What Nigerian Women Will Expect From Buhari - By Rinsola Abiola

Nigerian women constitute 51% of the country’s population; what this means is that women are in the majority and therefore, should be considered in every aspect of decision making.

In an ideal world, it would be apparent to everyone that women’s rights are human rights; however, our society is far from ideal, or else the many women’s organisations engaged in one form of advocacy or the other for women's rights would have no reason to exist.

The topic of this piece may elicit reactions such as: “but why should women want specific initiatives when men aren’t making demands?”, or “these women are rabble-rousers”, and of course, “the feminists are making noise again”; because of those who are prone to so wantonly dismiss women’s advocacy as something not worthy of being taken seriously.

It is imperative that an overview be given regarding the state of Women Affairs in Nigeria.

Poverty and Economic Empowerment

In this part of the world, widowhood and poverty are inseparable items; this is not the problem, but a symptom of the problem itself. Women are at a disadvantage in virtually every sphere of endeavour; from politics where our participation is limited due to its capital intensive nature, to agriculture where, although a large number of women are involved, majority own small farmlands and cultivate with obsolete tools and farming techniques.

There have been many schemes geared at empowering women but these have barely scratched the surface; in recent times, there was YouWIN, which had an edition dedicated to women entrepreneurs. While this did help a couple thousand, there was one clear flaw; to submit a business plan via the internet, you must have attained a certain level of education. 83% of unemployed Nigerians are people without a degree from a higher institution; these requirements, therefore, effectively denied the worst hit demography access.

Another challenge that many other women face is access to funding and while this is most definitely not a gender-specific problem, there exist cultural and social norms which militate against the participation of women in business and economic activities.

Some hold the view that women MUST not work and have internalised dogma that “the place of a woman in the kitchen”. Beliefs such as these stop many women from attaining their economic potential.

Education

Perhaps, one area where a discrepancy is most glaring is education; the rate of enrolment of boys into school is much higher than that of girls, most especially in the North.

While this problem once existed in most parts of the country – in part due to the “women belong in the kitchen” mentality and some parents’ concerns about their daughters being sexually exploited – a gradual attitudinal shift has seen some progress being recorded across board.

However, the figures still point to the fact that we ought to worry and urgently do something to close the gap – while also making concerted efforts to get the 10 million out-of-school children into school.

Fortunately, all hope is not lost as a solution has been implemented successfully in certain areas, and this will be discussed subsequently.

Security

This is closely linked with the point on education. The North-East happens to be the worst hit in terms of education statistics and this has only been worsened by the relentless onslaught of Boko Haram criminals on helpless students and teachers in that region.

The Buni Yadi massacre which claimed the lives of scores of school boys and similar sad occurrences adversely affected the efforts that were being made to put children in school. The abduction of the Chibok Girls from the Government Secondary School, Chibok, is also still very fresh in our memories.

Some of the girls who escaped vowed to never return to school, while other students elsewhere have had their psyche so damaged that they abandoned their studies out of fear of Boko Haram. Citadels of learning became danger spots and even parents choose to have their children at home as long as it would guarantee their safety.

Another effect of the state of insecurity is the spate of abductions in the North-East; the hundreds of women and girls rescued from Boko Haram camps in recent times point to just how much help and rehabilitation women in that region require.

The APC government must concern itself with providing this and more importantly, ensuring that never again will our women and girls be dragged from their homes and schools and forced into unholy marriages in which they are repeatedly violated by thugs and murderers.

Domestic Violence and Sexual Abuse

Violence is bad and unacceptable, irrespective of who perpetrates it. While I acknowledge that domestic violence and sexual abuse are offences perpetrated by both men and women, it is an irrevocable fact that an overwhelming majority of victims are female.

The Violence Against Persons Prohibition (VAPP) Bill was recently signed into law and while this is a victory in itself, it behoves the APC government to enforce it. Also, it is rather counterproductive to have a bill prohibiting domestic violence while a penal code says that a man may beat his wife; the necessary amendments must, therefore, also be made.

