Group seeks Gender Equality Bills in government

By Chukwuma Umeorah

Centre for Media and Society (CEMESO) is calling for the implementation of a series of Gender Equality Bills in government. This, it said, is part of efforts aimed at addressing the longstanding issue of women’s underrepresentation in Nigerian politics and governance.

This call was made at a one-day Media and Inclusion Conference organised under the Support-to-Media Component of the European Union Support to Democratic Governance (EU-SDGN) Phase II Project, implemented by CEMESO.

The Executive Director of the Women Information Network (WINET), Miriam Menkiti, while speaking at the conference, said the 5 gender bills – the Affirmative Action Bill, the Ministerial or Commissioner Nomination Bill, the Reserved Seat Bill, the Citizenship Bill, and the Indigene-ship Bill – have not received a favourable response from the National Assembly.

She cited recent data from Invictus Africa, which reveals that “Out of the 990 members of the State House of Assembly, only 45 are women, with 15 states lacking any female representation.”

Menkiti highlighted the challenges faced by Nigerian women in politics including cultural stereotypes, economic limitations, and patriarchal societal structures. She said, “Despite the pivotal roles women play in society, they continue to encounter discrimination, both in electoral processes and in the allocation of political offices.”

Menkiti further emphasised the urgency of enacting enabling frameworks for women’s inclusion in governance and leadership. According to her, “The National Gender Policy (NGP) (2021-2026) sets out guidelines for mainstreaming gender across various sectors, with the aim of reducing gender disparities and enhancing women’s participation in socio-economic and political development.”

Key targets outlined in the NGP include the domestication of the policy by state governments and institutions by 2025, and the adoption of a 50 per cent affirmative action to bridge gender gaps in leadership positions in the education sector by 2030. Menkiti, however, noted that “despite these policy efforts, Nigeria currently ranks 184th out of 192 countries for women’s representation in the National Parliament, according to The Inter-Parliamentary Union Women in Politics Report 2022.”

Themed “Promoting the Inclusion of All: A Searchlight on Policy and Practice,” the conference aimed to achieve a synthesis of best practices and approaches to ensure better inclusion in the electoral process and politics through the media.

In his remarks, the Executive Director of CEMESO, Akin Akingbulu, said the organisation is working to promote inclusion in democracy, in line with the global mantra of ‘leave no one behind.’

The Programme Manager, CEMESO, Timothy Bamidele, explained that the organisation is working to ensure that “the Media, including New and Social Media, provides fair, accurate, ethical, and inclusive coverage of the Electoral Process.”

Bamidele emphasised the overall objective to ensure “Professionalism and strengthen media capacity to deal with electoral misinformation/disinformation, by using the Media awareness and use of FOI Act for increased accountability improved; National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) is strengthened to perform its mandate; and Media engagement in promoting women, youths, and marginalised groups in politics is improved.”