Bolaji Abdullahi: Afghanistan has more women in parliament than Nigeria

Bolaji Abdullahi, former spokesman of the All Progressive Congress (APC), says Afghanistan, home of the Taliban, has more women in its national parliament than Nigeria.

Abdullahi said this in a paper he delivered at the Osasu show symposium in Abuja on Wednesday.

He said besides Afghanistan, which has 18% female representation, Sudan has 27.7% and 26.8% female representation in the lower and in the upper legislative houses, while Nigeria has just 5.6% (house of representatives) and 6.4% (senate).

He said Nigeria was ranked “180 out of 192 countries for having only 20 women of 359-member House of Representatives and 7 of 109 Senators, representing a dismal 5.6% and 6.4% respectively” by a report of Women in National Parliaments.

In the paper entitled, ‘the 21st century woman and her role in national development: challenges and prospects for women political participation in Nigeria’, Abdullahi, however, added that all African countries are better rated than Nigeria in terms of women representation in parliament.

He said countries like Afghanistan, Sudan, Saudi Arabia and the UAE “that are generally considered undemocratic or even traditionally repressive of women, have much better records of female representation than Nigeria”.

The former minister also cited ‘the gender and equality opportunity bill’ sponsored by Abiodun Olujinmi, a former senator representing Ekiti south.

He said the bill was considered ”superfluous” because the problems that it seeks to address are already taken care of by existing laws, and the rights that the bill seeks to confer on women are those already provided for in Nigeria’s constitution.

“But this would be wrong,” Abdullahi said.

“It is true that existing laws and the Constitution addressed these issues; but they have not solved the problems; discrimination against women remains entrenched as ever.

“In constructing our theory of change for gender equality, we would need to pay closer attention to the overall parameters for inclusion and exclusion in our society, which have made the particular exclusion of women in the political arena possible or even normal in the first place”

In the 8th national assembly, women occupied seven out of 109 seats in the senate and only 22 out of 360 seats in the house of representatives.

After the 2019 elections, the number of women in the senate is still seven, but 20 in the lower legislative house.

Also, only seven women occupy ministerial positions — out of 42 slots — in Nigeria.