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Mojubaolu Olufunke Okome
Fordham University
Department of African & African American Studies

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Abstract

Slightly less than four decades ago, Nigeria became independent from colonial rule. The mandate as defined by the nationalist inheritors from the postcolonial state was clear: reforms of the structure and function of the state were imperative. First, the state had to be deracialized; also, to facilitate rapid economic growth, the state had to take over the commanding heights of the economy, one of its most important tasks being the creation of a national bourgeoisie. The decentralization of power was one of the pronounced goals. However, the Nigerian state maintains its essential character as a colonial imposition. It is bifurcated, Janus-faced, over-centralized. The indirect rule system that was introduced during colonialism persists, since there are a few citizens, composed overwhelmingly of male members of the state created bourgeoisie, a few token women, and many subjects, composed of the poor, and the overwhelming majority of women. The decentralization that has taken place thus far, is thus a decentralization of despotism. Therefore, the meaning and utility of decentralization within the context of Nigerian federalism must be problematized. The paper focuses on Southern Nigeria.

Decentralization in Nigeria has taken the form of the creation of more and more states and local government areas. State and local government creation in Nigeria is largely justified as a project aimed at bringing government closer to the people. Within these units, the majority remains subjects in the colonial tradition. The rights of citizenship are extended to the few. The only meaningful difference between colonial and postcolonial governments in Nigeria is the deracialization of state power without the concomitant decentralization of power. Thus, in de facto terms, most Nigerians stand in relation to the state, as subjects, not citizens. During the colonial era, citizenship, defined as the ability to explicitly and actively participate in government as a vigilant member of civil society, was extended to the few Nigerians that “qualified". The postcolonial state maintained that situation. Until the rights of citizenship are extended to all Nigerians, particularly women, through decentralization that allows full participation in the political process, the state will remain remote from the people. It will also not reach its full potential. By continuing to exclude women, the state and the Nigerian federation remain incomplete.

This paper will examine questions including who the people are, that we are bringing the government closer to. From its inception, the state in Africa has excluded categories of people— all the “natives", and particularly, their women. When very few Africans were redeemed from “nativeness", to citizenship, women were deliberately, and consciously excluded and so were the poor. Nigerian governments continue to do this, whether military or civilian. The problem with Nigerian federalism is the fusion of power at local, state, and federal levels. This is clearest under, but is not limited to military regimes. Military regimes have only narrowed the political arena by abrogating the rights of participation through voting. Using concepts developed by Mahmood Mamdani, this paper addresses questions of the devolution of power, the capacity to exercise that power, and the extent to which women can participate in the political system as full citizens. It considers issues related to the meaningfulness of decentralization, and the implications of unequal access that is built into the state structure. Does decentralization through the creation of ever smaller political subunits in actual fact bring government closer to the people in Nigeria? What are the implications for women within the context of Nigerian federalism?

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Introduction

Our objectives are now clear and unmistakeable: federalism; democracy; good leadership; socialism; - these four. But the most urgent of them is -federalism.

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Bringing Government Closer to the People: A Conceptual Exploration

In postcolonial Nigerian politics, the concept of “bringing government closer to the people" originates from at least three sources that support the attempt to decentralize the structure of the state through the creation of ever smaller administrative units. These sources are: the Nigerian people, the state, and the World Bank, the premier multilateral organization that has come to dominate policymaking on both political and economic development in the countries of the third world. To argue that the state is a source of the concept is also to argue that the origins of the contemporary conceptualization of decentralization is colonial. This is because Nigeria’s post-colonial state inherited the mores and ethos of its colonial predecessor and thus, continues colonial traditions such as federalization through the creation of smaller administrative units. In this tradition, three regions were created in 1954. After Nigeria’s independence in 1960, the number increased to four when the Mid-West region was created in 1963. In 1967, twelve states were created to replace the regions. In 1976, seven were created in response to the recommendations of the Irikefe Commission [on States Creation]. Two states were created in 1987. In 1991, nine were created. The Abacha regime created six more states in 1996. Today, there are thirty-six states in the Nigerian federation. Paradoxically, this mode of decentralization neither brings government closer to the people nor quells the ardent demands from communities that ask for equitable regional or ethnic representation. Ironically, instead of making a frontal assault against the inequities and inequalities that plague Nigeria, rather than deal with the uneven devolution of power between the federal, state and local governments, instead of responding to the marginalization of some citizens in favor of others, decentralization through the creation of states continues like colonial rule before it, to incorporate the majority of the population as subjects, not citizens. A predominantly male bourgeoisie actively cooperated and collaborated with women activists and supporters during the nationalist struggle for independence to wrest power from the colonial state. This bourgeoisie inherited the colonial state but immediately relegated women to subordinate and ineffectual positions in politics.

Throughout this essay, I will use a framework of analysis that suggests that from the nationalist era to the present, the mandate as defined by the inheritors of the post-colonial Nigerian state was to reform the state through the deracialization and decentralization of power. Deracialization involved replacing white rulers with Nigerians, while decentralization was sold as a project which brings government closer to the people, ensuring an even and balanced federation which would be more stable and united.

