Nigeria has been recording low participation of women in both elective and appointive positions. This is a growing
concern to many Nigerians. However, concerted efforts have been made by government and non -governmental
organizations to increase the level of participation of women in politics in line with the declaration made at the
fourth World Conference on women in Beijing, which advocated 30% affirmative action. In Nigeria, the extant
National Gender Policy (NGP) recommended 35% affirmative action instead and sought for a more inclusive
representation of women with at least 35% of both elective political and appointive public service positions
respectively. The under representation of women in political participation gained root due to the patriarchal practice
inherent in our society, much of which were obvious from pre-colonial era till date. However, the re-introduction of
democratic governance has witnessed once again an increase in women political participation both in elective and
appointive offices. The national average of women’s political participation in Nigeria has remained 6.7 percent in
elective and appointive positions, which is far below the Global Average of 22.5 percent, Africa Regional Average
of 23.4 percent and West African Sub Regional Average of 15 percent. For instance, out of the 36 recently
confirmed ministerial appointments by the administration now in power, only six (6) are women , representing 16.7
percent. In the National Assembly, women constitute 5.6 percent of members of the House of Representatives and
6.5 percent of the Senators. Also with the fifteen years of uninterrupted democratic governance (1999-2015),
Nigeria is yet to produce a female governor in any of the 36 states of the Federation. This paper seeks a critical
review of the importance of data in monitoring women participation in politics in Nigeria vis-à-vis the affirmative
declaration. Recently, the National Center for Women Development embarked on the collection of a national data
on involvement and participation of women in politics in Nigeria (1999 to 2015). One of the objectives of the data
collection is to provide a baseline for the implementation of the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). The
data collation of the exercise is ongoing. Hopes are high that the result will show the progress steadily made to
achieving the affirmative declaration and determine how the gap that erstwhile existed has been closed as well as
measure the variation between where we are and the affirmative action of 35 percent. Also, it will improve
evidence-based planning and programming involving women in decision making; increase the support of key
stakeholders on measures to increase representation of women in decision-making and further improved awareness
of new advocacy tools among stakeholders to support the campaign for increased representation of women in
decision making in Nigeria
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