Yes, She Can? -By Seun Elere

A few days ago, my 9 years old daughter told me “Daddy, I will be the President of Nigeria”. She didn’t say ‘I want to be’, she said, ‘I will be’ and I said yes, my daughter you can. I didn’t know I was urging her on until I heard her say again “Daddy, I will be the youngest Nigerian President at age 25” and, again, I said yes, you can. I could hear clearly, her mother’s silent incredulous gruntles at each of those assertive statements by her daughter, it was at that point I realized, alas! I have lied to my daughter – something I have trained her never to do. She aspires to be the two most difficult, or almost impossible, things to be in Nigeria: (a) a female president; and (b) a 25 years old (youth) president. I was saddened by these interactions with this young child. I know as a parent; my responsibility is to urge my children to aspire to be whatever they want to be by letting them know that they can be anything in life. It is also my responsibility to guide my children to dream realistic dreams or else it would turn to nightmares. For days, I was thrown into a quandary between these two key duties I owe to my 9-year-old.

As a man of faith, I know anything is possible but as a realist, I know, by statistics, that my daughter’s dream is almost impossible. Nigeria has never had a female president or even vice. But for our Amazon, Mrs Sarah Jibril, there wouldn’t have been a female presidential candidate till date in Nigeria. Also, the closest a woman ever gets to leading our legislative arm was Patricia Etteh who was elected speaker of the House of Representatives and unceremoniously removed from office only a few months after. Nigeria has never produced a female senate president nor a female deputy. The country has never appointed a female Secretary to the Government of Federation (SGF). The youngest president ever in Nigeria was 31 and only ascended to power through military connections and not by election.

Even with about 70% youth population, the average age of our current ministers is over 60years. Similarly with about 50% female population in Nigeria, only about 16% of the current ministers are women. The Nigerian youth policy of 2019 reduced the age of youth to 18-29, this implies that (by the Not Too Young to Run Act), Nigerian youths are only qualify to contest for House of Representatives and House of Assembly positions. However, even with the hard fought Not Too Young to Run Act, the youngest house of representatives’ member is 36 years old while the closest to youth in the Senate, by the Nigeria Youth Policy of 2019, is 42 years. Nigeria, with only 3% and 7% women representation at the lower and upper chambers of national parliament, sits comfortably at the bottom of 54 countries in Africa with the worst female representation in the continent.

The foreseeable future also looks less sanguine for women and youths. According to official reports, out of the registered voters eligible to vote in the upcoming 2023 elections, over 47% of them are women. Also, voters under 34 years old represents over 39% of the total registered voters of 93,469,008. It is already clear that the Nigeria’s 2023 elections would most likely not produce a female president or vice president. The average age of the top three presidential candidates in Nigeria is about 70 years old – the eligible voters in this age group represent just 5.7% of the total eligible voters and just 3% of the country’s total population. Only about 6% of the 416 governorship candidates in 31 States are women. Similarly, according to Invictus Africa, only 8% of 1100 senatorial candidates and 9% of 3,114 house of representatives’ candidates are women.

Unfortunately, we have 47% of eligible female voters fighting each other (on the basis of religion and ethnicity) to vote men into power without any form of negotiation whatsoever and 39% young voters killing each other (off and on social media on these same basis) to bring 5.7% into power without any assurance of equal or fair representation. Also, contrary to the simple democratic majority principles, in Nigeria, majority (about 70% youth population and 50% women population) makes all the noise and minority will always have its way.

All these further compounded my state of dilemma as to how best to inspire or moderate my daughter’s ambition of becoming the president of Nigeria at the age of 25. Clearly, the country is not on track to achieve target 5 of SDG 5, that is, ‘ensure women’s full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decision making in political, economic and public life’. The country’s political space is grossly skewed against youths and women because these population groups cannot cope with the huge financial demand of running an election, especially, with 33.3% and 21% unemployment and underemployment rates in the country. There is also the cultural pressure on women.

Nigeria has a lot to do to achieve SDG 5 especially, target 5. Perhaps the right place to start would be to enact an Equal Representation in Political Offices law mandating all political parties in Nigeria to ensure minimum 50% women and youth representation at the various levels and arms of government. Perhaps stimulating a pact with all the presidential candidates (and their political parties) to ensure that a woman emerge as the next SGF, produce a female Senate President or deputy and/or a female speaker or, at the very least, deputy speaker of the house of representatives would be a fair deal for women on the back of the 2023 elections. Similarly, a pact guaranteeing 50% youth/women representation in the ministerial cabinet to be constituted by incoming president would be a great way to launch youths into the political decision-making podium. Perhaps, with these immediate steps, I can confidently tell my daughter that she can indeed aspire to become the youngest female president of Nigeria at the age of 25.