eCopy of the WIMPOL Webinar Themed: ‘’The Nigerian Constitution & Elections: A Right to Win”
Women in Management, Business and Public Service (WIMBIZ) is scheduled to hold its Women
in Politics (WIMPOL) Webinar on Thursday, July 9, 2020.
In Nigeria, 3.8% of women were elected in the 2019 elections, the worst in Sub-Saharan Africa
where the average percentage of elected women is 24%, with Rwanda leading the world at
61.25%, South Africa 46.35% and Ethiopia at 38.76%. 13 countries hold specifically reserved
seats for women in parliament.
According to Inter-parliamentary union, 16 women out of 75 legislative bodies are female
Speakers in both upper and lower houses of parliament in the Democratic Republic of the
Congo, the Gambia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, South Africa, Togo, Uganda,
Equatorial Guinea, Eswatini (formerly Swaziland), Ethiopia, Gabon, Lesotho, Liberia and
Zimbabwe. The sub-Sahara
Africa region is second only to Europe. A huge contrast with Asia’s 8 female heads of parliament
and only 1 in the Middle East and North Africa.
The Nigerian constitution has no reference to quota or mention on gender parity unlike
constitutions like Kenya where it specifically states in Article 27 (8) “that no more than
two-thirds of the members of elective or appointive bodies are of the same gender”.
Additionally, Article 81 further reiterates that the same rule should be applied to public
institutions. This shows a deliberate attempt by the law of a country to close the gender gap and
historical exclusion of women from leadership in politics.
The WIMBIZ Women in Politics Webinar aims at increasing the representation of women in
public office through Influence and Advocacy, with the objective of growing female
representation from 4% to 30%, in line with to the Beijing Declaration 1995 and Platform for
Action.
The 2020 WIMPol webinar themed: ‘’The Nigerian Constitution & Elections: A Right to
Win’’ will explore conversations around mitigating the paucity of women in the Nigerian
Political sphere, the current provisions of the Nigerian Constitution on gender diversity in the
political terrain and the crucial need for increased representation of women in elective &
appointive positions of power.
The Webinar will educate women in politics and women who aspire to explore the Nigerian
Political sphere on the provisions of the constitution as it pertains to female participation in governance and politics.
The 2020 WIMPOL webinar will help participants re-imagine a Nigeria that stands tall in
diversity and inclusion.
ABOUT WIMBIZ
WIMBIZ is a non-profit organization that has, over the last 17 years, implemented programs
that inspire, empower and advocate for greater representation of women in leadership positions
in the public and private sector. WIMBIZ has a contributory associate pool of over 750
accomplished women in management, business and public service and over 9,700 women in its
database. We also collaborate with credible domestic and international global organisations to
deliver programs, which have influenced more than 107,465 women since inception.