The story is told about a wealthy old man who late in life decided to retire to his community and venture into politics to contest for the position of local government chairman. On the campaign trail, his opponents lambasted and accused him of being a “political neophyte” who had no experience in politics. His reply that any man like himself who has been successfully married to three women for over 25 years is a seasoned politician right from the house! This drew massive applause from the crowd and he subsequently won the election. Keeping one woman happy and satisfied requires competent political skills, keeping three of them off your neck for 25 years indicates political prowess of “elder statesman” proportions!
The House of Representatives recently rejected three women-related Bills out of hand. Faced with many irate women at the same time, the Speaker of the House of Representatives backtracked. It will take a lot of political maneuvering by him to get women to understand that one of the things they desire is neither logical nor feasible. They are agitating for additional seats for women in both the National Assembly and State Houses of Assembly. Providing additional National Assembly seats solely for women should be a non-starter. Which constituencies are they supposed to represent? There is simply no justification for affirmative action for women in politics.
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Affirmative action is rooted in the concept of compensatory justice for people who have been wronged. Nigerian women have not been wronged. They are free to contest elections and suffer marginalisation no greater than that of youths, the physically handicapped or financially handicapped men. Many women have succeeded under the current arrangement and far more men have failed. Any decision to reserve special seats for women will undermine the concepts of equality of opportunity and meritocracy. Nigerians are already handicapped by the quota system and federal character, which restricts opportunities for many of the nation’s best hands and seriously handicaps good governance.
Agreed, there are few women in political and leadership spaces in Nigeria. Currently, only approximately six per cent of legislators are women (7 out of 109 Senators and 22 out of 360 Members of the House of Representatives). But so what? Those agitating for the involvement of more women in governance have not been able to answer the question; why? They claim, without any evidence whatsoever, that the full and equitable participation of women in public life is “essential” in order to ensure policies that will benefit women. This is of course a fallacious argument. The continuous harping on about women in governance assumes that those who previously have been appointed or who won elections have distinguished themselves, which of course is not the case.
The most admired woman in public service in recent times is the late icon, Dora Akunyili. She was not known for doing things to benefit only women. Her patriotic service benefitted all Nigerians. Besides, which, she is not the typical example of what women in high office tend to do. For every Akunyili, there is a Diezani Allison Madueke, Stella Oduah, Patricia Eteh, Hadiza Usman and Kemi Adeola but to name a few who have not distinguished themselves in public service to say the least.
What is important is for women to be given the opportunity to compete equally with men. There can be no basis for reserving special seats for women unless seats are also reserved for the blind, physically challenged, the mentally impaired, football players, musical artistes, youths and all other groups who are currently marginalised in our political system. It is also fallacious to say that women are not represented, or that only women can represent the interests of women.
The overwhelming majority of National Assembly members are married men. The one accusation always levied at Nigerian political office holders is that they represent the interests of their friends and families (their wives, daughters, sisters and mothers) far more than they do of the men who voted them into office. There is a Ministry of Women’s Affairs to protect women’s interests even though no one can actually say what it is they do in their sprawling offices.
Quite simply put, women have no right to claim dedicated seats. If they are to be voted for, who will vote for them? Or will they simply be appointed? Does it really make sense to say that women will have special seats reserved for them yet at the same time be able to contest for and vote for any man’s seat? Legislators are supposed to represent constituencies. If these “women’s seats” represent states then their status is higher than senators let alone members of the House of Representatives. At a time when the current wisdom is to reduce the cost of governance adding legislative seats for women would be a completely unnecessary and unjustifiable burden on the nation’s finances.
Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar hit the nail on the head when asked why he would not step down to allow younger politicians to contest. He replied that democracy is open to all and the youths (just like women) should come out to contest, not simply sit down and complain that they have some sort of right to be in office. In the same manner, Nigerian women should be up and doing in politics instead of feeling some right of entitlement.
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