The National Bureau of Statistics says women in Nigeria are down the pecking order and have continued to record low representation in all tiers and levels of governance in Nigeria.

This is contained in the ‘NBS Statistical Report on Women and Men in Nigeria 2021’, released in Abuja on Tuesday.

The report revealed that despite efforts to promote women’s contribution to politics and decision-making, women have continued to record low representation at all tiers and levels of governance, noting that women constituted almost half of the electorate.

In Nigeria, women have never been appointed as secretary to the government of the federation and never elected as president or vice-president since independence and the return of democracy in 1999 to the last election in 2019.

The highest female representation in the National Assembly, 7.2 per cent, was recorded in 2007-2011. It was 6.6 per cent each from 2011 to 2015 and 2015 to 2019. 

Six women and 73 men occupied principal positions in the Senate in 2016 and 2017. In 2018 and 2019, the figure was the same for female legislators occupying privileged positions. Only nine women out of 106 members of the House of Representatives occupied principal positions in 2019.

From 2016 to 2019, only six women occupied the committee chairperson position each year, while in 2018 and 2019, a woman occupied the position of minority Senate leader in the Senate.

Women’s representation in the National Assembly 2019 is 6.2 per cent, while men make up 93.8 per cent.

Available data from the office of the secretary to government of the federation revealed the number of men and women appointed as ministers from 2016 to 2019. 

In 2016, seven women were appointed. This decreased in 2017 to five women. Female ministers appointed in 2018 were six, and in 2019, only seven were among the 43 appointed ministers.

According to the report, 31.87 and 31.98 per cent were female members of national judicial officers in 2016 and 2017, respectively, while 2018 recorded 28.86 per cent.

The NBS report stresses that no woman has been the Chief Justice of Nigeria, president of the National Industrial Court, and the chief registrar of the Supreme Court from 2016 to 2018.

(NAN)