Sarah Jibril And Other Women In Politics Reuben Abati

Nigerianvillagesquare

6 February 2011

Sarah Jibril And Other Women In Politics Reuben Abati

Reuben Abati

MORE serious attention needs to be paid to the continuing protest by Mrs Sarah Jibril, the female PDP Presidential aspirant who won only one vote during the PDP Presidential primary.

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But why didn't increased women representation in politics and particularly in the PDP translate into more than one vote for Sarah Jibril? The PDP not only waived registration fees for female candidates within the party, it directed during the Gubernatorial primaries that its three delegates per ward formula must include at least one woman from every ward. For the PDP presidential primaries, the delegates included one delegate per local government and the six councils of the FCT, all PDP members of the National Assembly and the state Assemblies, and all state Executive councils of the party. A rough calculation of this may amount to about a third of the total number of delegates being women and yet Sarah Jibril was the only person that voted for herself! There is in every state branch of the PDP, a women's wing and a woman's leader. There is at the Federal level, a woman's leader of the party and the Minister of Women's Affairs who is now spearheading a "Nigerian women at 50 " colloquium (February 8, 2011. The latter is a member of the PDP and erstwhile women's leader of the party. Yet, all these women did not mobilise support for Sarah Jibril!

Why? Women in politics are not necessarily driven by development agenda but selfish interests. They use the gender envelope to advance personal goals, which may be visibility/relevance or access to donor funding. Two, many of the women in politics are in public positions not because they merit them, but because they have been put there by their husbands, parents, or Godfathers...