Concept Note for The International Youths Day Online Disscussion Forum

The International Youth Day was first marked on the 12th of August in the year 2000. It is a day set aside to give opportunity for governments and other organizations to draw attention to issues affecting youth worldwide. Over the years various intervention strategies have been developed and targeted at youth although not all have been very effective. This is partly due to the fact that most interventions are made without considering the views of the youth. This year BAOBAB for Women’s Human Rights (BAOBAB) is creating a forum for young men and women to air their views thus offering them an opportunity to unlock their potentials.

BAOBAB is asking why the youth should wait to be leaders of tomorrow when they can be great leaders today. This is against the backdrop that the youth are the leaders of tomorrow. So why should the youth allow themselves to think only of the future while the present is failing them? The lack of Youth Friendly Health Services has been an issue ailing Nigeria and the rest of the developing world. This issue has played a big role in young women experiencing high maternal mortality rate, rise in teenage pregnancies and unsafe abortions everyday. Other issues to deal with are increase in unemployment, high levels of poverty, human trafficking and expensive education. The root causes of these issues need to be addressed with immediate effect to safeguard the safety of the youth and these questions will form the basis of the online discussion.

The discussion will be conducted online for a period of two weeks, from the 12th of August to 26th of August 2011. The main participants of the discussion will be youth across Africa and because the discussion will be conducted online, it will give room for as many participants as possible. This discussion is meant to provide a platform for youth to speak out about the issues they have been facing and how they intend to make things better for themselves and share the ideas that they may have in promoting equality among men and women.

There are many other issues that the youth in Nigeria and across the region face, this year BAOBAB is offering the youth a chance to air their views, comments, share their experiences, expectations, fears, struggles, strengths and above all we are giving them a chance to be among those who will make an impact by speaking out (like is going out of style) by joining the BAOBAB online discussion.

The Objectives of the online discussion include:

• Create a platform for the youth in Nigeria and around the globe to share their concerns, their views, their worries, and their struggle, through the online discussion.

• Create ways to advocate for improved access to sexual and reproductive health and right’s knowledge, information, education and services in Nigeria and the developing world.

• Create awareness on issues of human rights and the need to promote these rights

The expected outcomes of the online discussion are:

• Have more informed youth in the area of their rights as it regards the youth friendly health services.

• To have more interaction between the youth and the non governmental organizations that advocate for their rights.

• To have more organizations willing to advocate for better solutions to the issues that the youth will mention during the discussion.

REVIEWING WOMEN’S PARTICIPATION AND PERFORMANCE AT THE 2011 GENERAL ELECTIONS IN NIGERIA. - Favour Omoye Irabor

Nigeria’s democratic culture is characterized by assassinations, lawlessness, illegalities, rigging, oppression, manipulation, marginalization and violence. Other issues are male dominated party executives, labeling, money politics, and innumerable social, cultural and religious factors. These constitute barriers to women aspiring and contesting for elective positions in Nigeria. In the 2011 general elections an increased number of Nigerian women defied the odds, stepped into the murky waters, aspired and contested for party’s primaries; many lost and only few emerged as candidates and fewer of them emerged as winners. The number and percentage of women who were successful at the polls in 2011 was less than the figures in 2007 and 2003.

There was only 1 female presidential candidate in the person of Mrs Ebiti Ndok of the United National Party for Development. It is doubtful if she eventually voted given issues she had with the administration of justice system. It should be noted that Sarah Jubril was a presidential aspirant under the platform of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP). She lost at the party’s primaries. For a review of Sarah Jubril’s performance visit http://baobabwomen.blogspot.com/2011/02/womens-political-participation.html; http://www.learningpartnership.org/blog/2011/03/politics-sarah-jibril/.  There were 4 female vice-presidential candidates although at the time of writing this article the writer was unable to verify if their parties also adopted President Goodluck Jonathan as a consensus candidate, suffice it to say none of the big 4 political parties had a female vice-presidential candidate.

Whereas there were 36 governorship seats in the Federation, there were 348 governorship candidates with just 13 (2.98%) being women who were all casualties at the polls. It appears some parties agreed to adopt female deputy governorship candidates as there was generally an increase in the number of governorship candidates that had women as their deputy. At least four parties in Lagos State chose women to contest as deputy governors.  In 1999, only Lagos State had a female deputy governor in the person of Mrs Kofoworola Bucknor although she was later removed and replaced by Femi Pedro, a man.  In 2003 the number of deputy female governors increased to 2 (5.5%), it increased to 6(16.6%) in 2007. In 2011 there is only 1 female deputy governor in the person of Mrs Adejoke Orelope Adefulire of Lagos State who contested under the platform of Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN).  

