Nigeria's 2007 Election. How Did The Women Fare?

Looking at the results released so far, it can be safely concluded that women did not perform significantly different from the 2003 elections. First of all, the number of female contestants was pretty lower than anticipated, a lot of the women having been knocked out at the party primaries.
Unlike in other countries where definite measures were taken to ensure adequate representation of women including reserving quotas for women and in spite of the public support for women by the political parties, for the female aspirants, it was a definitely an unleveled playing ground.Gender stereotypes are still strong against women holding public office even from women themselves.

The elections themselves were flawed with irregularities and fraud from the beginning to the end except for a few States or spots were it could be said to have been reasonably free and fair. Reports from both domestic, regional and international observers support the conclusion that the elections were generally flawed. For female aspirants in new parties or less popular parties, the challenge was even stronger . These parties apart from being new on the scene and still finding their way, the parties in most cases lacked the requisite human and financial resources to compete with the old timers and more well financed parties like the ruling party the PDP, the ANPP and others. Support for female aspirants was massive from women's rights advocates and development agencies but this is not enough to win the votes. So what needs to be done?

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Nigeria's 2007 elections. H ow did the women Fare?

Submitted by rebecca on Wed, 2007-05-09 17:20.

I agree with your suggestions. However it is easier said than done taking into consideration the 1999, 2003 and 2007 experiences. We need interim measures in the circumstance. Legislating for quotas would not be out of place as it would obligate both parties and government to ensure that women occupy a minimum percentage of elective and appointive positions. The National Policy on Women already stipulates 30% seats for women in appointive and elective office. Why is this not observed by government and political parties? Isn't it time to start thinking of taking more proactive steps like taking out a class action to get court to make a pronouncement one way or the other? Either way, it would set the tone for some positive action in favor of women.

The challenge would not in not having the number of women to fill in the positions as we normally hear from some quarters but deciding which women, what criteria to be used in nominating or electing the women. This is where we need to learn from countries like Rwanda where a formula was devised on how to fill in the percentage reserved as the Women's quota. Can this be adapted in Nigeria?

Is there any organized women's caucus at the National level? If there isn't, now is the time to start organizing to build up a powerful caucus not just in Parliament but also to incorporate all categories of women -politics, professionals, non professional.

In not discarding other workable strategies, women in Nigeria should take more interest in cross cutting national issues because they affect them one way or the other. Women's voices must be more visible and the media ( print, electronic, the arts)must provide women the opportunity to make their voices heard.

Nigeria's 2007 Election. How Did The Women Fare?

Submitted by ccreek on Wed, 2007-05-09 16:08.

Last month's elections seemed to have so many problems that the outcome for women candidates (and all others) may not have been determined by the electorate. In addition to breaking into a political process dominated by men, Nigerian women must also face a process dominated by traditional "godfathers" that seem to pull the strings in many places. It seems that hearts and minds need to be changed on many different levels to convince those that control the political process, as well as voters, to give greater consideration to women candidates.

In moving beyond the 2007 process, it seems like women's groups should focus on openings at the local level for women to enter into the political process. Since local leaders are the closest to the voters, women may be able to gain a public following by demonstrating results at the local level, which could propel them to higher offices in the future. What sort of local opportunities are available for aspiring candidates in Nigeria? When are the next local elections?

Before the 2011 national elections, women's groups should also focus on convincing major national parties to commit to both a more democratic primary process and greater consideration of women candidates.