The emergence of Liz Truss as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (UK) last Tuesday is fuelling fresh concerns in women’s circle in Nigeria over their low representation in the political space.

Truss, 47, is the UK’s 56th prime minister and its third female political leader.

Although Nigerian women groups see her emergence as another feat for women across the globe, they are also displeased with the fact that they appear not to be making inroads into the country’s political arena despite heightened advocacy in that regard.

Speaking on Truss’ victory at the UK polls, Founding Director, Women Advocates Research and Documentation Centre (WARDC), Dr. Abiola Akiyode-Afolabi, said it was another feat for women and men who believe in ensuring gender equality, noting that Britain has once again shown that leadership could be gendered.

She said: “This is a positive development. It should set an example for Nigeria, a country where women are under-represented and the national average of women’s political participation in Nigeria has remained 6.7 per cent in elective and appointive positions, which is far below the global average of 22.5 per cent, Africa regional average of 23.4 per cent and West African Sub regional average of 15 per cent. It gives hope that stereotypes and myths can be broken with Truss being the third UK female prime minister following Margaret Thatcher and Theresa May. We do hope that she will also contribute to sustainable economic and social development in the UK.

“The Brexit downturn has affected the economy and this impacted on development of Europe and other countries, including Nigeria. This period calls for a strong leadership, and the choice of Liz Truss is evidence that women can fix these crises.”

Akiyode-Afolabi noted that the lesson for Nigeria in the development is that for a nation to thrive, prioritising gender equality is very imperative.

“Political parties must be democratic, and not where women are still faced with multiple barriers limiting inclusion and access. Nigeria must ensure concerted efforts to increase women representation. It’s unfortunate that the political space continues to shrink and marginalise women at all tiers of governance, though women constitute about half of the population,” she added.

She noted that the absence of women candidates in the forthcoming presidential election evidences the patriarchal practice inherent in the Nigerian political space, adding that the inclusion of women and other marginalised populations in decision making remains a prerequisite for ensuring sustainable economies and social development as seen in developed nations.

“It is, however, worrisome that the efforts and campaigns of women groups, civil society organisations and other critical stakeholders to increase female representation in politics was not reflected in the just concluded primaries. This is a setback for Nigerian women in achieving affirmative action and increased representation in decision-making. Hopes of result to show progress made steadily in bridging the existing gap between the current state of female representation in the coming dispensation has been dashed.

“Nigeria is still far behind compared to its counterparts such as Rwanda and Tanzania; these countries have recorded considerable progress in female representation over the years. Their laws and policies have become more inclusive as a result of the gender balance in political leadership. Yet, in Nigeria, the most populous black nation in the world, we are yet to achieve a truly democratic nation that upholds the rights of all its citizens irrespective of gender. The full and equitable participation of women in political leadership is crucial to building and sustaining strong and vibrant democratic societies,” she stressed.

The women’s rights activist said various factors militating against Nigerian women in political leadership were mainly within the political parties.

“Whether we like it or not, the political party is the entry point for women. If the structures are not inclusive, we cannot achieve any increase in women voices in politics. Certain political activities borders on internal democracy and issues of godfatherism. Also, meeting schedules do not favour women as the time scheduled for caucus meetings to strategise and map out political plans either for the pre or post-election periods are odd and is not usually conducive. This method of schedules is viewed as an attempt to side-line women from engaging in the political process.”

She added that lack of political will by government, political parties and legislators continue to truncate the aspirations of women, but stressed that women would continue to organise and demand accountability.

“Honestly speaking, women within the political parties must do more to hold political parties accountable to the women’s agenda,” she said.
President, Women In Politics Forum (WIPF), Ebere Ifendu, also stated that Nigeria was still patriarchal, adding: “We have a major challenge of legislation not supporting women. Funding and culture is also a huge issue. We are not there yet, because most people do not see why women should be in leadership positions. With Britain’s PM as an example, you could see how they were able to conduct the elections in a very democratic way; people showed interest, campaigned, sold their manifesto and their party. People looked at their qualities. For Truss, no one looked at her gender, but the agenda she has for the people. So, we need to work towards Nigeria taking on this position.”

Ifendu continued: “If you recall, when Patricia Etteh became Speaker of the House of Repsentatives, they didn’t allow her to sit before tagging her a corrupt person and afterwards, it was discovered she had nothing to do with any funds. Also, when Mulikat Akande contested for speakership, a group of people said they would not bow before a woman while citing religious issues. It is our society; we are yet to get to the point where we appreciate people from the point of competence and not religious, cultural or patriarchal decisions.”

She noted that no major political party featured women as presidential and vice presidential candidates, adding that there was nothing going for women in 2023.

