Ahead of the 2027 general elections, a senior lecturer in the Department of Political Science and International Relations at Nile University, Abuja, Dr Iroro Izu and other leaders of Civil Society Organisations have warned against the consequences of non-inclusion of women, youths and people living with disabilities in governance.
The don particularly called on government at all levels to ensure rapid approach to enforcing inclusivity in the law-making and entire political processes, beginning with the National Assembly having more women.
In the current 10th National Assembly, only 19 out of 469 legislators are women (3.8 percent) with only 15 out of 360 members in the House of Representatives and only 4 out of 109 in the Senate while in the State Houses of Assembly (out of 991 seats) only 45 are occupied by women, representing 4.5 percent.
Speaking at the 2nd Annual Otivism Lecture to mark the 62nd birthday of a Pro-democracy activist and development expert, Dr Otive Igbuzor in Abuja yesterday, Izu said the youth aspect had tremendously gained some successes, hence the issue inclusion for women too must gain traction.
According to him, women suffer exclusion through the sexist political culture, financial constraints, violence and intimidation, cultural and religious norms, limited access to education and economic opportunities, and media representation and misrepresentation, among others.
“In Nigeria, inclusive governance faces precarious conditions marked by limited participation of marginalised groups, particularly women, youths, and people with disabilities, in economic, social and mainly political processes.
“This exclusion hinders effective representation and decision-making, potentially leading to social and political instability. Efforts to promote inclusion are often hampered by institutional, individual, and socio-cultural or patriarchal barriers, requiring comprehensive and collaborative interventions to extirpate.
“There is no doubt that the absence of inclusivity in governance has had dismal consequences on the Nigerian state. Exclusion from governance has created a sense of injustice, marginalisation, and resentment, all of which has the potential of fueling social unrest, instability and enthroning a state devoid of real patriotism, citizen loyalty and collective action towards progress,” Izu said.
He noted that one of the major planks upon which ‘Otivism’ is built is the necessity to integrate the elements of inclusivity in all spheres of society so as to achieve significant milestones of symmetry, equity, fairness, justice and people power that will see that no one is left out or left behind – regardless of their status of birth, gender, among others.
“Otivism as an ideology is anchored on force and truth, openness and fairness, compassion and collaboration for the betterment of society. Otivism is not an ideology of lamentation, blame game or pessimism, but of action, fortitude and optimism,” he said.
The celebrant and the founding Executive Director of the Center for leadership strategy and development (Center LSD), Dr Otive Igbuzor, said the quest for good governance can only be achieved if the right persons are entrusted with the governance of the country.
The pro-democracy activist warned that if the vast majority of God-fearing people, religious persons and professionals from all walks of life shy away from active participation in politics due to the notion that it is a dirty game, they stand the risk of leaving the terrain to charlatans to lead the country.
He maintained that free, fair, credible and violent free elections is the cornerstone of inclusion in governance whereby the poor, persons living with disability, women and youths would have a say in the choice of those entrusted with leadership responsibility.
“If we have free, fair, credible and violent free elections, more women will participate. Secondly, we need some deliberate policies for inclusion. Quota for women, quota for youth and quota for persons living with disability. Thirdly, we need participatory democracy as an approach. Such that political parties, even in families, there will be participation and there will be no imposition. Once these three approaches are practiced in any society, You will have inclusive governance.
“The end result will be accelerated development and progress of entire society. You talk about a participatory approach to Nigerian governance, how do you make this attractive to those categories of persons who were mentioned as key elements in taking the driver’s seat? There are many ways we can make it attractive.
“You know, the first and the most important is awareness. For people to become more aware of the centrality of politics in life. For people to know that politics determine a lot of things in society.
“Politics will determine the kind of education you will have. Politics will determine the type of media you will have. Politics will determine religion. Politics will determine whether you have housing or not.
Politics will determine whether you have food or not,” Igbuzor added.
Also speaking, the executive director of the Peering Advocacy and Advancement Center in Africa (PAACA), Ezenwa Nwagwu, said the struggle for inclusivity is a long-drawn battle, adding that the system the country is operating is patriarchal in complexion.
“And so it’s not a hundred metres dash. It is going to be a long one, it’s going to be a marathon. And so every centimetre of progress that is made, we need to beat our chest and say we’ve done well.
“Why do I say so? Yes, there are adversaries. But there were times also in which we saw inclusion of more young people. The passing of the Not Too Young to Run bill is revolutionary.
“The reduction for the age for contesting elections is as small as it looks but you know what it means for you to be 28 years, 29 years and you cannot contest for House of Representatives until you are 30. You can’t contest for governorship even when you are 35 with double PhDs and running successful businesses.
“So the shattering of that ceiling by the agitation of young people across the country that led President Muhammadu Buhari to sign that bill is a big testament for inclusivity. And now there is a conversation around reserved seats for women.
“It is gaining momentum and what that will mean is that even though it is totalistic, very clearly we will see that when we have 36 women included in both the Senate and the House of Representatives, that will be reflective of inclusion,”he added.
