AN APPRAISAL OF THE LEGAL FRAMEWORK ON GENDER DISCRIMINATION OF WOMEN IN NIGERIAN POLITICS

Globally, women constitute over half of the world’s population; they are involved in various ways to improve society and develop it; however, women are not properly represented in political positions. The European Parliamentary Research Service (EPRS) of 2019 was able to find that there was an increase in the number of women in government as head of states from 12 to 21 over the past 20years[1] but this number is an outcry when compared to the population of women, those of age that could be active in politics. Pointing out the increase of just 9 women in a population of over millions is an anomaly and close to negligible but the increment is a positive outlook to the fact that women are fighting for positions in the government, although the number is insignificant but it is a better place than 20years ago.

There is a population of 19.5 million people in Nigeria with the current female population of 49.4%.[2]  This percentage is not mirrored in the political realms of the Nigerian community. Nigeria has never had an elected female Governor, Vice President, Senate President or even President; and Nigeria records very low members of female parliamentarians. However in Nigeria’s defense, the widest gap portrayed worldwide is the political gap[3]; Politics is seen as a male dominated affair and more than half of the countries in the world have never had a female leader. Under international standards, both women and men should participate fully in every aspect and at all levels of political processes.

This large discrepancy has prompted countries and women at large to campaign for gender equality. An example is the gender quota system being implemented worldwide. According to the Inter-parliamentary Union[4] of 2017, there's an improvement in representation of women in regional countries for example Nordic countries. The research was able to establish that percentage of women in parliament averages 41% and Arabs having the lowest of 17.4%. Though the study did not state the reason, but the surge is a welcome progress