Following the announcement of results of the last general election in Kwara State that birthed the incoming All Progressives Congress (APC) administration, women were at the receiving end in the political narrative of the state following massive reduction of their numbers among incoming elective officials. HEAD POLITIC, MUMINI ABDULKAREEM takes a look at the issue.
March last month amidst the euphoria of the victory that trailed the fortunes of the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) following the release of results for the governorship/House of Assembly elections by the state chapter of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), one notable cause for concern by political watchers was the dwindling fortunes of women in the political affairs in the state.
Among those announced as victors by the electoral body were three senatorial candidates, six House of Representatives members-elect and twenty-four House of Assembly members. Although the shape of the incoming cabinet of the governor-elect, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq and how many appointive positions will be ceded to women still remains an hypothesis, only one female member-elect got the State House of Assembly ticket, making her the only female from the pool of thirty-four elected official, in the entire state.
This is in contrast with the outgoing dispensation and the strategic efforts of the leader of the Kwara Peoples democratic Party (PDP) and Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki. Women in the state never had it so good with a sizeable number occupying top position of authorities. Saraki did not only ensured that the quota for women in both elective and appointive positions was properly factored in the political arrangement in the state, the decision is always followed with a strategic plan to ensure women folks are not short-changed in the distribution of the appointive and elective portfolios in the state in any political dispensation. The arrangement has not only succeeded in encouraging females to participate in the political process, it has placed Kwara State on the map as one that recognises the contribution of women and placed premium on their role in the development of the society in the increasingly complex and demanding contemporary environment.
From the Head of Service (HoS) to Local Government Chairmen down to a number of agencies and parastatals to women elected into the seventh and eight assemblies – six and five respectively – women occupied keys and strategic positions in the governing process in the state.
Buoyed by such support framework, the woman used the opportunity to further agitate for more space in line with the 35 percent Beijing convention pronouncement.
However, in an era where the campaign for the Beijing declaration is getting higher, the further reduction of the figures to almost infinitesimal level in Kwara State is one seen by some political analysts in Kwara as one of the casualties of the ongoing paradigm shift that has swept across the state with the present political situation.
As troubling as the situation appears, there might be further depletion to the figures especially in the House of Assembly where the only female lawmaker-elect, Mrs Maryam Joy Adeniran, who served as a former aide to Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed but elected under the platform of the APC is being dragged to court over her election by Mr Abdulwaheed Yusuf.
Although INEC has presented her with Certificate of Return, the Appeal Court few weeks ago upturned the High Court judgment in her favour setting the stage for the Supreme Court to make a final pronouncement on the matter.
Hajia Adeniran recently raised the alarm over the matter and called on the party and womenfolk in general to rally round her to save her ticket which she said is representative of the entire womenfolk in the state.
In a press conference held in Ilorin recently which was supported by a gender-based group under the aegis of Coalition of Women Associations in Kwara State, the lone female lawmaker-elect alleged an attempt to marginalize and infringe on the rights of women in Kwara State politics.
Membership of the group composed of professional women associations such as, Nigeria Women Journalists, (NAWOJ), Medical Women Association of Nigeria, (MWAN), Association of Professional Women Engineers of Nigeria, (APWEN), Women in Taxation, Women Pharmacists, Women Bag Makers, Women Bead Makers, International Women Communication Centre, (IWCC) FOMWAN and WOWICAN among others.
Spokesperson of the group, Ayobola Olupinla, in her address said: “We are unhappy with the recent development of an attempt to shut out the feelings for adequate gender consideration in the scheme of governance as far as the state is concerned in the incoming political dispensation.
“Specifically, the outcome of the election for the Essa/Shawo/Igbodun constituency of the Kwara State House of Assembly in Offa was keenly contested and won by Hon. Mariam Joy Adeniran to become the only female member-elect of the 24-member Assembly. As one of us, we are proud of her for the courage, resilience and doggedness she took to participate in the poll but with her victory, she only represents just 4.16 percent of the membership strength as against the 2014 percent women-membership of the outgoing Assembly which has five members. The percentage grossly negates the 35 percent as recommended by the United Nations (UN) for women slot in elective and appointive positions in governments globally.
