A report conducted by the Gender Strategy Advancement International has revealed that since 1999, women’s representation in government at all levels has not reached the 35% benchmark set by the National Gender policy.
The report which was made available to New National Star on Thursday said that Nigeria has had a total of 654 Senators and 2,160 members in the House of Representatives in the period under review, but out of these, the country has had only 37 female Senators and only 120 female members of the House of Representatives.
According to the report, the figures amount to a mere 5.6% and 5.5% representation, respectively.
Also, the research further revealed that between 1999 to 2015, LGA Chairpersons were 9% female and 91% male while Councilors were 5.9% women and 94.1% within the same period.
“The political marginalization of women in Nigeria further played out in the recent ministerial appointment and cabinet reshuffling where the president, Muhammadu Buhari, appointed seven new ministers and all were male. GSAI and the Wole Soyinka Center for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ) say this is totally unacceptable.
“When the government continues to pay lip service to social inclusion and social justice, the nation will continue to remain grossly underdeveloped for a long time. This is a call to action to build a greater Nigeria, to uphold gender accountability and social inclusion at all levels.
“This research shows that 94.5% of women have been excluded from the Senate, this is also reflected in the Nigerian budget where less than 1% of the 2022 budget is allocated to Women’s Economic Empowerment.
It is imperative to question if this is enough to encourage the financial inclusion of women at the community level.
“Is the Ministry of Women Affairs proactive enough at the state level to have an inclusive structure that looks at women’s missing decimal point?”
“The allocation for Women Economic Empowerment for 2022 is pegged at N101 Billion. Where are the monies and who is in charge of making sure that these conversations do not only stop at the centre?
How will the policies be demonstrated through implementation, if processes of implementation are not carried through,” GSAI queried.