When Elizabeth Agebese-Egwurube first decided to actively run for office in 2011, her husband’s family kicked against it. Egwurube, now 32, was unhappy about the horrid roads and non-existent water supply in Ado, her local government area in Benue State, and wanted to do something about its infrastructural regress.
“In my place, there’s a belief that women in politics are prostitutes,” she says.
With her family opposed to her aspirations, Egwurube stood no chance as she struggled to persuade them about her motives for seeking to be her people’s representative. Rather, the focus was on her femininity and the possibility of her sleeping with ‘Godfathers’ to fund her campaign.
“I knew I had to try to change the odd narrative that women are in politics for promiscuity,” Egwurube tells me. According to her, she had to do several rounds of advocacy between her husband and his family before she finally settled to contest for the Benue State house of assembly seat in the upcoming 2019 elections.
C for Culture
Denying women opportunities to participate in governance is not a new phenomenon. For many years now, the group has remained on the fringes of political activity dominated by religious and cultural doctrines that have zoned in their abilities to the home front. This narrative has been reinforced at the highest levels of government, including an infamous statement by the Nigerian President, Muhammadu Buhari who suggested that his wife – First Lady, Aisha only has a place in the home – attending to domestic activities.
The country’s deeply patriarchal society wields primary roles of political leadership and social privilege to men, and this is why Egwurube, who is contesting on the platform of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) has had to defend her ticket despite emerging the winner of her party’s primary election.
A political opponent who recently joined Egwurube’s party after losing the All Progressives Congress (APC) primary elections believes he is more deserving of the ticket to represent Ado in the house of assembly because he is a man.
“He offered me money and an appointment to give up contesting, and when I refused he took it up as a challenge to frustrate me,” she tells me. So far, he has accused her of anti-party activities and made multiple attempts to have her name on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)’s list swapped with his.
Luckily, the bulk of Egwurube’s party members and constituents are on her side.
Under-representation
A Gender and Equal Opportunities (GEO) bill that is supposed to create a level playing ground for Nigerian women–including those in its political scene– has stalled in the National Assembly since 2011. The bill if enacted would create equal opportunities for women in the workplace, address discrimination in governance and promote access to education for women.
When the parliament took up the bill in March 2016 and again in 2018, a lot of male Senators successfully created campaigns to shut it down on religious and cultural grounds. A member of the house of representatives, Gudaji Kazaure, representing Jigawa State was one of the vocal members caught on camera saying women will ‘mess up’ the country if given opportunities in its political set up.
Failure to pass laws like the GEO bill meant to secure more shots for women would mean that there is an under-representation of females in the space.
“If we are presenting 20 women, my desire is that they should all win. Gender and equal opportunity bill is before them and nobody is talking about it,” Ebere Ifendu, the President of the Women in Politics Forum said at a media forum in Abuja. “We don’t have the number in the National Assembly. Some people will always stand against having the gender and equality bill passed. So, we need the numbers.”
As it stands, only 8% of the members of the house of representatives are women, and out of 109 legislators in the Senate, only 7 of them are women. From all indicators the numbers would reduce in 2019.
For a country like Nigeria–the most populous African nation–, these numbers are worrying. Just think, counterparts like Rwanda, South Africa and Senegal are already among the top countries in the World with women in politics.
Is the future female?
Even though elections have remained a male battlefield over the years, the turf is shifting gradually. Nigeria’s women are slowly challenging the political system and society that has tried to rein them in. Oby Ezekwesili, Amina Mohammed, Remi Sonaiya and Elizabeth Agebese-Egwurube are making bold statements in national and international politics with their active roles in the current political climate.
A recently passed Not Too Young To Run Bill reducing the age of political participation for selected offices in the country, has created room for younger women with intentions to run for elective offices to participate.
Still, it will take a while to get the type of representation women in Nigerian politics deserve, but Egwurube reminds me that women just need a chance to try, considering too many men have failed.
“It’s time to show them how it is done. I am not saying I am the best representative out there, I am just saying that I will go out there and do my best, unlike those before.”
Story first appeared on our microsite for the Nigerian Elections 2019.
