Despite promises to prominently feature women in his government, females are again underrepresented in governance under the administration of Nigerian President Bola Tinubu, the ICIR reports as part of the series tagged, Tinubu’s one year in office. 

DURING his inauguration on Monday, May 29, 2023, one of the promises President Bola Tinubu made to the Nigerian people was to feature women “prominently” in his government.

May 29 was not the first time Tinubu had made that promise.

Running a gender-inclusive government was one of the campaign promises on which Tinubu rode to the presidency. While unveiling his manifesto, he promised to work with the National Assembly to enact a law guaranteeing the employment of women in all government offices.

In addition to this, Tinubu promised that there would be a minimum number of senior positions reserved for women in the Federal Executive Council, especially as his cabinet and senior advisers.

“The goal will be to increase women’s participation in government to at least 35 per cent of all governmental positions,” Tinubu said.

The president’s idea of having women in 35 per cent of all governmental positions is reflective of Nigeria’s goal, which led to the establishment of the National Gender Policy (NGP) of 2006.

In 2006, Nigeria established the NGP under the administration of former president Olusegun Obasanjo to enhance gender equality in political, economic and other areas of decision-making.

The policy recommends that women fill 35 per cent of appointive positions in the country for inclusion, but since its establishment, neither Obasanjo nor past presidents Muhammadu Buhari and Goodluck Johnathan, met the 35 per cent target even within their cabinets.

Although Jonathan’s government had the highest female representation since the establishment of the NGP, with 12 women making up 30 per cent of his 42-member-cabinet, the figure drastically declined upon Buhari’s election as president.

Under Buhari, only 16 per cent of his cabinet members were women.

Like his predecessors, when Tinubu announced his first list of ministerial nominees, women did not occupy up to 35 per cent of the available positions.

Out of 28 nominees initially appointed by Tinubu, seven were women, making up 25 per cent.

As time went on, Tinubu added 19 more names to the list of nominees, and with only two women included, the percentage of nominated females shrank to 19 per cent.

The senate confirmed the appointment of 46 ministers.

Of the nine female nominees, eight were confirmed, placing the percentage of women in Tinubu’s cabinet at 18.

In addition to this shortfall, not much has been said of the promised legislation to guarantee women’s occupation of 35 per cent of positions within the Nigerian government.

Most of Nigeria’s current lawmakers, whom Tinubu promised to work with, were part of the previous National Assembly that stepped down a bill seeking to provide 35 per cent affirmative action for women into all appointive positions in 2023.

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18 years after NGP, Nigerian women remain underrepresented in government

Nigeria is one of the countries around the world that pledged to achieve 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030, one of which is the achievement of gender equality.

In the Executive Summary of the  NGP (2006), the document was described as a corrective response to gender inequalities and discrimination, a point that was reiterated by former Minister for Women Affairs Pauline Tallen in 2022, when the policy was revised.

Eighteen years after, not only is there inadequate female representation in appointive positions like Tinubu’s cabinet, the problem is even worse in elective positions, including Nigeria’s National Assembly, where there are only 19 elected women, out of 469 lawmakers.

To ensure compliance with the NGP, Nigerian women, represented by nine Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) sued the federal government.

Delivering judgment on the suit in 2022, a Federal High Court in Abuja ruled in favour of the women and ordered the government to implement the policy.

Ironically, the Nigerian government appealed the ruling that ordered an implementation of the policy, which was initially established by the government itself.

Women condemn poor representation

For decades, Nigerian women have consistently condemned the low representation in government positions.

The condemnation has continued following Tinubu’s ministerial appointments, described by co-founder of Womanifesto Abiola Akiyode-Afolabi as a “deliberate attempt to promote patriarchal character in governance.”

Other women who have condemned the underrepresentation include Chioma Agwuegbo, Executive Director, TechHer.

“19 per cent out of 47 ministers for a government that made a lot of comments about affirmative action, the inclusion of women in government, how they were going to do better, is very poor but it is also representative of the fact that politicians will say whatever they need to say to get into office and when they get into office, they will do then do what they originally want to do because there are no consequences,” she said.

The Nigeria Women Commission of the Trade Union Congress (TUC) also expressed disappointment over the underrepresentation in governmental positions during the 2024 International Women’s Day.

Although women make up 49 per cent of Nigeria’s population, the clamour for fair representation has remained ignored by successive governments, with chances of inclusion looking less likely under this administration.

UPDATE: 

The report was updated to reflect that the National Gender Policy (NGP) was signed in “2006 under Olusegun Obasanjo” and not “2006 under Goodluck Jonathan” as earlier written.