General
Source: Daily Trust
Dr. Abiola Akiyode-Afolabi is the Executive Director of the Women Advocates Research and Documentation Center (WARDC), a leading civil rights group demanding governance accountability and promoting women’s human rights in Nigeria.
In this interview, she speaks about women’s participation in the national conference, the women movement and access to justice, among others.
Can you briefly tell us about yourself?
I have led several coalitions and worked extensively on governance, anti corruption issues, gender, human rights, law, democracy and peace building and produced several research materials and publications in these areas.
In recognition of my commitment and efforts on behalf of my fellow citizens, particularly the women folk, the International League for Human Rights named me a recipient of the1999 Defenders’ Day Awards. I received the award at an impressive ceremony in New York City on December 9, 1999, the first anniversary of the United Nations Defenders Declaration.
I have taken up cases in Nigerian courts on behalf of political prisoners and pro-democracy activists. I have also worked closely with a number of Nigerian non-governmental organizations , offering my skills as a legal advisor.
What inspired you into women advocacy and activism?
My grandmother Chief Gbemisola Akiyode was a well-known activist in Abeokuta, Ogun State. Growing up, she tells me about how she struggled to care for her six children, five males and a female after the demise of my grand father and how she has mentored and supported other women to be self sustaining.
She made me to know as a child that a woman must be strong and bold to be successful in our context in Nigeria. With a model like my grannie, I made up my mind to make my voice known wherever I am, to speak above a whisper.
I became a stronger advocate of women and girls coming from my experience as a union leader in the university. My early engagement with the writings and history of Nelson Mandela, also structured my life to fight for the oppressed and to see the struggle as my life.
How would you describe women’s struggles for gender equity in the country so far?
I believe, women activists have tried at all fronts to bring women’s rights concerns to the front burner, however despite these efforts, we still have a long way to go.
There are structural and institutional challenges affecting the enjoyment of women’s rights in Nigeria. The political terrain has been challenging, for example, in the last general elections of 2011, only 32 women were elected into the national parliament out of 469 members; a figure, which depicts just 7% representation.
Women are still treated as second class citizens, yet we have participated actively in Nigeria, nobody acknowledges that women were at the discussions that led to Nigeria’s independence in London, they rarely talk about them and their participation. Women have continued to suffer historical injustice and that have hampered growth. That is why about 70% of young women in the North East remain uneducated, we have poor maternal health record, and about 47% of Nigerian women are mothers before age 20.
Despite the odds, we have had significant and laudable milestones recorded, Nigeria women have weathered the storm in the face of daunting continued violence, neglect and marginalization at all sectors, as thrown up by the dynamics of our political structure.
For example since 1999, some states have passed laws that are favorable to women and can protect their rights, like Ekiti, Lagos, Imo, Cross River, Gombe, Bauchi; the laws are to address some of the challenges women are facing including domestic violence, female genital mutilation, maternal health, education, gender and equal opportunities.
However, implementation in these states is still challenging. One major obstacle is the lack of political will to prioritize women issues in Nigeria, commitments are made on protecting women’s rights and government only pay lips services to these promises.
Even the constitution, which is the grundnurm, has not accorded the women the rights and respect desired.
With preparations in top gear for the national conference, do you think women will be well represented at the conference?
We are hopeful that women will participate however if you look at the modalities for the conference released by the Secretary to the Federation, out of the 492 delegates for the three-month National Conference exercise, only in about 72 positions are women specified; a mere 14.6% of the entire number.
And we have argued that the list, for the National Confab excludes some critical interest groups such as women entrepreneurs in farming, export, shipping, rural women and other key women advocates to mention a few.
However, the National Gender Policy (2007) promises at least 35% for women in governance and decision-making bodies in Nigeria. The NGP remains the only national document which draws from the Beijing Platform for Action, the Convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women and the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights on the Rights of Women, with the commitment to pursue both legislative, executive and administrative measures to ensure increase in women’s representation in governance. Unfortunately these instruments are not been enforced in the country to promote women’s participation.
Just like others are clamoring for their issues to be heard, women also have cogent issues that can determine their faith in the system and the project Nigeria. I need to say this it is of crucial importance that the National Confab is conceived on the strength of popular participation as a means to secure its legitimacy.
What do you do think should be done to ensure electoral victories for women in 2015?
Women’s political right remains an integral part of human rights and women’s rights generally are necessary aspect of any democratic framework. Women’s perception of politics as a dirty game and continued fright at the thought of violence has further alienated them from mainstream politics.
In Nigeria there seems to be no critical understanding of the difference between “ a visible agenda for women and an impacting agenda for women” While severally, emphasis is laid on women’s numerical strength, translating such into the attainment of power has been difficult as women are perceived as “supporters club, team of cheerers and clappers” in contrast to their male counterparts.
The women have drafted the women’s charter to make their demands clearer, documents of this nature have helped women in other climes to reassert and negotiate their rights. We will make our demands for a better representation in 2015, we are building our networks, so that we make these demands as a single entity in Nigeria, negotiate with political parties for a voluntary party quotas, we demand a radical change in party manifestoes and constitutions, we demand equal representation, we are demanding a twining system in Nigeria.
Recently we had a national women strategy conference organized by the House Leader, Mulika Akande, in Abuja, we have formed a think thank to negotiate our political rights. We need more women in political parties to become card-carrying members; we need the numbers to make our voices heard in 2015.
Do you think legal provisions in the country give women enough access to justice when abused?
Women access to justice has been hampered in so many ways in Nigeria; location of courts, attitude of judges and other law enforcement agencies, for example the police have continued to frustrate women access to justice with impunity.
There are other factors; socio, economic, cultural and legal factor affecting women access to justice.
Nigeria has signed and ratified international, regional and national policies and laws, which put obligation on the state. I believe it is the State’s obligation to ensure that there is no direct or indirect discrimination against women in their laws and that women are protected against discrimination perpetrated by public and private actors.
I agree we all have roles to play and that it is a collective efforts but the state must show commitment by making laws, auditing the archaic laws and creating an enabling environment for women in Nigeria.
What is your advise for women on balancing the home front and their careers?
Women have been doing this very well despite that the society has failed to give them the support desired, most of the offices lack crèches for you to keep your children. When you are pregnant, you are likely to be fired, if not, conditions for maternity leave often do not comply with the acceptable norms.
We have been surviving despite all these to work, train our children and share valuable time with them. We have a role to play to bring the children up, but men must also know that it is a collective role, so we must work together to support the future of our children and Nigeria as a whole. We all need this for growth.