Olupinla however stressed that there was an “attempt to cause injury on the women folk by struggling to use the court to snatch the mandate of Hon. Maryam Joy Adeniran thereby relegating us to the lowest ebb and allocating zero percent to females in the incoming lawmaking process.
The group said it reject the Appeal Court judgment of 5th April, 2019 and call on the National leadership of the APC as well as the State Working Committee of the Kwara APC, to prevail on the plaintiff in the suit seeking to remove the only female Member-Elect in the Kwara House of Assembly.
“We believe this is an arrangement possible within the APC in a bid to seeing the current scenario beyond 2019”. They however pleaded with the President Muhammadu Buhari, First Lady, Hajia Aisha Buhari, APC National Leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, Kwara Governor-elect, Alhaji Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq and other state and national executives of the party and indeed the entire political actors globally to intervene on the issue “and reverse every step aimed at removing or replacing Hon Adeniran as the member-elect. According to Adeniran, “the action will not only protect the right of one of them, but will also secure the future for the women folk and future of females yet unborn.”
But reacting to the issue, Hon Segilola AbdulKadir said that development is a bad omen for women representation in the state which boils down to the inexperience of the APC as a political party.
“It is a bad omen and we never prayed for it. In an era where we are even struggling to get our thirty-five percent affirmative action or even beyond, we seem to be entering an era of zero affirmative action for women in Kwara State despite the crucial and active role we play in the politics of the state. That is why we say most parties don’t take into cognizance most of these things, if they (APC) had taken care of that in the beginning from their primaries and nomination by setting certain percentage aside for women, the story would have been different.
“Our people will now know what Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki has done for our politics. Even in our party, the PDP, it has not been easy but with the help and support of our leader, we have been able to maintain certain percent of representation in each political dispensation in Kwara. You know women we are weaker sex and our male politicians most times want to intimidate us but Saraki always maintain that there must be certain percentage for women, that is why we have had it that way in the past. At a time, some of us women in the dynasty protested that we must have our 35 percent and the Leader even had to appeal to us.
“I think it all boils down to the inexperience of the party (APC) and because they are not properly organised otherwise the women there would have even fought for their right in this regard and made arrangement to avoid such things right from the beginning. Are we saying male population is higher than women in the opposition party or the women are not active? The women should be compensated and even if they cannot get the 35 per cent, it can start from 25%. But with the look of things now, we may likely have an all-male legislature in the 9th Kwara State House of Assembly. It is a bad omen for women in Kwara politics and I just hope we don’t continue this way”, she submitted.
On her part, a former Board of Trustees (BoT) member, Hon Nimota Ibrahim said the issue was unfortunate, adding that the situation does not call for celebration. According to her, “Well, I think women representation is now very low compared to what we used to have in the state and what is normal. Normal in the sense that at worst we should have the 35 percent. But until every elected member resume and the government is formed before we can be able to read the percentage of women. But I know that it will be very low and this is not good for our polity. A nation that plays with above fifty percent of its population is sitting on a keg of gunpowder. The contribution of women cannot be overemphasised in the development of any nation particularly Nigeria. If you look at what we have on ground in correlation with the percentage of the youth, you will see that this country needs to be more serious in terms of participation of women in politics and governance. The issue is not peculiar to Kwara but a general trend that is worrisome. Any nation that plays with about fifty percent of the population is heading for doom. However it is worse in the incoming dispensation in Kwara because we just have only one elective female in the House and none at the national assembly. This is unfortunate and the impact will be gruesome. My advice is for our political parties to be more serious because many women indicated inertest but they were sidelined. So parties should be more proactive on their policy on gender otherwise it will be a sorry situation for this country”.
