Celebrating Women In Development

Yesterday,  Nigeria joined the rest of the world to commemorate the 2024 International Women’s Day. It offered advocates of women’s rights the opportunity to pose a  pertinent question: How have Nigerian women fared?

This is imperative given this year’s theme, “Invest in Women: Accelerate Progress,”  which highlights the importance of gender equality, women’s and girls’ empowerment, and their rights to healthier lives.

Nigeria has a long history of gender inequality and discrimination against women. When it affects women’s welfare, the country faces a number of challenges, including limited access to education, health care, and economic opportunities.

Even worse is the obvious fact that Nigerian women are disproportionately affected by poverty, violence, as an estimated thirty-five per cent have experienced gender-based violence, and other forms of discrimination.

The gender gap in socio-economic empowerment remains a significant challenge in the country, despite efforts to promote gender equality/equity and women’s empowerment.

At a two-day roundtable on women inclusion in politics, to mark the International Women’s week, in Abuja recently, the European Union (EU), said  women’s inclusion in governance and decision-making is crucial to achieving sustainable development in Nigeria.

It further said that, over the years, strategies to increase women’s participation in politics have been advanced through conventions, protocols, and international agreements for gender mainstreaming, but they are yet to prove effective in achieving gender parity in the highest government rankings.

In the circumstance, women continue to be underrepresented in government, and face barriers that often make it difficult for them to access, exercise political power, and assume leadership positions.

It is noteworthy, in our opinion, that the advocacy for women’s political participation in the nation has been long drawn, and in spite of the very dynamic interventions by women groups and other key stakeholders, their representation remains in steady decline.

For example, women’s representation in the 10th National Assembly is 7.4 percent out of a total of 469 combined seats in the Senate and House of Representatives.

Reports on a recent data reveals that women remain underrepresented in political spheres, with only 3.411 percent of parliamentary seats held by women, with 4 out of 109 senators, and 14 out of 360 members of the house of representatives.

As a newspaper, we know that women make enormous contributions to the economy, whether in businesses, on farms, as entrepreneurs or employees, or by doing unpaid care work at home but they also remain disproportionately affected by poverty, discrimination, and exploitation.

We are not ignorant of the fact that when women have opportunities, a country’s economic productivity and development is enhanced across board.

While we recognise the progress made in increasing girls’ access to education, disparities still exist.

In Nigeria, there is a large disparity between the education of boys and that of girls. In 2010, the female adult literacy rate (ages 15 and above) for Nigeria was 59.4 per cent while the literacy rate for males was 74.4 per cent.

Of more than 10 million children who are out of school or do not have access to adequate education past a certain age, 60 per cent are girls.

The country has experienced growing abduction and kidnapping of school children, with many girls forced into early marriage or impregnated by their kidnappers.

So far, it is more likely for girls to drop out of school due to factors such as early marriage, poverty, religious and cultural norms. As if this is not bad enough, girls suffer limited access to quality education a set back the hampers the  opportunities available to them for socio-economic advancement.

On health issues, Nigeria accounts for over 34 per cent of global maternal deaths. The lifetime risk of dying during pregnancy, childbirth, postpartum, or after an abortion for a Nigerian woman is one in 22, compared to one in 4,900 in developed countries.

Therefore, we urge the government at all levels to do well to pay urgent attention to five areas of concern: education for girls, gender-based violence, representation of women in politics, maternal health, and women’s economic empowerment.

Interestingly, we dare to point out, Nigeria is a signatory to many international conventions and norms such as the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women and the Solemn Declaration on Gender Equality in Africa. Yet this protection is mostly on paper. There is a need for the government to enforce the laws that punish offenders.

The  onus is on state governments to implement policies and programmes that promote girls’ education, ensure equal employment opportunities, provide access to financial services and resources, increase women’s representation in decision-making processes as well as combat gender-based violence.

We call for action to break down barriers and create environments for women’s socioeconomic development and girls’ education by encouraging everyone to recognise the unique perspectives and contributions of women from all walks of life.

In the meantime, we join the world  as they celebrate  the resilient women and wish them Happy Women’s Day.