A second point of origin of the impetus to bring government closer to the people is generated by communities that proclaimed their abhorrence of domination by larger, more powerful groups. These communities constantly call for the creation of new states where there would be equitable representation as well as guaranteed access to Federal revenues.

The third source of the push to bring government closer to the people came by the middle of the 1980s when the World Bank began recommending a “good governance package" which pushed for a move away from the undue intervention of the state in the economy and overcentralized decision making to the decentralization of economic and political power. In this view, engendering a situation where ordinary people take charge of their lives by becoming actively involved in their own governance will bring eventual recovery from economic and political crisis. Thus, accountable, efficient, and effective government in smaller political units enables the rooting of grassroots politics organized through non-governmental activism in creating a stable political system wherein a liberal market system can thrive.

The foregoing discussion points to the existence of what appears to be a consensus from both international and domestic politics on the need to bring government closer to the people. This concept on the one hand, calls for spatial decentralization, and on the other, for the enhancement of ordinary people’s ability to participate more effectively in government. In essence, there appears to be a frontal assault on the centralizing norms and tendencies that emanate from both the power-hungry military regimes that have ruled Nigeria for all but ten years since its independence and challenges economic centralization.

One of the enduring problems in Nigeria’s political economy is that while the post-colonial Nigerian state was immensely successful in the project of deracialization, it is woefully inadequate in bringing government closer to the people through guaranteeing the full rights of citizenship. The state maintains the colonial legacy of bifurcation where a few citizens enjoyed civil rights and the overwhelming majority were subjects. There was a gender, racial, as well as a rural-urban divide in colonial times. Under colonialism, the only people that were allowed to become citizens and exercise the rights thereof were urban colons from the metropole. Colonized peoples in the urban areas neither enjoyed the rights of citizenship, nor were they governed by customary law. The colonial state was a Janus-faced structure which inclined its civil face to the minority from the metropole. To these were extended a regime governed by the rule of law and the rights of citizenship. To the colonized majority, the subjects who either lived in the juridical limbo of the urban areas, or under the decentralized despotism of native administration whether in colonies or protectorates, was inclined the brutal, despotic face of the state.

For subjects chafing under the despotic and arbitrary rule of customary native authorities and the denial of the rights of citizenship, both the local and central state were the enemy. The nationalist struggle against colonialism was a struggle of the burgeoning middle and working classes against the state in the urban areas for incorporation into civil society. In consequence, an indigenous civil society emerged, which pushed for the creation of a deracialized state. With independence, the deracialization of the state was accomplished, but civil society remained defined by the accumulation of racial privilege. It was imperative for the inheritors of the colonial state to deracialize civil society. This generated the impetus toward Nigerianization. The politics of Nigerianization both unified and fragmented Nigerians. As a project that dismantled racial privilege, it held out the promise of unification for those who were previously victimized by racism under colonialism. As a project of redistribution, it raised the spectre of regional, religious, ethnic and gender divisions that were subsumed under the rhetoric of bringing the government closer to the people: a decentralization of the Nigerian federation through the creation of more states, but the entrenchment of the rural-urban, and gender divides, plus the supplanting of the racial with the ethnic divide. The result created a dichotomy between few citizens and numerous subjects since the deracialization of the state failed to culminate in its democratization. Because the local state remained unchanged, it exhibited a remarkable fusion of power. It was despotic. Legislative, judicial, executive, and administrative power were vested in the chief.

For democratization to be achieved, deracialization of civil power must be combined with the detribalization of customary power, enabling the transcending of the legacy of bifurcation. The focus of the struggle against customary power was directed toward the imposition of “tribal" native authorities which enforced the colonial order as customary. The colonized peoples’ demands were often for a return to genuine untainted custom, which was antithetical to the state-enforced perversion that was imposed through indirect rule. The demand was not necessarily for spatial decentralization, which was already in place, but for an end to despotic, unrepresentative rule.

To focus specifically on the responses of women to the despotism of colonization, there were many strands. It is clear that women lost more political power than men in the transition from pre-colonial to colonial rule. From being valued participants with official representatives in the political systems of their communities, they lost their voice. They also lost the opportunity of participating in the economy, and thus, opportunities for upward mobility. Some sought inclusion in the administration of the political system, while protesting their exclusion and vigorously opposing injustices that caused their marginalization. Some used colonial law when it favored them, for example, in divorce cases, and ignored it when it did not. Other women spearheaded the campaign for girls’ education and employment. Colonialism victimized and de-possessed women by denying them the opportunity to participate in politics or wield authority. Their protest was mobilized through the traditional modes of power that they vigorously maintained and protected against colonial elimination. However, the role of women in political activism, as well as their political participation was and is not unproblematic. Nigerian women cannot be studied as a corporate whole with undifferentiated needs. As with the rest of society, they are divided by class, ethnic and other cleavages. The discussion that follows will focus on Southern Nigeria.

