In this interview, TEN sits with Nafisa Abubakar, a lawyer and social advocate whose work is focused around getting more women involved in politics. Nafisa Abubakar is a TED X Speaker, Walter Carrington Fellow, Activist, and Author of Girls Just Want To Run; a book written to inspire young women to be involved in Nigerian politics. She currently works at the Shehu Musa Yar’Adua Foundation in the Gender Justice Department.
What is Nafisa Abubakar doing differently? She explains, here:
[The Election Network]: It started out as a Book and Now a Movement, why “Girls Just Want to Run”?
[Nafisa Abubakar]: I wrote ‘Girls Just Want to Run’ as a call to action and as a result of my experiences of trying to be involved in the political space in our country. The aim for it was never to just begin and end as a book but to spark a nationwide conversation of involving young women in leadership and politics and break any stereotypes that would discourage that. We always talk about having women in politics and when it’s close to the elections we see CSO’s scrambling to support the few women who have made their intentions known to run for office. This is in itself is an ineffective approach. When we talk about involving women in politics, it involves breaking down and revamping years of oppressive culture, stereotypes and systems; and this does not just happen within one election cycle. It is deliberate, time taking work that demands we start on time and early. If we do not have young women starting to take an interest in leadership and politics on time; then we will never have the mass number we need of women in political office.
[TEN]: There has been a lot of advocacy about getting more women involved in politics, what are your specific recommendations for enhancing the participation of women in the political process?
[NA]: Firstly, I would strongly recommend gender quotas as affirmative action. Countries like Rwanda, Uganda have an increased number of women in political offices as a result of gender quotas. It is a proven formula that works effectively to put women in office when changing culture or perspectives on women in leadership is proving to be an uphill task.
[TEN]: Will you say there have been significant improvements in the participation of women in the political space in the past years? Are we making progress or retrogressing?
[NA]: Definitely retrogressing, and the evidence can be garnered from the number of women in elective offices over the years with less than 6% of women in the parliament. Nigeria ranks 181st of 193 countries according to the International Parliamentary Union.
[TEN]: What is one political reform you would love to see come to effect in Nigeria?
[NA]: One problem we have in Nigeria which affects the quality of the kind of leadership we have is the system through which our leaders are chosen. It is faulty, messy and leaves a lot of room for political manipulations. Electoral reforms, which are a vibrant conversation in the national discourse at the moment and are reforms that really need to happen. It deals with the introduction of emerging technologies into the electoral system to reduce rigging and campaign finance among other issues. The bill has currently passed the 2nd and 3rd reading in the ninth senate and is currently waiting for the third reading. It is a reform that Nigeria desperately needs to strengthen our democracy.
[TEN]: Will you be running for office soon?
[NA]: My top priority is inspiring and creates an enabling environment for young women to aspire for political office. There is so much work to be done in creating a structure that enables that. If running for office happens to be the next step to achieve this goal; then I will run.
