WANTON KILLINGS OF NIGERIAN WOMEN POLITICIANS: CONDENEMABLE, UNACCEPTABLE, AN ABERRATION

SAYS GLOBAL FUND FOR WOMEN GRANTEES NETWORK IN NIGERIA (GFWGNN)  

As Nigeria joins the global community to mark 2022, 16 Days Activism on gender-based violence held annually between November 25 and December 10, members of the Global fund for Women Grantees Network in Nigeria (GFWGNN) seize the moment to lend their voices against the reprehensible killings and inexcusable harassment of Nigerian women who venture into Nigerian politics.

We were dismayed to hear about the dastardly way in which the life of Mrs. Victoria Chintex, Labour Party women leader in Kaura Local Government Area of Kaduna State, came to an end, by yet-to-be-identified gunmen, in her house, in the presence of her husband and children who are minors, on November 29, 2022. It is more unconscionable to think that this happened at the peak of the 2022 global campaign against gender-based violence. We condemn this horrific act in its totality, even as we recall the shooting and setting blaze of sixty-year-old Mrs. Salome Abu, Kogi State PDP woman leader, in the run-up to the 2019 general elections.

Apart from the huge loss to the immediate and extended families of these women, whose only crime was that they dared to participate in Nigerian politics, our hearts bleed at the loss and the trauma suffered by their loved ones.

On this Human Rights Day, we say collectively and individually, ENOUGH IS INDEED ENOUGH.

We join our voices and support to our distinguished Honorable Minister of Women Affairs, Dame Pauline K. Tallen, and her indefatigable team, led by Princess Jummai Idonije to say, “Every man, every youth, and every woman has the right to choose and belong to a political party of their choice without fear of intimidation according to the tenets of our democracy”.

We wholeheartedly condemn this heinous crime and view it as an attempt to further intimidate other women from lending their voices to democracy in Nigeria and to frustrate attempts to achieve 35% affirmative action for women in elective and appointive positions in Nigeria, as spelled out in the 2007 National gender policy. We state clearly, “Violence against one Nigerian Woman is Violence against all Nigerian Women, irrespective of political affiliation, creed, tribe or status”.

We equally find unacceptable, certain statistics, recently released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), as contained in its 2022 Multidimensional Poverty Index survey report on November 17, 2022. GFWGNN hereby states its concerns that:

 ● 63% of persons living within Nigeria (133 million people) are multidimensionally poor;

● poor people in Nigeria experience just over one-quarter of all possible deprivations;

High deprivations also appeared nationally in sanitation, access to healthcare, food insecurity, and housing;

● 65% of the poor (86 million people) live in the North, while 35% (nearly 47 million) live in the South; 

 ● poverty levels across States vary significantly, with the incidence of multidimensional poverty ranging from a low of 27% in Ondo to a high of 91% in Sokoto;

 ● over half of the population of Nigeria cook with dung, wood, or charcoal, rather than cleaner energy;

● multidimensional poverty is higher in rural areas, where 72% of people are poor, compared to 42% of people in urban areas; 

● Two-thirds (67.5%) of children (0–17) are multidimensionally poor according to the National MPI, and a half (51%) of all poor people are children;

● The highest deprivations are in the indicator of child engagements – where over half of the poor children lack the intellectual stimulation that is pivotal to early childhood development;

● Child poverty is prevalent in rural areas, with almost 90% of rural children experiencing poverty;

● Across the geo-political zones, the child MPI shows higher poverty in the North-East and Nort

Across the geo-political zones, the child MPI shows higher poverty in the North-East and North-West (where 90% of children are poor) and lower poverty in the South-East and South-West (74% and 65.1% respectively). The incidence of Child MPI is above 50% in all States and greater than 95% in Bayelsa, Sokoto, Gombe, and Kebbi. 

This report is an indictment of governments at the local, state, and federal levels, including all government agencies involved in one form of poverty alleviation or eradication. It is unacceptable that our dear country has remained the poverty capital of the world since 2018. It is unacceptable that 20 million Nigerian children and youths are currently out of school. While it is also unacceptable that Nigeria has consistently recorded the highest child and maternal mortality rate in the world, we however support the Executive Bill that has been sent to the National Assembly on the legal framework for the institutionalization of a National Social Investment Programme, needed to deal sustainably, with rising poverty in Nigeria.

These statistics are inexcusable and WE SAY ENOUGH IS INDEED ENOUGH!!!!!!!!!!!!

It is unacceptable that currently, Nigeria ranks lowest in Africa’s parliamentary representation at 6%, while Rwanda ranks the highest at 60% female representation. Namibia recently voted its first female president into power in November 2022, and Senegal has signed into law, its 30% affirmative action bill to increase women’s representation in governance spaces. Meanwhile, Nigeria’s ninth National Assembly Constitution Review Committee threw away in March 2022, five gender bills that could have changed the fate of Nigerian women, especially those in active political participation. 

We, therefore, condemn Nigeria’s continuing abysmally low record of women’s political participation, through 23 years of uninterrupted democratic governance and call on all local and international democratic stakeholders, including UNWomen, Women Situation Room Nigeria (WSRN), Nigeria’s electoral umpire – The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Political Parties, International Development Partners, Traditional and Religious Institutions and the media, to increase their efforts to change this negative narrative in the 2023 general elections. We especially appeal to independent female media practitioners, journalists, and broadcasters, to heed this call.

The GFWGNN hereby calls on all Nigerian voters to VOTE for EVERY COMPETENT WOMAN WHO HAS EMERGED AS A CANDIDATE IN THE 2023 ELECTIONS.

LET WOMEN BE.

SIGNED:

Lady (Dr.) Nkiru C. Okoro, (Secretary)

For: GFWGNN’s Interim Management Committee