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The Colonial Era - Women’s Activism in Southern Nigeria

Women’s activism in the anticolonial struggle in Southern Nigeria reveals how the form of rule shapes the form of revolt against it, and how indirect rule both “reinforced ethnically bound institutions of control, and led to explosions from within". By considering the struggle of women in Southern Nigeria, it is possible to evaluate the limits of citizenship for women under a system that in postcolonial Nigeria still maintains the essential characteristics that originally marginalized and excluded them. Three different types of administration were imposed on Southern Nigeria as part of the indirect rule system - The Sole Native Authority system in the South-Western Provinces, the Warrant Chief System in the South-Eastern Provinces, and the Local Township government system in the Colony of Lagos. In each case, women were consciously excluded. (While the traditional power of chiefs, priests, king makers and other titleholders to provide checks and balances against abuse of power and arbitrary rule was eradicated, women did not reap the benefits. Male titleholders could be appointed to the native authority councils, and men were appointed as warrant chiefs. In Lagos, however, women could participate in the traditional political system that was allowed to coexist with colonial administration but the Lagos Town Council (LTC) was created as a counter-force to traditional authority). This allowed for women’s participation, albeit in a limited way, given the constraints of a colonially imposed political order. In the South-Eastern and South-Western provinces women’s prior access to political power was eliminated and avenues for them to exercise authority prevented. Women chiefs like the Iyalode were stripped of their power and the avenues for their exercise of autonomy cut off.

In spite of being entirely circumscribed by the oppressive colonial state, women activists in Southern Nigeria engaged in vigorous struggles against the infringement on their interests and those of their communities. State imposition of unfair and unjust taxation galvanized women into political action in both the South-Western and South-Eastern provinces. Education for girls, equal pay for equal work, increased employment opportunities and political representation for women were issues which were identified as crucial. Women’s organizations were formed which built on the pre-colonial pressure groups and associations organized and controlled by women in rejection of their status as oppressed subjects under colonial rule. With the development of anticolonial nationalism, political organizations that were led by men welcomed and encouraged the involvement of women only to the extent that they would be foot-soldiers in the struggle to deracialize power. To the extent that women’s organizations were agreeable to joining nationalist organizations as members of their adjunct women’s wings, there were grounds for the cooperative struggle against colonialism and for nation building. When women refused to be subsumed under male-controlled party rule, they were marginalized in a manner akin to the treatment meted out to women by the colonial state.

The struggles of women in the South-Western and South-Eastern provinces and the colony of Lagos from 1914 to 1966 are indicative of the imposition of the citizen-subject dichotomy on Nigerians under British colonization. It also indicates a rejection of subjection by women activists, the demand for citizenship not just for women, but for poor men as well. This potentially democratizing move toward the decentralization of the power of the native authorities and warrant chief system, and for the extension of civil and political rights to Nigerians in the colony was nipped in the bud. As self-government and independence approached, the emphasis shifted from a combination of deracialization and democratization to an admixture of deracialization and despotism. Traditional checks and balances against despotic rule had been eliminated under colonial rule.

Thus, independence from colonial rule did not necessarily lead to the reorganization of power in the countryside. Rural areas remain effectively under systems although reformed, still maintain a remarkable sameness with colonial systems. Under the superimposed attempts at postcolonial democracy, patron-client relationships persist in spite of elections. Women have not been a major presence in these regimes, except as tokens in systems that purport to bring government closer to the people, but which instead, concentrate on the distribution of federally-controlled rents in a way that engenders structural stability, i.e. keeping Nigeria united to facilitate the parceling out of federal resources in a presumably equitable manner. It is a hallmark of postcolonial Nigerian politics that the struggle for federal resources has taken on a “no holds barred" nature that pits community against community and generate the riotous politics for which Nigeria is renowned.

There were several indicators of women’s rejection of the status of subject under colonial rule. By resisting government encroachment against their sphere of influence, women in the protectorate of South-Eastern Nigeria used their tradition of collective sex solidarity to push for influence in society. This, in spite of colonial constraints against the visibility, representation, and participation of women in the public sphere. While some of the early women’s movements and associations called for a return to traditional society and social mores, later groups sought active participation in politics during the nationalist era.

Although traditional symbols (mass dancing while singing derisive songs to send distinct messages on women’s displeasure) were used to express women’s displeasure during the Nwaobiala movement in the mid 1920s, colonial standards of justice were questioned. The legitimacy of a system that was externally imposed was also rejected. The Ogu Umunwanye, the Women’s War, which started in 1929 went even further to challenge colonial policies that were abhorrent economically, morally, psychologically, and politically. Taxation without consultation and representation was rejected. The women’s puzzlement was expressed eloquently during the collective punishment inquiry for Oloko native court area that was conducted by the colonial government. Enyidia of Oloko for instance, said in an interview, “What have we women done to warrant our being taxed? We women are like trees which bear fruit. You should tell us the reason why women who bear seeds should be counted." This according to Afigbo, is a challenge to the ethical and philosophical basis of taxation. It is also a critique of governance through imposition, without explanation of the rationale for the government’s action. Ogu Umunwanye was also indicative of a rejection of the warrant chief system, which victimized women, and excluded the legitimate traditional rulers.

