Are women a threat to politics?

As we know that almost half of the Nigerian population is women, however, we are among the countries that record low participation of women in politics, appointments and government positions.

Since the advent of democracy in the country, when the 1999 constitution became official, Nigeria had only Virginia Ngozi Etiba of Anambra State who became a governor after the impeachment of Governor Peter Obi, from December 2006 to February 2007. Unfortunately, until now, no other woman has been elected as a governor in all the 36 states of the country.

Sadly, this goes for the parliament; in Nigeria, we have 109 senators from the Senate and 360 representatives from the Federal House of Representatives but we don’t have up to 30 per cent women representation in the two chambers.

Despite the constitutional rights guaranteed to the women, they are denied such opportunities, perhaps because of their gender. The constitution guarantees equal rights and opportunities to all Nigerians regardless of their gender. This must come into practice.

There are many factors responsible for this situation; religious and cultural stereotypes, traditional ethics, patriarchal societal backdrop and the structure that portrays women as subordinates to men.

In order to end this discrimination, we need to accept that there must be equal rights and opportunities for women and allow them to participate in politics and other government activities. Female collaboration will create a balance of power between genders and will contribute to building a strong and vibrant democracy and society.

The active engagement of women will also help to solve some of Nigeria’s huge problems like extreme poverty and unemployment. It will lead to inclusive growth, bring attention to issues that affect genders and change the unfounded beliefs affecting equality.

Sulaiman Lala

Bauchi