NBS: Women representation declining across all tiers of government

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) says women representation continues to decline across all tiers of government in Nigeria.

The bureau, in a report released on Tuesday, said female participation in politics and decision-making remains low.

The NBS said women have never been appointed as secretary to the government of the federation despite constituting almost half of the country’s population.

The report said since independence and the return to democracy in 1999, women have never been elected as president or vice-president.

In 2016 and 2017, a total of six women and 73 men occupied principal positions in the senate, while from 2007 to 2011, women recorded 7.2 percent representation in the national assembly which is the highest figure so far.

“It was 6.6 percent each in 2011 – 2015 and 2015 – 2019,” the NBS said.

“The years 2018 and 2019 have the same figure of seven women and 72 men as principal officers.

“Only nine women out of 106 members of the house of representatives occupied principal positions in 2019.”

About six females got the position of committee chairperson in 2016 and 2019, while only one woman occupied the position of minority senate leader in 2018 and 2019.

In 2019, women had 6.2 percent representation in the national assembly, while men occupied 93.8 percent of the positions.

“Female ministers appointed in 2018 were six and in 2019, only seven were among the 43 appointed ministers,” the NBS added.

In 2016 and 2017, women made up 31.87 and 31.98 percent of national judicial officers but the figure declined to 28.86 percent in 2018.

The report said women don’t make it to the top judiciary roles, adding that a female has never been the president of the national industrial court, chief justice of Nigeria, and chief registrar of the supreme court from 2016 to 2018.