In the event that the colonial government was loathe to eliminate the warrant chief system, some women proposed the election of chiefs in a process where men and women participated by suggesting that “If a new man is appointed, then all the women should be present and all the men should be present and both should approve his appointment." Some women, believing that white women got superior treatment, asked for the same treatment that white men gave to their womenfolk. A case in point was Mary Onumaere, a leader in Nguru, who said: “We have not been treated well. We wish to be treated just as Europeans treat their women in their own country. We don’t want to be oppressed by our menfolk." The tenacity and breadth of organization involved in the women’s war is indicated in the continuation of the agitation in other areas of the protectorate, such as the Owerri province. Protests did not stop until it was certain that women were not to be taxed and courts were reorganized to allow for limited terms, people’s participation, and the inclusion of some traditional rulers (the ezeala) and “younger, enlightened men" The women’s war was significant as a catalyst for women’s organized mass protest against the injustices of colonial administration.

Protest against taxation continued into the 1950s. With self-government came an imposition of taxation on women in the Eastern Region. Women in Aba and Onitsha resisted through mass demonstration, Aba women formed a new organization- The Aba Women’s Association, which passed a vote of no confidence against Mrs J.N. Egbutchay, president of the Aba branch of the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons (NCNC), and the sole woman councillor in the Aba District Council for supporting the government’s finance law. Onitsha women’s market association issued a press release which threatened to support an independent candidate against the NCNC in the next elections. In response, the Eastern House of Assembly raised the minimum taxable income for women. In debates of the finance bill in the Eastern House of Assembly, at least one member, Eyo Ita, argued that if women were to be taxed, they should also have representation in the local councils and House of Assembly.

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From Ladies to Women: Mass Mobilization in defense of Women’s Rights in the Western Region

The more women sought active participation in politics during the nationalist era, the more the emergent bourgeoisie sought their incorporation as subaltern support groups. The political activism of the Abeokuta Women’s Union (AWU) was an example of Egba women’s struggle against the despotism and exclusionary politics of the Sole Native Authority (SNA) system. The SNAs had sweeping, far-reaching powers. All previous checks and balances on the power of the traditional ruler, the Oba, were cast away under the indirect rule system. King makers, chiefs, and priests who previously could act to limit the abuse of power and arbitrary rule of Obas were now dependent on the SNA for their appointment to advisory councils. In essence, they were rendered ineffectual. For women chiefs such as the Iyalode and Erelu, the limited entree that allowed the male chiefs to participate in the Native Authority system was non-existent. A few women’s titles such as Iyalode and Erelu remained but they were devoid of power. Under the leadership of Mrs Olufunmilayo Ransome Kuti, a mass movement was organized, which built on the existing organizations of Egba women. Through it, they resisted the status of subject under the SNA. The objectives pursued included resistance against the poll tax, against the harsh enforcement of sanitation regulations, and the payment of the water rate, as well as the removal of the Alake of Abeokuta, Oba Ademola from office.

Resistance against colonial taxes and against the imposition of the SNA in Ijemo in 1914, and Adubi in 1918 were met with violence from the colonial state. By 1946, Egba women were

not only protesting against the imposition of direct taxation, they opposed price controls and the negative ramifications of its policies on their group interests. The well-organized Egba Women Dyer’s and Adire Trading Union were able to oppose the Alake’s prohibition of the use of imported dyed and caustic soda as damaging to their trade, and were able to mount a sophisticated campaign of petitions and memorializing to the Alake, the ENA council, District Officer, Resident, and the members of the Legislative Council representing Abeokuta and Lagos. The organizations hired a Lagos-based lawyer, WNA Greary, to defend them. They engaged in press campaigns and mobilized so much pressure against the Alake that he was forced to establish a Commission of Inquiry in 1936 which found the SNA’s contention that the women’s use of caustic soda and imported dyes was damaging adire cloth (tie-dye and batik) baseless. Based on the commission’s recommendations, the Alake-concocted restrictions were lifted.

Other women traders were not as well organized to combat the SNA’s incursion on their autonomy by imposing price controls on food. However, the cooperative mobilization of Western educated and non-Western educated women traders under the leadership of Olufunmilayo Ransome- Kuti moved women’s activism to a higher level of radicalism. Initially, Mrs. Ransome-Kuti’s focus was on social welfare. Together with other educated women, she was the founder of the Abeokuta Ladies Club (ALC) - a group of Christian-educated women teachers and traders who engaged in good works, sewing, and catering, and were actively supported by the wives of British officials in Abeokuta. The organization aimed among other things, “To help in encouraging learning among adults, and thereby, wipe out illiteracy...and to help in raising the standard of womanhood in Abeokuta." Involvement in the literacy campaign combined with teaching sewing to market women directly involved the ALC in market women’s struggles against colonial government seizure of their goods without compensation (on behalf of the rice sellers association). Complaints to the Assistant District Officer, the District Officer, and the Resident yielded no relief. Attempts to lobby the members of the ENA council were stymied by the Alake who refused to allow the council to discuss the matter. The ALC publicized their campaign in the press thus: “We the members of the ALC, on behalf of all Egba women, appeal to the press of Nigeria to help bring the seriousness of the position to the attention of the authorities before it is too late." Six days later, rice control was eliminated in Abeokuta.

