2023: Tallen to Name, Shame State Governors Who Under-represented Women

Kuni Tyessi in Abuja

The Minister for Women Affairs and Social Development, Paullen Tallen, has said the coming days will be dramatic as the ministry is set to name and shame elected public office holders, particularly state governors, who under-represented women.

Calling for the full 35 percent affirmative action of women participation, Tallen, who disclosed this over the weekend in Abuja, said negotiation with all the aspirants would be done in order to discover what they have done, and will do for women if elected.

She lamented that so far in Nigeria, only two deputy governors, 18 out of 360 House of Representative members, and eight out of 109 senators are women despite the numerical strength of the female folks.

Excited that so far, about 400 women have indicated interest to run for various offices, she said so far, political structures are being reformed and will be made amendable to the rights of women in decision making and their rights in the male-dominated field of politics.

Tallen said: “To ensure that it is no longer business as usual, we have started the process of building a dashboard to display all the pro-women projects initiated and executed by the 36 states of the federation. This will play a crucial role in determining the women’s support, especially for those serving who wish to continue in office or seeking higher office.

“Negotiation is going to take place with all the aspirants across parties, particularly state governors. We are going to ask them what they have done for women when they were state governors. With this, we will know if they deserve more support or not.

“Despite their numerical strength of 49.2 per cent of Nigeria’s 2016 estimated population of 193 million people and the difference they make in ushering in a new government, they are still largely absent from national and local decision-making bodies; they struggle to have a voice in issues and concerns affecting them.

“For instance, currently in the House of Representatives, out of the 360 members, only 18 are women representing about 4.61 percent; Senate has eight women out of 109 members representing 7.34 percent%. The same trend, even worse runs down all levels of governance in the states and local government areas.

“According to the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report ranking on Women Political participation, Nigeria is worse in 2019 (102nd) than nine years ago when it ranked 99th globally. This is a growing concern to many, and in particular, Nigerian women.

“Available data from 12 out of 36 states before me is a clear demonstration of the injustice perpetuated in the election and appointment of women. It is evident that women have been short changed. Out of the 36 states of the federation, there are no female governors, only two female deputy governors. Statistics from the 12 states show that we do not have a female Secretary to State Government (SSG); of the 287 state Assembly members in 12 states only 23 are women; of 2,050 Special Assistants only 425 are females; of 325 local government chairmen only 31 are females, 73 vice chairmen and 368 females out of 2,075 councillors of LGAs.