Out of the 109 Senators that emerged, only 7 (6.4%) are women. In 2007 there were 9(8.25%) female senators; in 2003 there were 6(5.50%) female senators whilst in 1999 there were only 3(2.75%) female senators. Female performance in the House of Representatives election was no less different from that of the Senate. Out of the 360 available seats women won only 19 (5.27%). This is an abysmal drop in the light of the success recorded in 2007, 2003 and 1999 where the figures were respectively 27(7.5%), 21(5.8%) and 12(3.3%), an arithmetic progression which was not sustained in 2011.

The 2011 general elections could be described as the year of “the mighty fallen”. There was indeed the whittling down of the influence of political god fathers as their candidates performed woefully at the elections. Nevertheless, it does appear that patriarchy, religion, vote buying, ethical issues, party intrigues and absence of internal democracy of political  parties constituted underlining reasons for the poor performance of women at the polls in addition to awareness by the electorate that they have the final say on who should represent them through their ballots. The fate of Senators Gbemisola Saraki and Iyabo Obasanjo Bello  who respectively contested for governorship and senatorial elections in Kwara and Ogun States typify the genre. 

Popularity of the candidates also determined the outcome of elections and not necessarily the platform the female candidates contested election. This was the case in the senatorial election in Anambra State, a traditional stronghold of APGA where Prof Dora Akunyili of APGA lost to her strongest opponent Dr. Chris Ngige of ACN who has an incomparable profound charisma.

Vote buying which was alleged by some voters may have influenced the voting pattern of some people.  Vote buying has implications for female candidates as many of them are not similarly situated economically with their male competitors and therefore, would not be able woe voters with money.

The performance of women at the just concluded 2011 general elections calls for sober reflection and an urgent need to re-strategize for the 2015 general elections. There is urgent need for internal democracy in the political parties to whittle down male dominated party executives. There should also be examination/assessment of parties’ primaries with a view to formulating and implementing reforms that will support a more level playing field.

The establishment of a Women’s Political Institute where parties and all female aspirants and candidates would be equipped with relevant skills that underpin the positions should be desired. The outcome would inform necessary remedial steps aspirants should take to address gaps to reposition them for exigency of electoral campaigns and elective office. 

The challenges ahead will truly test the motive of the first lady’s pet project – Women for Change Initiative. Will it take a recess now that President Goodluck Jonathan has won or will it start preparing women for 2015 general elections? The short term goal of getting women to participate in 2011 general elections may have been achieved although the writer of this article does not credit the Women for Change Initiative for the increased participation of women at the general elections. This is against the backdrop that women’s groups and other individuals have been on this campaign for a longer time and have been stating 30% or something higher.  The BAOBAB led Nigerian CEDAW Coalition Shadow Report submitted to the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women during its consideration of Nigeria’s 6th country periodic report in July 2008 can attest to this. Also, BAOBAB for Women’s Human Rights (BAOBAB) has been working over the years to ensure comprehensive political education (not just voter education) and hopefully creating a space for experienced female politicians to mentor younger women interested in vying for political positions in future. Of course, the first lady lends her voice to a worthy cause and she deserves to be commended for pegging it at 35%. 

In the light of the foregoing, this article calls for a stakeholders’ meeting to review the participation and performance of women at the just concluded 2011 general elections with a view to chartering a fruitful course for women’s participation in future elections in Nigeria. Nigerian women need more than economic empowerment for success at the polls or largesse of the first lady. Political violence hinders women’s chances at the polls and in political participation.  Institutional defects that marginalize women must be addressed.

Favour Omoye Irabor
blessedi2002@yahoo.com; firabor@baobabwomen.org

Changing the Feminine Face of Poverty in Nigeria: Challenges of Poverty Facing Women and BAOBAB’s Strategic Interventions - by Yewande Okoya

Seventy percent of those living in absolute poverty in our world - that is starving or on the edge of starvation - are female. All over the world, women and children are the mass of the poor and the poorest of the poor.

In Nigeria, as in many other developing countries, the new face of poverty is woman. This has become an economic phenomenon as the gap between women and men caught in the cycle of poverty has continued to widen in the past decade, a phenomenon commonly referred to as ‘the feminization of poverty’. This underscores the fact that where an issue affects (negatively) both man and woman, in most cases the woman suffers more than the man. In the situation of single parenting for instance, families headed by women are poorer compared with those headed by men.

In any society, women should play a central role in shaping future generations, physiologically, emotionally, morally, spiritually and intellectually, but when women are poor, they are not free and their choices are limited and so, are unable to perform this central role the failure of which has dire consequences for future generations.

The feminization of poverty has recently become a significant problem in Nigeria as in other developing countries with economics in transition as a short-term consequence of the process of political, economic and social transformation. In addition to economic factors, the rigidity of socially ascribed gender roles and women’s limited access to power, education, training and productive resources as well as other emerging factors that may lead to securities for families are responsible. Due to these gender roles, women are not given equal opportunity as the men to be educated and liberated economically because in some parts of society, educating a woman is seen as a waste of resources, since a man will marry her; the onus is on the man to take up responsibilities. Even in parts of society where education and economic empowerment are accepted and promoted, women are expected to perform majority of household chores and take sole responsibility of childcare even when both the male and female partners have full time jobs.