The ALC followed up its success by drawing up resolutions demanding improvements in sanitation, water supply, provision of clinics and playgrounds in schools, and financial support for adult Education. These resolutions were circulated widely to the holders of power - the Alake, ENA council, Resident, and 20 prominent chiefs. Part of the resolution was:

That there should be no increase on the taxation paid by women, as the majority of women in Abeokuta are very poor and can hardly afford what they are now paying. That there should be free trade between Egba people and all other provinces, and that there should be no restrictions as to what should be taken from one place to another except such restrictions as dictated by national necessities which must be determined by the judgement of the majority.

The limited gains made by women did not translate into participation in decision making. Men dominated in the first political parties while actively depending on material and mobilizational support from women. The Nigerian National Democratic Party (NNDP), National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons (NCNC), and Nigerian Youth Movement (NYM) garnered varying levels of support from women’s groups. However, women did not feature prominently in the leadership of these and other parties during the nationalist era and after independence. The few parties formed by women either died quick deaths or were absorbed into the male-dominated parties.

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The Post-Colonial Period

Increasingly, women were incorporated into the political system as subordinate, ineffectual adjuncts to men. Thus, the nature of their incorporation reveals the persistence of male dominance and gender bias over time. Some women were elected into local government councils in the South. In 1961, three women were elected into the Eastern House of Assembly. From 1960 to 1966, two women were appointed to the federal senate. There were no female ministers at either federal or regional levels.

Women did not feature prominently during the preparations made by the Obasanjo/Yar’Adua regime for returning power to civilians. No woman was appointed to the fifty member Constitutional Drafting Committee, very few women were elected into the local government councils during the 1976 elections, and only Mrs Janet Akinrinade was elected to the Constituent Assembly. Four other women were appointed to the 250 member assembly. This limited the potential influence and participation of women in bringing issues that favored them to the forefront. The design of mechanisms for enforcing existing constitutional protections for women was also unaddressed. The administration appointed Mrs. Womiloju Idowu as head of the Ogun State government during the final stage of the transition to civilian rule. She was the only woman so appointed. 51.3 percent of the registered electorate were women, five of the 52 associations formed were led by women, but none was registered by the Federal Electoral Commission (FEDECO).

The National Council of Women’s Societies, formed in 1959 as an umbrella group for all women’s associations in Nigeria, formed the League of Women Voters for the purposes of educating women voters on the exercise of their civil rights, identifying candidates and parties that would promote the interests of women, and working toward involving more women in policymaking. The League later disbanded. Many of its prominent members had entered politics, and the FEDECO required that it register as a political association. Northern Nigerian women were enfranchised in 1978, but many states required that proof of income tax payment be shown before registration, thus illegally requiring property qualifications, and discriminating against those who did not pay income taxes by virtue of impoverishment. Most of those affected were women.

The nature of women’s involvement in the political process has remained constant over time. During the transition to the second republic, there was a resurgence of women’s wings in all the registered political parties. The women’s wings had representation in the parties’ national executive, but did not participate in the policymaking caucuses. The positions that women held in the parties did not go beyond that of one out of many vice-chairpersons. As happened during the prelude to independence, and during the first republic, parties nominated women as candidates for elections in constituencies where they had little chance of being elected. No woman was nominated as presidential or gubernatorial candidate. Some women were drafted as gubernatorial running mates, and the People’s Redemption Party nominated Bola Ogunbo as Aminu Kano’s running mate. Four women contested for the 95-seat Senate, all lost. Seventeen of the 2,000 candidates for the 450-seat Federal House of Representatives were women. Three won. Forty-two out of the 5,000 candidates for State Houses of Assembly were women. Five won. Only two of the five registered political parties had any provisions that related to women. The National Party of Nigeria promised to involve women fully in public life, and the Great Nigeria People’s Party that day care centers would be provided.

Women gained more prominence during the second republic, but their political presence in decision making remained highly circumscribed. The Shagari regime appointed three women as federal ministers, more women than ever before won elections into the National and state assemblies, and the policy of having one female member in each state cabinet, instituted by the Mohammed/Obasanjo regime, continued. Although these gains were made, there were no concomitant improvements in the quality of life of the majority of Nigerians. Infringements on the rights and liberties of citizens increased, with the government using the police and military forces to terrorize its opponents. Women’s groups demanded and got a National Committee on Women and Development, but it was made a unit of the child and family welfare section of the Directorate of Social Development in the Ministry of Social Development, Youth and Sports. Its functions were advisory, and the government resisted all demands to upgrade it to departmental level and to grant it executive status, as required by the OAU and UN.

After the coup d’etat that catapulted it to power, the Buhari regime continued with the Obasanjo/Yar’Adua policy of token representation for women in federal and state cabinets. The Babangida palace coup in 1985 ushered in a regime that had no women in the Federal cabinet, but proclaimed a policy of equal opportunity, and the emancipation of women. Thus, one out of every four nominated local government councillors was a woman, there was a woman on every government board and parastatal, two women were appointed Vice Chancellors, and the Better Life Program was inaugurated ostensibly to “fully integrate women into the production process".

