Ahead of the 2019 elections, a report has shown that majority of Nigerians do not trust women to be elected as leaders with almost half of the citizens saying men make better leaders and should be elected rather than women.
This is contained in a recently Afrobarometer survey conducted by the CLEEN Foundation and released yesterday in Abuja and which also showed that a slim majority say women should have the same chance as men of being elected.
The report which was coming on the heels of the International Women’s Day, said “These findings speak to deep-seated concerns among Nigerian activists that women are largely marginalized in the country’s political processes. Support for the empowerment of women in political leadership is lowest in the North West zone, among uneducated Nigerians, and among men,” the report said.
According to the report the 2015 General Election, for instance, saw the election of only 21 female legislators to the Senate and House of Representatives, less than 5 percent of the total of 469.
In the key findings, the report showed that a slim majority of Nigerians (55 percent) ‘agree’ or ‘strongly agree’ that women should have the same chance as men of being elected to political office, while almost half (45 percent) of Nigerians say men should be elected rather than women.
“While more than two-thirds of women (68 percent) favour a fair chance for female candidates, only about four in 10 men (41 percent) agree. Support for women leaders rises but not dramatically with respondents’ education level, ranging from 46 percent of those with no formal education to 58 percent of those with post-secondary qualifications.
“Support for women political leaders varies across Nigeria’s zones is low in the North West (36 percent) and North East (46 percent) and rises to about two-thirds in the southern zones, which is similar to the West Africa average. Among 36 African countries surveyed in 2014/2015, Nigeria ranked fifth-lowest in its support for equal opportunity for women candidates, ahead of only Algeria, Sudan, Egypt, and Niger,” the report said.
The report said the Afrobarometer national partners in Nigeria, CLEEN Foundation and Practical Sampling International, interviewed a nationally representative, random, stratified probability sample of 1,600 adult Nigerians for the report.