“It is so sad that in some states, they also didn’t think that they should have a woman in the state assembly. They have not placed enough value on what women can bring onboard in governance and that is a huge problem for us. I am not excited when it comes to the 2023 elections and women’s position sadly and that’s the truth.”

To the Executive Director, Heir Women Development, Añuli Aniebo Ola-Olaniyi, while Great Britain that colonised Nigeria and domesticated her women has moved on to reposition their women, Nigeria was still grossly under developed in that regard.

“We have very limited number of women as deputy governors. However, it’s disturbing that we are at a marginalised position. A whole nation, with all the push and advocacy from women-led organisations and civil society organisations and promises from the political parties and leadership of this country, could not be accountable to the quest for progression, with women as flag bearers.

“When I saw the positioning of the National Assembly and Senate on the Gender Bills, it was disturbing to listen to the reasons for these bills to be rejected. The new ministerial list didn’t have any woman; what were the reasons for that? Campaign structures for 2023 elections were formed, what positions do women occupy? You ask what it holds for us; one should ask what some of the lawmakers are afraid of. It’s a huge loss of an entire nation to decide to hold back on the development of our country by not acknowledging and repositioning women as valid resources required for progressive development.”

She said that Truss emerged, because her environment supported her leadership journey, noting: “There’s obviously something not quite right here. That root cause, which has many intersections and is multi-layered, is a problem.”

Special Adviser to the chairman, Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC), Abiodun Essiet, is of the opinion that Nigeria has not gotten to the place of having a woman as the vice president let alone the president, especially from a ruling party.

According to her, the two major political parties in the country have not given women the edge to emerge as flag bearers.

“It is still a long way for us. I am afraid that the number of women who have emerged as candidates are less, especially in the major political parties and it won’t make any significant difference with the number we have now on the ballot for 2023.”

Essiet also identified patriarchy as one of the problems standing in the way of women’s political leadership in the country, adding, “Financially, women are not even strong. You could see from the last election that it was all about who had the money; it was used to buy electorates and their mandate. For APC, you could see that the nomination form was N100 million.

“Also, you can see how women are marginalised in the political processes. For instance, Akeredolu’s wife, Betty, was robbed of her privileges; election venue was not disclosed to her and it ended before she knew it. Women are not given the enabling environment to thrive politically,” she said.

Grassroots politician and aspirant, House of Representatives for Amuwo Odofin under the All Progressives Congress (APC), Kate Banjoko, said that women didn’t start to take up positions in the UK by default, pointing out that a lot of agitations had gone on before now.

“Thankful the Queen, who has just died, helped to break that culture. This is exactly what we are experiencing in Nigeria.

“Women have been told in Africa that they should be in the kitchen, hence their participation in politics is evolving. At a point, we didn’t have women as managing directors or heads of organisations. We didn’t have any female in governance until Asiwaju Bola Tinubu came and gave us the first deputy governor and other states followed. Despite the fact that the numbers are dwindling, it is evolving and can only get better.

“As long as women who are in politics pull and develop other women to join them, women will thrive in politics. This is not going to be automatic and being emotional won’t help. We have to be intentional about it,” she noted.

Analysing why women have failed to make inroads into the political space despite the agitations lately, human rights activist and the Principal Partner, Malcolm Omirhobo & Co., Chief Malcolm Omirhobo, also told The Guardian that unless women are ready to love themselves and do away with petty beefing, they would never achieve their collective political aspiration.

Omirhobo, who said Nigerian women struggle to measure up with other women across the world, insisted that they would fare better if they organise themselves to help one another.

He observed that Nigerian women are very smart people and supreme in their own way, but have to focus on the strategies that would help them to achieve their goals rather than the noise about gender equality “as gender can never be equal.”

He said: “God made it to be so. Of course, the anatomy and physiology of the male and female are not the same. So, gender cannot be equal. But women need to love themselves and stop putting others down. There is too much competition among the womenfolk that would not allow them to see clearly and achieve their goals.

“Women should do more work than talking, though the economic situation in the country is affecting them. We will start by empowering them. Without empowerment, they do what they are not supposed to do. The women should encourage the younger ones; the elderly ones should see them as theirs. Let there be level playing field and you will see the women on the top.”

Omirhobo agreed that women could lead Nigeria, saying: “Women can be leaders. We have seen it in other parts of the world. Those at the top should be able to speak and help others.

“While there is need for more of them to be empowered by all, they need to develop and empower themselves too. When they are financially buoyant, they can come out in politics and do what the men are doing. But the problem with them achieving this is fighting petty over immaterial things.”

“Some of the women are so mean to their follow women. You see some of them oppressing their domestic help, because they are not their children. But those house helps are the ones they should start grooming at younger age for them to know what their goals are and at the same time empower them. If women are not empowered, they cannot do anything.”