As part of the process of designing Nigeria’s future political system, a Political Bureau was created. Although the bureau was charged with making recommendations on the role of women, only two women were appointed to the Political Bureau in 1986. Several women’s associations were commissioned by the Bureau to present Nigerian women’s ideas. It is instructive to consider the recommendations made by Women In Nigeria (WIN), one of these associations. WIN consulted with ninety-seven women’s associations in seven zones. It did not only consider the role of women in politics, but the gendered nature of the structure of government and forms of representation, family relations, the socio-economic, and legal systems. Legal and constitutional rights were not only sought in the public sphere, but in the family, work place and society. WIN’s recommendations broadened the concept of democratization to include all spheres of life. As with the women’s war, there were instances where women’s rights as mothers and qualities attributed to women were used to push, argue for, and promote the superiority of women as leaders.

In general, women’s associations demanded thirty to fifty percent representation in legislatures and cabinets. The NCWS demanded the revival of the League of Women’s voters, and that all administrative and legal impediments to women’s equality be removed. The Political Bureau recommended that five percent of legislative seats at all levels be reserved for women. However, the government rejected this recommendation, maintaining that reverse discrimination would constitute an infringement on equal opportunity for all. This is in spite of the existence of a quota system in Nigeria and the use of the principle of “federal character" to ensure balanced geographical spread in employment, admissions, the location of projects, and recruitment into the armed forces. The regime was later to appoint six women to serve in the Constitution Review Committee (CRC), a forty-six member body. Nine women were appointed, and five elected to the 567 member Constituent Assembly.

The opportunity to consider the crucial issue of inheritance in the CRC presented itself when the provision that “No citizen of Nigeria shall be subjected to any disability or deprivation merely by reason of the circumstances of his birth" was discussed. The protection given to out of wedlock children was questioned by a female member of the CRC as supporting “promiscuity and moral decadence" This matter affects not only out of wedlock children, but their mothers, particularly because the co-wife married under statutory law is privileged in matters of inheritance. Questioning the rights of inheritance of out of wedlock children reveals that women cannot be treated as an integral whole. Nothing in the history of women’s collaboration and cooperation indicates that this was ever the case. Statutorily married women tend to maintain that they and their children ought to have prior, privileged, and sole access to matrimonial resources. Statutory courts traditionally ruled in their favor. Women married under customary law challenge these provisions, as is revealed by many lawsuits that challenge the laws of inheritance.

The design of a constitutional provision that resolves this matter in the interest of the children of the customarily married co-wife is not a popular move from the perspective of the statutory wife. Even though a union of the laws is purported to be a corrective against such problems, the challenges faced are indicative of the continued disjuncture between not only legal, religious, social, and moral mores that emerge from indigenous principles and philosophies of life, and Western desiderata, but also of the reality that women are not a homogeneous group, and as such would have to surmount numerous obstacles before meaningful coalitions can emerge.

Within the Constituent Assembly (CA), the identification of some issues as “no go areas" by the Babangida regime ensured that the jurisdiction of Sharia courts and the structure of Nigerian federalism would not be discussed. Sharia courts operate only in the Northern states, and they make decisions on all aspects of a muslim’s life, particularly in the area of personal law. Laws of inheritance, divorce, property rights, and custody of children are some areas where women have traditionally been discriminated against. Some women’s groups that made representations to the Political Bureau demanded legal reforms in these areas. The government however foreclosed any opportunities of discussions and possible reforms. The operation of the federal structure in Nigeria has also had discriminatory ramifications for women who marry and live outside their state of origin. Such women may be discriminated against in employment, promotion, admission to schools, and other entitlements. When women asked for a redefinition of the federal structure, they wanted these issues to be discussed and resolved. Again, this was not done.

Although not formally allowed yet, most of the parties that were formed in preparation for the third republic were formed in the CA. Since women were in the minority, it stands to reason that there would be few formed by them. In addition, only the very affluent could afford to meet the conditions established for party formation - an office, paid officials, at least 200 members in all 499 local government areas. It was also required that twenty copies of the names, photographs, and other information on the members be submitted to the NEC within three months of lifting the ban on partisan politics. The Nigeria Labour Party was formed in large part, due to the efforts of the Nigeria Labor Congress Women’s Wing. Unfortunately, the party was one of the thirty that applied for registration and was rejected by the NEC. Most of its members later joined the Social Democratic Party (SDP). When the National Republican Congress (NRC) and SDP were created by government fiat and registered, the National Electoral Commission ruled against women’s wings, thus ending the institutionalized formalization of Nigerian women’s subordination to male politicians. While this could well be interpreted as ending the treatment of women as second class citizens, it did not provide institutionalized amelioration of their subordinate position in the political arena. In response, the National Commission for Women (NCW) and NCWS demanded that both parties outline their platforms for women but the political parties only made a cursory reference to women’s issues, barely stating a commitment to their full emancipation, participation, and involvement in all areas of life.

