Nigerian women fare well

The International Women's Day is being celebrated today. Events planned for this year's celebration, which marks the 10th year of the Beijing Platform For Action include the recently concluded programme of the United Nations Commission for the Status of Women in New York.

In Nigeria, though a lot of progress and actions in the status of women have been made since the Beijing declaration, the government is yet to domesticate the declaration and this has become a source of worry for women organisations.
The women groups are also not happy that the government is yet to domesticate the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), another international treaty on women which Nigeria acceded to, the legislation of which would have given teeth to the fight against all forms of violence against women.

The absence of local legislations backing these two declarations, are major problems that the Nigerian women organisations have to contend with in their quest for empowerment and fight against violation of women's rights.
''A lot of progress has been made since Beijing, but basically, there is one major gap that is missing which is that the Nigerian government has not domesticated the Beijing declaration. That is a major gap because it is supposed to be part of institutional mechanism spelt out during the conference 10 years ago,'' says Mrs. Toro Oladapo, National Coordinator of Women In Nigeria (WIN), a Lagos-based NGO. ''With the absence of these legislations, you can understand that there will be so many other ripple effects to that missing gap. But that not withstanding, a lot has been done,'' she stated.
Some key areas identified in the Beijing Platform for Action which all countries, NGOs and civil society were expected to work on to facilitate the development of women are; women and poverty, education and training, health, violence, armed conflict, women and economy, power and decision making.
Oladapo stated that Nigeria has done well in some areas but not in most cases. ''We have done well in health, women and poverty, education and training. In terms of armed conflict, Nigeria is not one of those countries that really have conflict problems. But when you talk about violence, it is clear we expect a lot of that in Nigeria but armed conflict is minimal, except in ethnic and religious crises-ridden areas and the Niger Delta region''.

She blamed non domestication of CEDAW, low level of education and obnoxious cultural practices for the continued violation of women's rights in the country, arguing that if CEDAW is domesticated, there will be a law backing the fight against violence against women.

''There is not enough awareness on the part of women themselves particularly in the hinterland. Due to this and low level of education, women themselves condone violence against women's rights, such as widowhood and female genital mutilation. It is not men that do general mutilation but women. This type of age-long cultural practice is difficult to stop,'' she said.

Oladapo disclosed however, that there are presently women organisations monitoring, documenting, reporting and acting on behalf of innocent women whose rights have been violated. ''We have network of non governmental organisations which take up cases of violence against women free, without the woman necessarily doing anything other than reporting such a case”.

According to her, the groups which are also fighting for a policy legislation on Nigerian women, periodically publish cases of violence against women while more Nigerian women now know that they can bail arrested persons, they can stand surety in court and they know there are ngos they can run to in case their rights are being trampled upon. ''There is that awareness but it takes time for people to drop obnoxious practices and cultures that they have lived with for years,''.

In the area of economy, Nigerian women have not done too badly, although the bulk of their contributions is still in the informal sector. That notwithstanding, more Nigerian women are now in top economic and public positions such as Managing Directors of banks, Chief Executives of enterprises, Ministers of key government ministries like the Ministry of Finance, Budget and some commissions. Eight women are currently presiding over banks in the country.''We have really developed and moved up in these areas with the help of some local and international organisations such as UNIFEM through their enlightenment programmes'' Oladapo said.

In line with his political campaign promises, President Olusegun Obasanjo has ensured that 15 per cent of appointments to public offices at the federal level is for women. Though a far cry from the 30 per cent recommended in the Beijing declaration, this is the first time in the history of Nigeria that women are enjoying this high level of recognition in public appointment at the federal level.

In spite of the high level, Nigerian women have lagged behind in political power and decision making which is one of the key areas identified during the Beijing conference. This is even reflected in the recent selection to the recently concluded National Political Reform Conference in Abuja where women’s representation was very marginal. It took agitation and protest by women organisations for the token representation to be increased by four.
''Power and decision making has been a major problem because Nigerian women have not even gone beyond where we were even under the military. There has not been any significant improvement. In terms of elective positions we are still back to where we were before. And often times when we ask, they say the environment is not conducive for women to compete favourably in politics,''.
In a country where poverty is still very high, (more than 70 percent of the population live below the poverty line of one dollar per day) and politics is tied to cash and carry arrangement, election goes to the highest bidder. These were some of the problems that women organisations had to contend with during the last elections as they embarked on educating their peers not to vote on the basis of money or to sell their conscience but to vote for integrity especially for women.

Nigeria has not done badly on Institutional Mechanism, a key area recommended during Beijing. Government has provided institutional mechanisms through which women can mainstream into national development. The government in 2000 ratified and signed a policy on women. It has also worked out a programme in 2002 through which all those policies can be implemented.

As part of the institutional mechanisms being put in place, a Commission on Women Affairs and the Ministry of Women affairs are very much visible and are working with civil society organisations to better the lot of women.

''The Ministry of Women Affairs had always been around but it was a moribund organisation under the military. In some states, we had men heading the ministry of women affairs but since the inception of this democratic government, the commissions are now responsive particularly the Ministry of Women Affairs because they work as partners with civil society organisations'' Oladapo said.

But the commissions which are working with women groups in terms of policy formulation, strategies and designing programmes, are faced with lack of funds, which affects their activities. Like the commissions, the fortunes of the 24 year-old WIN, a foremost women empowerment NGO in Nigeria, has dwindled due to lack of funds and the desertion by members who left to form their own rights groups.