Analysis: Women contribute less to decision making in energy sector

The oil and gas sector has remained a significant sector in Nigeria’s economy. It contributes over 80 per cent to the revenue base of the country, thereby driving most activities of the nation as an entity.

It remains the source upon which the nation’s annual budgets are funded, and international commitments in terms of debts and other obligations settled.

But despite this, findings showed that women hardly take up leadership positions in the sector. This is inspite of the country being a signatory to various international conventions such as the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), which was ratified by states in 1985.

The Convention sought to promote the equal right of men and women to enjoy all economic, social, cultural, civil and political rights, as well as encouraging states to, “condemn discrimination against women in all its forms, agree to pursue by all appropriate means and without delay a policy of eliminating discrimination against women.”

An analysis of the Ministry of Petroleum Resources, key agencies and parastatals under it, especially the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), revealed gender disparity in the appointment of women as heads.

Data

Despite various calls for gender parity, especially the 35 per cent affirmative action for women in leadership positions, data has shown that only about one per cent of females have ever been appointed as head of the Ministry and its agencies in over two decades.

Figures independently gathered by the Nigerian Tribune revealed that since inception of the Ministry of Petroleum Resources and agencies as well as parastatals under it, only one female, Mrs Diezani Alison-Madueke, had served as Minister of the sector.

Madueke served between 2010 and 2015 under Former President Goodluck Jonathan.

Other key agencies such as the Department for Petroleum Resources (DPR), Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) among others since inception were only headed by men except for the Petroleum, Product Pricing Agency (PPPRA), which once had Mrs Sotonye Oyoyo as its Acting Executive Secretary between between 2016 and 2018.

A typical example is the NNPC. Findings showed that from 1999 till date, a total of 11 persons have headed the Corporation on appointments and all were male with no record of a female.

Jackson Gaius Obaseki  headed the agency between 1999 and 2003 after which he was succeeded by Funsho Kupolokun who also led the Corporation for another four years-2003 to 2007.

Mr Abubakar Yar’adua took over from Kupolokun in 2007 and served till 2009, when he was succeeded by Mohammad Sanusi Barkindo who only headed the agency for about one year.

Similarly, Shehu Ladan took over the mantle of leadership  and served shortly as the Corporation’s Group Managing Director(GMD) between April 2010 and May 2010, when Austine Oniwon took over from 2010 to 2012.

Andrew Yakubu and Joseph Dawha served between 2012-2014 and 2014-2015 respectively and in 2015, Ibe Kachikwu took over and led the NNPC until 2016.

Kachikwu was succeeded by Maikanti Baru who served between 2016-2019 until Mele Kyari, the current GMD took over.

That said, a similar look at the DPR’s Directors also revealed that since the tenure of Ben Osuno, in the 80’s, no woman has ever championed the affairs of the Department.

Looking at the appointments in the last 30 years,  Osuno, Jibril Oyekan, Dublin Green, Peter Achebe, Mac Ofurhie, Tony Chukwueke, Aliyu Sanbonbimi, Billy Agha, Andrew Obaje, Osten Olorunshola, George Osahon,Mordecai Ladan, Ahmad Shakur had led the agency in the past, while Sarki Auwalu is the current Director.

These findings, however, cast shadows on the prerequisites used by successive governments in appointments into top positions in the industry.

Even at the management level, the representation of women is most times within the ratio 2:10 as the case may be.

A typical example was the NNPC board  constituted by President Muhammadu Buhari. Out of 10 appointed members, only two females -Mrs Lami Ahmed and Mrs Hadiza Commassie were represented.

Why the low level representation?

Although the data representations, to an average Nigerian, may look more biased and raise the question as to female capability in the industry, findings have shown that low representation of women in the sector is not far-fetched from the level of women enrolment in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) courses in the past.

Experts believe that women hardly delve into courses such as engineering, technology among others like their male counterparts. As a result, the technical know-how, skills are not readily available.

According to Energycapitalpower report, women account for only 22 per cent of the traditional energy sector workforce which represents an even lower percentage at upper management levels.

It states that STEM education serves as the driving force behind human capital development in the energy sector, particularly as the sector moves toward cleaner and more technologically reliant energy solutions.

To further buttress this argument, the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) report on Women in Stem states that only a fraction of female students selects STEM-related fields in higher education

“Just three per cent of students joining information and communication technology (ICT) courses across the globe are women. That improves slightly to five per cent for mathematics and statistics courses. And it increases to eight per cent for engineering, manufacturing and construction courses,” the report added.

The report further stressed that bias and gender stereotypes can drive some females away from pursuing careers in science-related fields while also noting that women who choose to rise to the challenge and pursue a STEM career, later face the prospect of unequal pay and restricted career progression.

Also, according to 2014-2016 UNESCO data, only about 30 percent of all female students select STEM-related fields in higher education.

It said ensuring girls and women have equal access to STEM education and ultimately STEM careers are an imperative from the human rights, scientific, and development perspectives.

The report explained that the visible disparities in this area were a contributory factor to the gender inequalities in status and income.

“Gender equality in STEM will ensure that boys and girls, men and women will be able to acquire skills and opportunities to contribute to and benefit equally from the benefits and assets associated with STEM,” it states.

However, it said although more women are now delving into the STEM workforce than ever, they are still significantly under-represented in STEM occupations in many countries.

Experts view

Bala Zakka, a policy analyst on his part, said women in the past hardly ventured into technical courses but would rather do more of administrative courses.

However, he said in recent times, more women were now taking up such courses and now being represented in top positions especially in the private sector of the industry.

“In recent times women have been enrolling in courses that have to do with men and to a reasonable extent, we have started seeing women. As I speak to you today, one of the biggest oil companies today Is Shell and the company’s deepwater section is called Shell Nigeria exploration and production company, the Managing Director of Shnepco is a woman, a chemical engineering graduate of University of Benin,”says Zakka.

“So they are gradually growing through the ranks,”he added.

Also, Mrs Oyinda Adedokun, an energy expert rule out the possibility of gender biases, saying:”I don’t think it is deliberate but you know before you get to leadership positions, you should have climbed through the ranks and it takes some time for women to be active in this sector.”

She argued that even in tertiary institutions, relevant Departments are mostly male-dominated.

But on the contrary, Adedokun noted that low representation of women in the sector does not imply that there are no women who could take up the responsibilities.

“This is not saying there are no women who can lead but I don’t think that the options are very many at the moment. Though I feel that if the government deliberately wanted to do this they would. But if we do a little more work we might be able to get more women,” she added.

‘This story was produced under the NAREP Oil and Gas 2021 fellowship of the Premium Times Centre for Investigative Journalism’