These stereotypes and socialization have continued to make women worldwide far more likely to be poorer than men. Men in particular and the nation as a whole, need to realize that this issue is not just a “women's issue" but it is is about your mother and your grandmother. It's about your sisters and it's about the future of your daughters and how to move this country forward because women make-up about 50% of the population and as such can not be ignored.

Challenges of Poverty and BAOBAB’s Interventions

1. Lack of access to good health care services. In this regards and essentially, BAOBAB for Women’s Human Rights believes strongly in the power of ‘empowering’. BAOBAB empowers women and girls through its Leadership Training by building their capacities as leaders where they (women) must allow improvement and be resourceful without depending on anyone’s wealth for daily sustenance.

2. Lack of access to information. – BAOBAB provides women with information in accessing economic and educational opportunities, as well as the autonomy needed to take advantage of such opportunities.

3. Lack of access to affordable Legal representation. The importance of training women and girls to be self dependent, resourceful sharing of relevant and useful information, providing women with skills, boosting their morale that gives confidence and self dependency for optimum achievement of goals and aspiration matters most to BAOBAB as we totally agree that they (women) should be shown how to fish rather than giving them fish.

4. Encountering difficulties as it relates to funds while making interventions relevant to women’s issues at the community level. Most non governmental organizations work on the larger base while some women groups work mainly at the community levels who are familiar with the issues on ground. BAOBAB’s 14 outreach team states functions primarily in this regard. Also, BAOBAB re-granted some amount of money received from the American World Jewish Service to some selected women groups for specific interventions in these communities. The idea of the re-grant was to basically fund women groups who could not access funds from funders that requires funding database which mostly leaves the issues on ground unattended to.

5. Domestication of women’s human rights instruments. BAOBAB continues to play and lead advocacy roles at the state, national, regional and international levels in ensuring the ratification, domestication, implementations (as the case may be) of instruments that attends to the concerns of women. BAOBAB played an active role in ensuring that Lagos State Government domesticated the violence against women bill. BAOBAB also coordinated the NGO CEDAW Coalition and produced a Shadow Report in response the Nigerian 6th Country Report to CEDAW.

What we can do

Women must be identified and situated as a specific target group in the national poverty eradication programmes. In this regard, funders, foundations and non governmental organisations should inculcate into its programme plan provisions for gender training for senior decision-makers to mainstream gender perspective into sectoral development planning.

Women’s NGOs and other organisations should ensure that Nigeria undertake legislative and administrative reforms to give women full and equal access to economic resources, including the right to inheritance and to ownership of land, as required in the Beijing Platform for Action.

References

1. Adidu, Paper Presentation on Feminization of Poverty in Nigeria,December 2005.

2. Callagham, Hamber and Takira; A Triad of Oppression – Violence, Women and Poverty: Center for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation.

3. Women and Poverty, FWCW Platform for Action, 2005

4. www.alternet.org/feminism_poverty

BAOBAB ICT Training @2011

Women as Participants in both Leadership and Politics. - BAOBAB's 2011 Calendar (Advocacy tool)

The Convention on the Political Rights of Women, 193 U.N.T.S. 135 which entered into force on July 7th, 1954 recognizes that everyone has the rights to take part in the government of her/his country directly or indirectly. The eleven articles of the convention desire to equalize the status of women and men in the enjoyment and exercise of their political rights.

In Nigeria and in most countries of the world, there are few women in positions of responsibility and decision making. Often they are discriminated against in political and public life at all levels of decision making as evidenced by the unequal number of women in the corridors of power. Women’s ideas are often left unspoken or unheard even when they are present during discussions and decision making assemblies.

This year, Nigeria will hold general elections and BAOBAB for Women's Human Rights, in her effort to uphold the principle of equality and equity, continues a series of leadership and political training for women and girls to raise awareness of their political rights and responsibilities as citizens. We aim to increase women's political participation and leadership at all levels of social interaction and decision making regardless of ethnicity, religion or political inclination.

Violence Against Women Without a Male Child by Ijeoma Chinakwe (an Intern with BAOBAB)

Up to date in the  eastern part of Nigeria, a  woman without a male child has no say in her husband's family, when her husband is no more she will be left with nothing. Empowering such woman and letting her know her fundamental human rights will give her much security and sense of belonging in the society.

Last year December, an organization (The Prudent Women Foundation) held a workshop in Imo state Nigeria, a case was reported of a woman with three girls without any male child. The woman was  forcefully pushed out of her matrimonial home by her husband’s relatives. This is because she had no male child for their brother for the years they lived together as a couple.  As a result of these, she  was sent out with her three female children with nothing to fall back to. 

The international women’s day observed every 8th of March, addresses such violence but it is a pity that many women are still not aware of this occasion that is solely for the benefit of all women. I feel sustainable empowerment  for women in general,  will reduce or totally eliminate such violence in our immediate and large society.

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