If Nigerians elect a female president
The last few years have erupted several debates on the subject of gender equality with emphasis on the need for feminine participation and inclusion in core economic sectors of the country. These debates are often accompanied by cohesive agitations from feminine stakeholders, feminists, and a proportion of the masculine gender who are at the climax of displeasure with the poorly-inclusive system of governance in a supposedly democratic country like Nigeria.
Meanwhile, many of these stakeholders had made clear submissions on different platforms, at one time or the other with resonance on the premise that it is time for feminine emergence in Nigeria’s leadership space – especially at the presidency. In alignment with the line of thoughts and projections of these stakeholders, the anticipated gender shift at the presidential level has a very high tendency of changing the narrative of the Nigerian state through increased feminine empathy for the masses and possible reinforcement of transparency and accountability across all sectors, for Nigeria’s narrow escape from total economic breakdown.
As a matter of fact, the debate is becoming very interesting as concerned Nigerians are amplifying their voices from different angles with variant perspectives aimed at pulling the expected results (compliance) in the public space. This result is evident in the turnout of young Nigerians (male and female aspirants) in the last general elections. The Not-Too-Young-To-Run Law opened way for many of these young aspirants who were drawn different emerging political parties, to try ‘their luck’ in Nigeria’s highly competitive political race.
Unlike years before, the feminine aspirants were out in numbers with keen determination to unseat the incumbent through the strategic formation of a coalition party to pull large votes from the electorates for their consensus candidate to possibly rewrite history. In fact, if the strategy had played out perfectly, it would have added to the pages of history that a female emerged as president of Nigeria for the first time, after 59 years of independence. But as it were, history remains the same.
Emphatically, the Nigerian political structure is such that is unexplainably dynamic at all levels. It is unimaginably consuming and the seemingly unmovable political forces in operation are such that can neither be easily surmounted with mere feminine powers nor strategies by young people. In other words, it seems almost very impossible (from results of previous elections) to displace candidates of Nigeria’s major political parties – All Progressive Party (APC) and the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in any competitive political race on the country’s political terrain.
In the typical case of the last general elections, the feminine power closely contested the power of incumbency under the flagship of the ruling party (APC) and the results, as was clearly seen by all, played in consonance with a typical African Proverb that says”A piece of Iron can only become what the blacksmith says it should be”. This proverb directly implies that the power to decide who leads the country lies in the hands of the electorates – Nigerians. In other words, we voted our choice!
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Truth be told, there is a timely and constitutional need for Nigeria to emulate the developmental trend in the leadership space of countries in Africa as far as female presidency is concerned. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf served two consecutive terms as the president of Liberia through a free, fair and credible election, and during her tenure, the economy of Liberia flourished like a tree planted by the rivers of water. Similarly, Ethiopia, a country in Africa whose capital city holds the administrative structure for operations of the African Union (AU) voted a female president (Sahle-Work Zewde) in 2018 with conferment of power to pilot the affairs of the country. The list of countries in Africa on this inclusive leadership style as far as feminine inclusion is concerned, is endless.
For how long will Nigeria remain an exception?
In one of the interviews with Virginia Etibaba, the former Governor of Anambra State and the first female Governor on the historical pages of Nigeria, she submitted that Nigeria stands a chance to rise again under a female presidency because a typical woman of repute has an inert sense of empathy and sympathy which are unnegotiable virtues of mothers potent for the betterment of humanity. On the same lane, Amina Mohammed, Nigeria’s former Minister of Environment and current Deputy Secretary General (DSG) of the United Nations (UN) also submitted at an interview with the Mo Ibrahim Foundation in Abidjan, Cote D’Ivoire last year that Nigeria deserves a female president in 2023 to change the country’s worrisome economic narrative.
Sincerely speaking, Nigeria is blessed with reputable, industrious, and highly intelligent women, many of which are of matchless dignity, unblemished integrity and global relevance. Unfortunately, the potentials of these women are usually not being explored at the presidency for positive influence on the economy. As such, these brilliant Nigerian women, eventually, are usually appointed by top foreign organizations and leaders of other countries. One of these Nigerian-bred world-class women is Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Nigeria’s former Minister of Finance, former Coordinating Minister of the Economy, former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Board Member of various International Organizations including International Monetary Fund (IMF), a candidate for the first female president of Worldbank, Ex-Managing Director of Operations at WorldBank, and was recently appointed by the president of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa, as member of SouthAfrican Economic Advisory Council (EAC). Would it be out of place if one of these noble Nigerian women mount the presidential seat?
At this juncture, it is needful for Nigerians – the leaders and electorates, to abolish the destructive ideology stipulating that the place of a woman is in the kitchen. Crying out aloud, women constitute 49.5% of the180million Nigerians and they are entitled to active participation in Nigeria’s political space. We need to bridge the gender gap, as a matter of urgency, and stop undermining the capacity and potentials of women through political victimizations and appointment in minor public offices. If Stella Oduah, the former minister of Aviation, soiled her reputation, by embezzling public funds but should this singlar person’s act be generalized to the entire feminine population? Obviously, the men have done worse and they still mount public offices in this country (this is not an attempt to justify corruption in the country) thereby compounding the Nigerian story in the global space.
Conclusively, it is crystal clear that Nigeria is in dire need of a good leader – irrespective of gender, age and religious background. If a female reflects the expected leadership attributes to liberate the nation’s economy and the masses, then she should be given the opportunity to take charge! She should be elected as President come 2023 because equality is key.
Matthew Adebisi writes from Lagos, Nigeria.
