Nigerian political history and studies (for instance, Ejukonemu and Akintola, 2013; Akintola, 2016) have demonstrated that Nigeria is only good at formulating good policies but fail in implementation. Most policies in the country are either partially implemented or not implemented at all. Pitiably, most Nigerians are unaware of the existence of some of these policies. The 2006 National Gender Policy is a good example.
The 2006 National Gender Policy was built upon the National Policy on Women which made little or no impact on gender equality in Nigeria. Among other things, National Gender Policy was formulated to build a just society devoid of discrimination that harnesses the full potentials of all social groups regardless of sex or circumstance. To achieve this, and especially to guarantee gender inclusion in Nigeria, the Policy was set to “adopt special measures, quotas and mechanisms for achieving minimum critical threshold of women in political offices, party organs and public life by pursuing 35% affirmative action in favour of women. This was meant to bridge the gender gaps in political representation in both elective and appointive posts at all levels”. The 35% affirmative action, since 2006 when the Policy was formulated, remains a mirage and makes gender inclusion in elective and appointive posts elusive.
In the present Eight National Assembly, only eight (8) women are elected senators, constituting 7.3%. In the House of Representatives, out of its three hundred and sixty (360) members, only fifteen (15), which is 4.2%, are women. No woman is elected a governor but four (4), which is 11% of the thirty-six (36) states in Nigeria, are deputy governors. Lagos, Ogun, Rivers and Enugu States have women as deputy governors. Out of thirty-six (36) ministers, only six (6) were women. They constituted 16.6% in President Buhari cabinet before Amina Mohammed became United Nations Deputy Secretary-General. With her exit and replacement with a man, women now constitute 13.8% of the present Federal Cabinet. Read more