Politics Forum [WIPF] a network of women groups in Abuja demanded for 50 per cent equity in the distribution of appointments in the incoming government of President Elect, Gen Muhammadu Buhari.

The women told journalists specifically requested for key positions from the incoming government including the office of the Chief of Staff to the President, the National Security Adviser, Secretary to the Federal Government, and the Ministry of Justice among others be reserved for women.

The forum which called on the president elect to remember his promises to women during one of his town hall meetings with women frowned at the non-inclusion of women in the All Progressives Congress {APC] led transition committee put in place to effect the swearing in ceremony come 29th of May.

President of Women in Politics Forum [WIPF], Barrister Ebere Ifendu in her speech said that the request became necessary to bring to the attention of the APC administration the obligation of the country to the Nigerian Women as far as International Conventions and Treaties were concerned.

On March 19, 2015, the President-Elect in a keynote address at a town hall meeting with professional women in Lagos stated that an APC government under his leadership is committed to the following, ensuring that gender is mainstreamed  throughout all the government’s commitments in key areas such as the Economy, Education, Health, Security, good governance, power, agriculture and other areas of national development as well as the implementation of the 2005 National Gender Policy, which serves as a road map for the promotion of women’s empowerment and gender equality in Nigeria, so far, there has been no political will to implement this very critical framework. But as he is yet to appoint his ministers, women in Nigeria are expectant.