Paradoxically, the very measures that were introduced to ensure that women had more prominence and visibility only reinforced the predominant tendency toward the tokenism and co-optation of prominent women. As part of the Babangida regime’s commitment to a dual transition, while the political transition was underway, the Structural Adjustment Program was also adopted against the wishes of the overwhelming majority of Nigerians. The pains of the program were much deeper than the meager gains yielded. On the one hand, the Babangida regime engaged in convincing Nigerians that there were some gains to SAP, and upon failing to convince them, provided some vestigial measures that were woefully inadequate to assuage labor and other anti-SAP critics. On the other hand, the first lady, Maryam Babangida consulted with an ad hoc committee composed of professional women to develop the Better Life for Rural Women Program (BLP). According to its architects, the program was to have empowered women politically and economically, but it institutionalized a system where the first lady became the national chairperson. Governors’ wives became the state chairpersons, and wives of local government chairmen, the local government chairpersons. Women were thus coopted into the state as was done previously -- as a subordinate but ineffectual part of the power structure.

There is no doubt that Mrs. Babangida wielded a great deal of power when compared with previous first ladies. There also is no doubt that the highest levels of decision making were devoid of women. Much money was spent on the BLP. Several programs were established, and mobilizational campaigns undertaken to register women voters. More women than men voted in the elections. Pressure from women’s organizations led to a decree establishing NCW in 1989. The commission had an advisory board composed of one chairperson and ten members, all appointed by the President. Its secretariat was headed by an executive secretary. It was charged with implementing the board’s recommendations. The Commission was part of the executive branch, and since it was located in the presidency, it was hoped that it would bring women’s issues into the forefront, and institutionalize women’s participation in decision making. The BLP was incorporated into the NCW as one of its three departments, and eventually, Mrs. Babangida replaced Professor Bolanle Awe as the Chairperson of the Advisory Board. This shifted the focus of the Commission in favor of BLP programs. The BLP succeeded in having a presence in every local government area, but its tangible achievements were very limited. In general, women’s participation in decision making was highly circumscribed, but within the bureaucracy, as is customary in post-independent Nigeria, some women who rose to prominence successfully pushed for better conditions of service, including an end to discrimination in salaries, wages and taxation, as well as tax relief for women with children. In spite of these gains, the Babangida regime remained essentially authoritarian. Government opponents, and critics were harassed and detained. The spouses, and female relatives of coup suspects were detained and held hostage until the suspects surrendered. Some state assemblies passed laws that targeted and penalized women.

Within the NRC, there were two state chairpersons, Bosede Oshinowo in Lagos, and Helen Gomwalk in Plateau State. Within the SDP, more women had positions of authority at the local government and ward levels. Compared with 1091 men who were chairpersons, deputy chairpersons and secretary in both parties, there were only twenty-nine women in similar positions. A total of 209 women were party executives, but thirty-one percent of them were ex-officio members. 159 women members of Local Government councils included 6.9 percent as Chairpersons, 31.5 percent as Deputy Chairpersons, and 61.6 as councillors. A total of twenty-seven women out of 1172 members of state houses of assembly were women (2.3%), one woman out of ninety Senators, and ten women out of 593 members of the Federal House of Representatives. There were seven women out of 293 gubernatorial candidates, none was elected, although there were two deputy governors. Only one woman ran during the 1992 presidential elections, which was later canceled. One woman participated in the presidential primaries in 1993. Although there are no de jure barriers against women’s participation in decision making, there are in fact, few opportunities to participate on an equal footing with men. The process is dominated by the wealthy and most of these are men.

As the Babangida regime became more dictatorial and authoritarian, and as the ramifications of the combined effect of Nigeria’s economic crisis and the Structural Adjustment Program led to deepened poverty among majority of Nigerians, it also became clear that the regime was unwilling to leave power. Critiques and protests increased exponentially. These included demands for economic as well as human and civil rights. Such demands were mobilized by workers’, pro-democracy, and women’s associations. When the regime scuttled the transition, there were women among its critics and also women among those calling for its perpetuation in power. The same was true for conditions under the Abacha regime, which unceremoniously threw out the Transitional Government put in place by the Babangida after he was forced out of office. The regime created the Ministry for Women, and the Family Support Program to replace the National Commission for Women and the Better Life Program. The Family Support Program further subsumed women’s issues under those directed at protecting family integrity.

During the most recent transition to civilian rule, women were again, relegated into the background. Many news media reports attest to the marginalization of women in contemporary Nigeria’s political economy. Do reports like these indicate that women are perpetually marginalized, and that this is a condition that derives from traditional mores? To properly answer this question, it is clear that gender analyses have to be more rigorous. If as Nigerian women, we claim that our marginalization is an integral part of our tradition, we have to indicate in what manner such marginalization has occurred, we have to be specific about what forms of marginalization were manifested, and moreover, we have to indicate what women we refer to in our analyses. Is every female a woman in each and every case of social, economic and political interaction? Is each woman equal to the other? Do all women suffer in the same manner from the heavy weight of patriarchy, and thus, become automatic lifetime card-carrying members of a global sisterhood of the oppressed? Is the observed marginalization of women in contemporary Nigerian politics a legacy of our pre-colonial past, our unchanging culture, and our primitivity? Luckily, there are now new and different voices that approach these questions from a more informed, balanced perspective. Funmi Iyanda’s article in Tempo, titled “An Opinionated Female" is just one example of a more accurate rendition of history, a clearer vision in representing women’s history and the role of women among the Yoruba in Nigerian society. The contention that I make is that despite the gross diminution of women’s power and presence in the public sphere that attended the colonial project, that despite post-colonial governments’ relegation of women into the background, there is still evidence of women’s power. Such evidence largely go unrecorded because most of our work replicates those that study us precisely to dominate us. It is clear that there is a hegemony in the production of knowledge that favors the West and Westerners, whether they are men or women, friends or critics of Africans. This hegemonic system produces or signs off on most of the knowledge on Africans, including Nigerian women. Thus, scholarship on all things African reveals a great deal of homogeneity. The concluding section will address these questions in the context of Nigerian federalism.

