POLITICS-NIGERIA : In the Shadows of Men: Women’s Political Marginalisation

By Mustapha Muhammad
KANO, Mar 12 (IPS) Ten years after Nigeria returned to civil rule women
still play second fiddle in the male-dominated politics of Africa’s
most populous nation, women politicians and activists say.

Since this West African country of 140 million people broke from military
rule and embraced uninterrupted multi-party democracy in 1999, men have
been calling the shots while women, who constitute more than half of
voters (54 percent), only hold marginal elective offices.

"Although it has been a decade of uninterrupted civilian rule,
Nigerian women are still battling political marginalisation where they are
not given the chance to hold political offices," Rabi Musa, a
women’s rights activist told IPS.

"Despite the relative improvement in women political participation
and representation between 2003 and 2007, such improvement does not
reflect women’s numerical superiority," said Musa, coordinator
of the Women’s Right Advancement and Protection Alternative (WRAPA).

Between 1999 and 2003 a total of 15 female parliamentarians, were elected.
This figure marginally improved from 2003 to 2007 and there are currently
26 women are in parliament.

Nigeria is signatory to the United Nations convention to eliminate
discrimination against women but women in the country continue to voice
dissent against their continued domination by men in the realm of politics
and in other spheres.

"We women constitute the majority of voters during elections we are
hardly given a level playing ground to actualise our dreams of active
involvement in the politics of our country through elective offices,"
female politician Maryam Jari told IPS at a political meeting.

"The Beijing conference requires every country that participated in
the conference to reserve 30 percent of positions and offices to women but
in Nigeria we are yet to have even 10 percent," Jari said.

Why marginalised?

Social, cultural and religious factors are largely responsible for the
marginalisation of women in politics in Nigeria, particularly in the
Muslim-dominated part of the country where politics is seen as men’s
exclusive preserve.

Nigerian politics is capital intensive as it requires spending large
amounts of money to organise and mobilise support to win an election. In
Nigeria, female candidates rarely receive sponsorship from donors.

Women in Nigeria are not as economically empowered as men. In most
communities women are economically dependent on their husbands who control
family income.
Even where women are allowed to engage in money-making ventures, their
husbands control the purse.
Mairo Usman, a politician in northern Nigeria’s Kano city, said
women’s weak economic base contributes to their political domination
by men.

"Women in Nigeria have far less money than men and even in politics
there is a wide economic disparity between women and men, which gives men
competitive political advantage over women because they are the ones with
money to throw around and win votes," Usman said.

"Those among us that aspire to political office need the financial
support of men who usually prefer supporting their fellow men due to
prevalent male chauvinism that runs through the veins of our men,"
she said.

Politicking is time-consuming with politicians travelling far and wide and
often staying overnight in hotels far from their homes during political
rallies.
Such political rallies are often rowdy and at times violent with political
thugs taking centre-stage, hurling insults and brandishing assortments of
locally made weapons.
Given such scenarios, women politicians are generally seen as promiscuous
in a society that believes women’s role should be confined to
domestic management.

"We are seen largely as lose women because we are politicians who, by
the nature of politics, stay out late at night attending political
meetings and rallies and sometimes sleep in hotels far away from our
homes," Jari told IPS.

"Politics involve intermingling between men and women and our culture
and religion strongly abhor mixing between the two sexes which is viewed
as indication of lewdness," she added.

Aisha Suleiman, a Kano resident, was initially reluctant to join partisan
politics due to the stigma associated with it. She said the unwholesome
attitude of some female political supporters, which portray women
politicians as "uncultured" and "ruffians" put her off
from entering politics.

"The way women political supporters hurl abusive and violent
language, take drugs such as hemp and other stimulants during political
rallies give them an air of irresponsibility," Suleiman said.

The desire to make a difference and change the negative public perception
of women politicians eventually changed Suleiman’s mind and she
entered the political arena.

"If we all stay away and allow such uncultured women to continue
exhibiting their uncouth attitude in politics, we will never be taken
seriously," the 25-year-old Suleiman said.

Mohammed Ali Mashi, head of rights organisation General Improvement of
Persons Initiatives (GIOPIN), said tradition and distorted religious dogma
play a significant role in women’s political marginalisation.

Hard line Muslim clerics mount campaigns on the pulpit and on radio
denouncing women’s political participation as being against the
tenets of Islam.
Mashi faulted such radical clerics, arguing that their views do not
represent true position of Islam.

Mashi believes women are gradually defying such notions and venturing into
politics and contesting elective offices due to sustained public
enlightenment campaigns.
He, however, said more campaigns have to be intensified to minimise the
wide political margin between men and women.

"Since Islam encourages women to seek an education, I see no reason
why society should deprive women political equality with men because they
also have the right to contribute to nation building as men," Mashi
said.

Measures to change the trend

Gender-based NGOs like WRAPA have mounted rigorous sensitisation campaigns
to erase the promiscuity stigma attached to female participation in
politics.
"We are all out to disabuse the minds of the public of the
popularly-held belief that women politicians are flirtatious simply
because they mingle with men and attend meetings in hotels and sleep
there when the need arises," said Musa.

"We wonder why the society doesn’t see men politicians that
sleep at hotels for (political) meetings and rallies as immoral. Why
women? It is very disheartening," she lamented.