The continued and systematic 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.
“Low level of inclusion in Nigeria incapacitates not just the excluded groups but the country itself,” states Agora Policy in its report titled ‘How to Deepen Gender, Social and Political Inclusion in Nigeria,’ released on Monday.
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 ten 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 states, negatively impacts development outcome for the country as a whole.
“Nigeria undermines itself by limiting the potentials of significant segments of its population,” the report adds. “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.”
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 examines the reasons why women, youths, people living with disabilities (PWDs), and ethnic/religious minorities are excluded from economic and political opportunities in the country and makes extensive recommendations on how to consciously remake Nigeria into a more inclusive society.
The recommendations range from expanding access to marketable skills, job opportunities, credits and markets to making and enforcing more sensitive and more inclusive laws and policies, providing dedicated fundings, 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,” says 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.”
According to the Agora Policy report, Nigeria’s gender policies of 2006 and 2020 which respectively assign 35% and 50% of appointments to women have been observed largely in the breach. Though females constitute 49.3% of the population, women amount to only 4.26% of the members of the national parliament. This is not only way below the African average of 23.4% but also compares dismally with the 32.8% for Uganda, 43% for Senegal and 47.95% for Rwanda. Nigeria takes the rear in a ranking of female legislators in national parliaments in Africa.
Within Nigeria, the parliaments in 15 states, or 41.66% of the 36 states, have no female legislators, according to data from Invictus Africa. 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.
The report acknowledges some important policies and laws that are intended to reduce discrimination against women and girls or improve opportunities for them such as the Child Rights Act 2003, the Violence Against Persons Prohibition Act 2015, the National Gender Policy 2020, the National Development Plan 2021 to 2025 etc., but contends that state-level adoption and strict enforcement overall remain at issue.
According to the report, some structural and cultural issues (even some laws and policies) enable the exclusion of women from opportunities in Nigeria. The enablers of gender exclusion include: patriarchy, socio-cultural and religious norms that promote unequal economic and power relations, practices around indigene-ship, and the patronage and collusive network nature of Nigerian politics.
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); embracing gender-responsive budgeting and activating gender management systems; passing the five Gender Equality Bills turned down by the National Assembly during the ongoing constitutional amendment process; introducing and implementing laws that tackle inequality; and increasing female representation in politics through voluntary and legal quotas as is the practice in other African countries like Kenya, Rwanda and Senegal.