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Agora Policy: Nigeria Incapacitates Itself by Excluding Women, Youths

*Says country’s gender policy observed in breach
*Notes 15 states without a single female legislator
Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja
The exclusion of women, youths and other marginalised groups from social, economic and political opportunities in Nigeria severely limits the capacity of the country to achieve its full potential, a new report by Agora Policy, an Abuja-based think tank, has said.
According to the report, while women and girls constitute about half of the population and citizens under 35 years account for at least seven in 10 Nigerians, the capacities of women and youths for full actualisation are constrained by unequal access to power and resources as well as exclusionary norms, practices, laws and policies.
This in turn, the report stated, negatively impacts development outcome for the country as a whole.
“Low level of inclusion in Nigeria incapacitates not just the excluded groups but the country itself,” stated Agora Policy in its report titled ‘’How to Deepen Gender, Social and Political Inclusion in Nigeria.’’
It added: “Nigeria undermines itself by limiting the potential of significant segments of its population. Continuing on this path amounts to Nigeria shooting itself in the foot or punching grossly below its weight.
“Deepening inclusion is thus not a favour to the excluded groups but a sensible route to overall national development. It is in Nigeria’s self-interest to be a more inclusive society,” it said.
Put together by a group of experts on gender, political and social inclusion and produced with the support of MacArthur Foundation, the report by Agora Policy examined the reasons women, youths, people living with disabilities (PWDs), and ethnic/religious minorities are excluded from economic and political opportunities in the country.
It also made extensive recommendations on how to consciously remake Nigeria into a more inclusive society.
The recommendations ranged from expanding access to marketable skills, job opportunities, credits and markets to making and enforcing more sensitive and more inclusive laws and policies as well as providing dedicated funding.
They also include greater implementation-coordination and budget-tracking mechanisms, re-orientation campaigns, and increasing political representations for the excluded through greater devolution and constitutionally-backed power rotation and affirmative actions.
“There is no better time than this critical electioneering and transition period to discuss the need to make Nigeria a more inclusive society,” said Waziri Adio, the founder and Executive Director of Agora Policy.
“Most of the issues causing friction in the country today are rooted in the exclusion of substantial part of the population. This is also a major subtext of the 2023 general election.
“ It is therefore important to use the period before, during and after the elections to discuss and exact commitments on how improve the participation, representation and agency of a significant number of Nigerians who have been alienated, locked out or left behind,” the organisation stated.
According to the Agora Policy report, Nigeria’s gender policies of 2006 and 2020 which respectively assign 35 per cent and 50 per cent of appointments to women have been observed largely in the breach.
“Though females constitute 49.3 per cent of the population, women amount to only 4.26 per cent of the members of the national parliament. This is not only way below the African average of 23.4 per cent but also compares dismally with the 32.8 per cent for Uganda, 43 per cent for Senegal and 47.95 per cent for Rwanda. Nigeria takes the rear in a ranking of female legislators in national parliaments in Africa,” it stressed.
Within Nigeria, it said, the parliaments in 15 states, or 41.66 per cent of the 36 states, have no female legislators, quoting data from Invictus Africa.
It noted that the 15 states, which have a combined 410 state legislators, are: Abia, Bauchi, Borno, Edo, Jigawa, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Kogi, Kwara, Nasarawa, Sokoto, Taraba, Yobe and Zamfara.
“Beyond the political arena, the exclusion of women is equally pronounced in areas such as financial inclusion, ownership of landed property, access to education, health, ICT and wealth creation opportunities and others,” Agora Policy said.
Some of the recommendations of the report on gender inclusion include: enhancing the capacity of women and girls through better access to health and education, especially Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM).
Despite constituting the bulk of the population, it said Nigerian youths are excluded and disempowered.
“Nigeria’s median age is 18.1 years and citizens under the age of 35 constitute 74.22 per cent of the Nigerian population, which shows that Nigeria has a youthful population.
“Yet, Nigerian youths are disempowered, alienated and excluded, which negatively impacts the wellbeing of the youths and limits their contributions to national development,” the report added.
It explained that youth inclusion in the economic, social and political life of the nation seems to have stalled, arguing that the constructive engagement of youths has given way largely to restiveness.
“Some youths have become a reserve army of the unemployed, manipulated and used by politicians and religious bigots to perpetuate violence, thuggery, banditry and terrorism,” Agora Policy stressed.
Despite their numerical advantage, the youths, it maintained occupy only 6 per cent of elective and appointive offices in Nigeria.
“Some of the politicians that have been holding political offices since the 1970s have continued to dominate the political space,” the report noted.