Top | Abstract | Intro | Gov't & People | Colonial | Ladies to Women | Post-Colonial | Gender | Bibliogaphy

Gender and the Problem of the Colonial Legacy to the State in Nigeria

How does one make democracy more relevant to Nigerian women? How does the government include the women among the people to whom the government is brought closer? Moreover, are gender analyses only to be restricted to issues that concern women? Clearly, it makes sense that we come up with a conceptualization and operationalization of democracy that is culturally relevant. Critics of this perspective point out that it is ludicrous to expect that there are these never-ending variants of democracy that are hyphenated to indicate their geographic origin (for example, African democracy, etc). The proliferation of "democracy with adjectives" may be taken as a mark of the lack of analytic rigor. However, the adjective that accompanies the word 'democracy' is less important than what is advocated in the suggestion of the validity of cultural relevance. Any serious analysis of the relationship between state and society must address issues related to the engineering of a politics of genuine democratic inclusiveness. The point being made by Ake, Mamdani, and others is that Africans make democracy meaningful within their own cultural reality. Achieving this goal involves a probing into African culture for values, customs and ideas that have democratic connotations and working these into political life. How does one identify these values, customs, and ideals?

We ought to look at the ideals that govern society as they are revealed in myths, symbols, and practice that have evolved over time. To say this is not to argue that the past should be treated as a virtual nirvana where there was always fairness, equity, and justice. It is to do what most discussions of democracy do - to first identify the ideals, and then go on to consider how society has lived up to, or fallen short of it. Some have pointed out that there were traditional rulers who were fraudulent, rapacious, and oppressive, and that the checks and balances against arbitrary Oba authority among the Bini and Yoruba neither derived from, nor was exercised by the popular masses. Instead, the aristocracy wielded the power to resist and limit the arbitrary power of the royalty. Similarly, for Otubanjo, "Because religion calls for unquestioning faith, the tendency is for all theocracies to be absolutist and totalitarian. Traditional African societies tended to manifest these characteristics". It is illuminating that Otubanjo also points out even though there were absolutist tendencies, they were ameliorated by significant checks and balances deriving from customs, usages, and the structure of governments. Through chieftaincy groups, secret cults, and age-grade associations, pressures and checks were imposed on the sovereign's authority. Absolutism and tyranny are opposed because

All [African] societies provide elaborate and explicit rules of behaviour for their rulers. They expect their rulers to uphold their traditions, defend their territory from aggressors, expand, if possible, their wealth through wars but they also expect them to be just, considerate and conscious of the conventions and interests of the people at all times. In short, kings are looked upon as the symbols of the authority and legitimacy of their kingdoms. Their rights and privileges are expected to be coterminous, and no more, with those which the society would ordinarily confer on the people. Thus when a king is eulogised as the owner of all the territories in his kingdom, it is not intended to mean anything more than that he is the symbol of the people's ancestry and legitimacy of their claim to the lands they occupy.

Democratization will be absolutely nonsensical if the lip service that is paid to bringing government closer to the people is not abandoned in favor of developing a political system that values each and every Nigerian as worthy of benefitting from the country’s natural endowments. In spite of the tendency to conclude that tradition is oppressive and that progress only came with Westernization, the rudiments of democracy are to be found in the culture and institutions of the various ethnic groups in Nigeria. More inclusionary variants of democratization can thereby be constructed. The structure of the state and its nature then, must be transformed. A critical element of the necessary change is for civilians to domesticate the armed forces. Governance by the armed forces is responsible for the depth of centralization in Nigeria. While in power, the armed forces resemble Africa’s colonizers at their worst. Therefore, purging Nigeria of the political face of colonialism must entail the prevention of military and civilian oppressors who present themselves as the country’s liberators. Unfortunately, considering that the economic face of colonialism remains vibrant, the civilian and military members of the bourgeoisie who have parlayed the profits made from rent-seeking into political clout will remain prominent for some time to come. Contrary to the predictions that bemoan the weakness of Nigerian civil society, the country's history shows civil society dynamism. To build a robust federal edifice, lasting coalitions must be formed that will bring the government closer to the people. For this federal structure to be meaningful, women’s interest must be put on an equal footing with men’s. A federation where more than half of the adult population are second class citizens for any reason must be roundly rejected in favor of one that lives up to the ideal of bringing government closer to all of the people. When this happens, Nigeria would be one step closer to becoming a genuine democracy.

Top | Abstract | Intro | Gov't & People | Colonial | Ladies to Women | Post-Colonial | Gender | Bibliogaphy

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