Even as they suffer more from the scourges of HIV/AIDS, maternal mortality and malaria, Nigerian women still live longer with an average life expectancy of 56 years than men who are likely to live for 53 years.
This is the summation of the just released 2015 Statistical Report on Women and Men in Nigeria, by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
Total fertility rate (TFR), it disclosed, remained at 5.5 births per woman, that is, 5,500 births per 1000 women while the total number of internal migrants remained as estimated at 11,257.
“Overall, women appear to live longer than men in all the states. However, among reported cases of diseases, HIV/AIDS affected females most.
“On the average, the disease accounted for 58.6 per cent of female deaths and 41.4 per cent of male deaths in the period 2010-2015.”
The report noted that infant mortality rates declined from 61 deaths per 1000 life birth in 2012 to 54 deaths per thousand life births in 2014 according to the result of the NBS/MDGs Performance Tracking Survey.
On education, it explained that primary school enrolment in most states in the country increased according to available data from states’ ministries of education.
“The proportion of girls’ enrolled in primary school increased from 45.7 per cent in 2010 to 48.6 per cent in 2015. Completion rate for girls in primary and secondary schools increased from 46.7 per cent and 47.1 per cent in 2010 to 48.3 percent and 47.9 per cent respectively in 2015.
“Secondary school’s enrolment for boys and girls is on the increase.
“The proportion of girls enrolled in secondary school increased slightly from 45.3 per cent in 2010 to 45.7 per cent in 2015. However, enrolment into tertiary institutions across the country appeared male dominated on the average.”
At the primary level of education, women teachers constituted the highest proportion decreasing at higher levels of education.
It was discovered that women constitute about 25 per cent of teaching staff at the tertiary level of education.
Reporting on labour, the statistical report stated that in 2015, the national labour force participation rate of women and men in the ages 15 to 64 years was 74.7 percent.
“The proportion of men was 82.6 per cent while women accounted for 78.4 percent. Like in 2013, men constituted the bulk of employment in federal and state MDAs.
“For the period, 2010 to2015, on the average, 72.3 per cent of senior positions in State Civil Service were occupied by men compared to 27.7 per cent occupied by women.”
Although about half of the population are women with right to vote and hold public offices in almost all states of the federation, “women continued to be under-represented at the national, state and local government levels.
“At the national parliament in 2015, 94.3 per cent of seats were occupied by men compared to 5.7 per cent occupied by women.”
Worse are the state and local government levels where women seem not to appear in the power equation.
Again, men dominate the judiciary at the state level while women also were equally under-represented among high-ranking government administrators with decision making powers.
On physical and sexual violence against women, the report discovered that females in the age bracket 20 to 24 years were mostly affected.
“More females were trafficked in the period 2010 to 2015 with the proportion of females trafficked for prostitution as high as 70.8 per cent for persons in ages 18 to 27 years in 2015,” it concluded.”