Equal Opportunity and Gender-Based Discrimination

The government of Ekiti State, before the garrulous rice-o-cracy, made history by introducing this. The Equal Opportunity Bill is legislation which seeks to protect those who are at a disadvantage; the weak and downtrodden, and those who are most likely to be discriminated against and treated shabbily.

A lack of equal opportunity is why women are denied jobs not due to lack of qualification, but simply because they’re women. Until and unless this is clearly prohibited by law, it will remain as standard practise.

Healthcare

The World Health Organisation defines maternal death as: “the death of a woman while pregnant or within 42 days of termination of a pregnancy (irrespective of duration and site of the pregnancy) from any cause related to or aggravated by the pregnancy... .”

Nigeria has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world and the only way to effectively counter this is to improve healthcare both through the provision of equipment and the training of staff, such as midwives.

Another health concern is HIV; women are more susceptible to the virus and while awareness is high, a lot still has to be done, especially in rural areas and regarding the younger generation. Other health challenges which should be put into account include the widespread use of harmful bleaching products; we could follow the lead of other African nations who have banned these.

Solutions

Some effective ways of solving the aforementioned challenges are listed below;

– The provision of credit facilities not just to women, but to Nigerians who require such assistance with setting up their businesses. Due to certain realities (e.g. education statistics) which put women at a disadvantage, the requirements may therefore be relaxed for women.

– Pres. Jonathan needs to quickly accent to the Violence Against Person Prohibition Bill and its provisions must be enforced.

– Making it mandatory for each state to have a sex offenders’ register, and to publish the pictures and names of these offenders periodically so that the general public may beware.

– Making denying children education a criminal offense punishable with heavy fines and a jail sentence. This is necessary in order to serve as a deterrent but certain provisions must also first be made. In Kano, for instance, there are girls-only schools with dedicated buses which take the burden of transportation costs off parents. In Osun, students are given uniforms, books and a meal per day to serve as an incentive. What these imply is that the carrot and stick approach must be employed in order to overcome barriers and achieve tangible results.

Also, all solutions provided must be tailored to the community in which they are to be implemented, so that local collaboration and cooperation may be achieved.

– Terrorism must be fought, conquered and permanently relegated to history. Our students must once again feel safe and our women must cease to live the horror of being abducted.

The APC manifesto highlights a plan for security and this must be fully implemented.

– Improve healthcare delivery through provision of required equipment and training of staff, with strong emphasis on rural health centres. Campaigns on family planning and HIV prevention would also be required and these would gain a lot of mileage if the government partners with the relevant agencies. Ban bleaching products.

– Reviewing the institutionalised discrimination which prohibits Nigerian women from passing on citizenship to their children; this logic-defying archaic law directly implies that Nigerian women aren’t considered by the constitution as human enough for their children to be regarded as Nigerians.

– Political Inclusion. This is one of the most critical aspects of women empowerment because the active participation of women in governance is required for the formation of workable policies on women’s issues. While affirmative action has not always produced the best “representatives”, the APC does have a number of qualified women who would, no doubt, positively contribute not only to Women’s Affairs, but to delivering good governance and the dividends of democracy to all Nigerians.

The APC has shown commitment to breaking that glass ceiling (what with a female gubernatorial candidate in Taraba), and now is the time to do more to prove that truly, Nigerian women are stakeholders who should not just be “carried along”, but actively involved in steering the affairs of OUR country.

Conclusion

A bird cannot fly with one wing; every society is made up of men and women and we all have something to offer. We should not be denied opportunities on the basis of gender; none of us chose to be male or female as we were being conceived and therefore, being either should neither give one undue advantage over the other, nor put one at a disadvantage to the other.

In a progressive government, men and women must be partners in progress.

Rinsola Abiola (@Bint_Moshood) is an advocate for Gender Equity, youth inclusion in politics and good governance. She is also the PRO/Secretary of the APC Young Women Forum.

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