Political discrimination against women injurious to Nigeria’s democracy, says minister

The Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development, Jummai Aisha Alhassan, has decried the continuous discrimination against women in the political circle, saying the trend was impacting negatively on Nigeria’s nascent democracy.

Also, she said the appointment of more women into positions of authority was more likely to enhance their ability to be part of the formulation and implementation of public policies for sustainable democracy and development.

Represented by the Director of Women Affairs in the ministry, Mrs. Esther Mshelia, the minister spoke yesterday in Abuja at the public presentation of key findings of the collation of data in the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) on involvement/participation of women in politics in Nigeria from year 1999 to 2025 organised by the National Centre for Women Development, (NCWD).

She lamented that very little has been achieved in terms of women appointments into leadership positions despite provisions in the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action recommending that governments supports at least 30 per cent affirmative action for women in the political space just as the recommendation in the National Gender Policy does back the move too.

While assuring that the recommendations would not be swept under the carpet, Alhassan pledged to ensure “that Mr. President and my minister colleagues are properly briefed about these findings and recommendations with the aim of engendering the necessary policies and actions towards the implementation of the recommendations.”

NCWD’s acting Director-General, Mallam Sadeeq Omar, who urged all to continue to invest in data collation, stressed “the need for adequate data to provide impartial and comparable basis for evaluating progress and evidence-based planning.

“I wish to encourage the Directors of Planning Research and Statistics from the states’ Ministries of Women Affairs to continue the process of data collation in the states to enhance the planning for and development of women and children in Nigeria,” Omar said.

Leader of the team, Mrs. Wumi Osubairo-Dada, noted that: “This project has gone to the very ward and local government level. In this study, we are capturing elements of data. We are not just picking numbers and saying out of 109, there have been eight women. We are capturing the names, sex and age, educational and occupational background of each individual public office holder. This is a journey of 36 months which we have tried to do in six weeks.”

The entire project, is set to among other things, provide a baseline for the implementation of the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), qualitative as well as quantitative data that would serve as advocacy tools for the pursuit of the 35 per cent Affirmative Action on women in decision-making positions in Nigeria as well as ridge the knowledge gap among key stakeholders, including political parties, legislators, civil society organisations, the media and the development community.