Spotlights on Inclusion, Innovation, and Infrastructure
Gender
Tinubu Achieves 5% Gender Inclusion in First Year
Women constitute only 5% of the Tinubu-led 3-tier government, falling 30% points short of the 35% affirmative action outlined in his Renewed Hope Manifesto document.
Overall, women are less represented than men in the Legislative, Executive, and Judiciary.
Currently, women constitute only 15% of President Tinubu’s cabinet and just 4% of members of the Senate and House of Representatives.
This imbalance in women’s representation in politics may increase gender-biased policymaking and decisions in the executive and the parliament, leading to a lack of attention to women’s issues such as gender-based violence, sexual harassment, girl child education, child marriage, and female gender mutilation.
In his Renewed Hope Agenda, Tinubu pledged that his administration would prioritize gender equality at all levels and increase women’s participation in government to at least 35% of all government positions.
In the last 25 years, there has been a consistent pattern of low female representation in the Nigerian parliament, both in the Senate and House of Representatives.
Under the current administration, women comprise only 18 of 469 parliament members. This is the second-lowest number of women represented in parliament since 1999.
The lowest number of women in the parliament in Nigeria’s history was during former president Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration between 1999 and 2003, with only 15 women out of the 469 members. The highest record is between 2007 and 2011.
According to the Women, Peace and Security Index (WPS) 2023, the percentage of women in the Nigerian parliament is only 4%, the lowest among the 48 Sub-Saharan African countries on the list.
On the other hand, Rwanda has made significant progress in gender balance in public governance, with women accounting for 54.7% of the Rwandan parliament.
This indicates that the Rwandan government has achieved fair representation between genders, and ranks first in female inclusion in the parliament among the 48 Sub-Saharan African countries.
The WPS Index is an annual report that combines indicators of women’s inclusion, justice, and security, to track trends of inclusion, equality, and diversity in selected countries across the world.
The pattern of government composition across successive administrations shows that women lag significantly behind men with regard to opportunities to play a role in Nigeria’s political landscape.
The country continues to experience a history of male-dominated governance, potentially leading to gender-biased policies.
How true is this?
Besides Tinubu’s failure to meet the promised 35% gender representation in his government, there are other instances where his few women representatives fall short of their strategic gender inclusion roles.
An instance where a sitting Minister of Women Affairs under the Tinubu administration was seen threatening female victims of sexual harassment by a Professor at the University of Calabar raises questions on the veracity of the idea that more women in government will automatically lead to gender-favorable policies.
According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, ensuring that public leaderships reflect the demographics they serve, including gender, and ethnic representation, is essential for the fairness and responsiveness of public policies and institutions.
However, gender fairness in politics transcends having an equal share of the men and women population in government.
Gender fairness requires that men and women irrespective of their gender identity have equal access to participate in the decision-making process without discrimination of any sort.
Disability
In November 2023, President Tinubu appointed a person with disability as Senior Special Assistant to the President on Disability Matters.
This appointment offers a representation for persons living with disabilities (PWD), enabling them to influence and help shape policies that are favorable to PWDs.
With this appointment, the Tinubu-led administration signifies progress in Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion (DEI).
However, can one representative in the executive only effectively advocate for the approximately 29 million individuals with some disability in Nigeria?
As seen in 2016, former president Muhammadu Buhari also appointed a person with disability as the Senior Special Assistant on Disability Matters.
About 29 million Nigerians are living with disabilities and they constantly face discrimination, seclusion, and prejudice.
As regards influencing policies that promote the inclusion of persons living with disability, it takes a member of the community to understand their rights and mechanisms to implement those rights fully.
For instance, after his appointment, the Senior Special Assistant to President Tinubu on Disability Matters, Mohammed Isa, in November 2023 facilitated an empowerment program for persons with disabilities (PWDs) through the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN).
This suggests that more can be achieved if PWDs are more represented in government.
Like gender inclusion conversations, the exclusion of persons with disability in various spheres of life is a global phenomenon needing sustained debates and advocacy for inclusivity and accessibility.
According to the United Nations Division for Social Policy Development, to achieve the internationally agreed development goals, the inclusion and integration of the rights, and well-being of persons with disabilities must be prioritised at national, regional, and international levels.
3MTT
The Ministry of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy in November 2023, launched the 3 Million Technical Talent (3MTT) initiative.
This aligns with President Tinubu’s Renewed Hope vision to build technical talents to power Nigeria’s digital economy and lead in digital disruption and technological innovation.
Digital innovation has spawned new career sectors, increasing the demand for technical talents to lead the digital evolution. To keep pace with advanced economies, developing countries are deploying resources to create new frameworks and strategies to meet global standards. Nigeria is not exempted.