By Emmanuel Gandu
The female gender is strongly becoming a veritable factor that cannot be ignored in global affairs. Realizing this indispensability is bureaucratic, military, and civil institutions.
Even the religious institutions are not left out as the two major world religions – Christianity and Islam continue to contribute effectively in galvanizing the female gender in this direction.
This granting and concession is captured vividly and therefore encapsulated in the two Holy Books of the Quran and the Bible.
In the Quran, women are important and play significant roles in the good morals taught in Islam. Maryam (Mary) is mentioned 70 times in the Quran.
In the Bible, Mary (the mother of Jesus) is mentioned by name 12 times in the Gospel of Luke, 5 times in the Gospel of Matthew, 1 time in the Gospel of Mark, and 1 time in the Book of Acts – totaling 19 times.
The odds against Nigerian women
Are Nigerian women prepared to take over the leadership of the country from the men who have messed up things for the past several decades?
The statistics:
(a) International Women’s Day is currently being celebrated with calls for women to assume more and higher positions.
But this year (2022) marks the 27th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration of 1995 without significant achievement from Nigerian women on the ’12 Strategic Goals’ including political participation.
(b) Women make up about 50% of the world population yet they are never fairly represented in governance, politics, etc in order to help meet the ever-increasing complex challenges of today’s society which men find difficult to overcome.
(c) According to figures by the National Population Commission (NPC), and the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), Nigeria has a population of about 200 million people with approximately 51% males and 41% females.
However, these figures have never translated in favour of women in either elective or appointive positions.
(d) Out of the 109 Nigerian Senators in the present 9th assembly, there are only 7 women.
(e) Just one (1) senator is a woman in the whole of the 19 Northern states of Nigeria.
(f) There are only eleven (11) women out of the 360 Honourable members of the House of Representatives.
(g) No woman has ever been elected president or vice president of Nigeria.
(h) No woman has been elected as governor in the 4th republic.
(i) The Gender and Equal Opportunities Bill (GEO) sponsored by Senator Abiodun Olujimi in 2016 is still lacking in teeth and bite.
(j) On the global scene, Nigeria is very poor on the Statistics table of women’s parliamentary representation.
Out of 193 countries surveyed by the United Nations, Nigeria ranks 181 positions.
Rwanda is no.1 in the list, Namibia is no. 7, South Africa is no. 10,
Kenya is no. 90; Niger is no. 122.
Women as better leaders than men
The argument as to whether women are better leaders than men depend on the side of the divide one is coming from. It is not even a matter of which side presents the most persuasive argument. The facts remain and remind us that:
✓ No country is known to have gone to war where millions are killed during the reign of a woman.
✓ Nations have been known to experience stability, economic development, and industrial boom during the reign of women.
✓ As mothers, women are endowed with firmness, democratic qualities, sympathy, and empathy in the affairs of governance. Some of these women world leaders include Bandaranaike of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), Indira Gandhi of India, Golda Meir of Israel, Margaret Thatcher of UK, Benazir Bhutto of Pakistan, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia, Joyce Banda of Malawi, Theresa May of UK, Angela Merkel of Germany, and Aung San Suu Kyi of Myanmar.
Men on the contrary are rather schismatic, ruthless, insensitive, dictatorial, and draconic in nature, thereby leading their country to the brink, volatility, chaos, and bloody consequences like in the case of Adolf Hitler of Germany, Mussolini of Italy, Gaddafi of Libya, Saddam Hussein of Iraq, Omar El Bashir of Sudan, Assad of Syria, Augusto Pinochet of Chile, Idi Amin of Uganda, and Sani Abacha of Nigeria.
Men have led Nigeria to a catastrophic bitter 30-month civil war. Men have dragged Nigeria to unnecessary Boko Haram and Fulani herdsmen unending atrocities. The menace of kidnapping and banditry is driven by men. Communal and tribal conflict is fueled by men. Men have earned for Nigeria the infamous notorious no. 3 position on the world terrorism index. Men have maladministered Nigeria through all forms of Nepotism, corruption, political banditry. Men have squandered the Commonwealth of Nigeria.
Is it not time to allow the women to take the destiny of Nigeria to a better future?
2023 beckons.
If the 2 world major religions Islam and Christianity elevate women to an amiable pedestal, if the gender discrimination and divide in Nigeria’s political leadership landscape is more a result of culture and religion, then, it, therefore, remains to be seen whether our religiosity is more of lip service, deception, and chauvinistic rather than anything that has to do with women’s brains.
Peace 🙏
