Only eight out of the nine female ministerial nominees were on Monday confirmed as cabinet members by the Senate.
The eight nominees are Hannatu Musawa, Betta Edu, Doris Aniche Uzoka, Nkiru Onyeojiocha, Uju Kennedy Ohaneye, Iman Suleiman Ibrahim, Dr. Lola Ade John and Dr. Mariya Mahmoud who replaced Dr. Mariam Shetty.
Having been confirmed by the Senate, the nominees will later this month be sworn in as part of President Bola Tinubu cabinet members.
The nominee whose appointment was rejected was the former Managing Director of Nexim Bank, Stella Okotete, the nominee from Delta State.
The Senate had noted that Okotete and two other male nominees were not approved because further security checks were being carried out on them.
Further checks by Iya Magazine revealed that Okotete had a number of petitions bordering on certificate forgery, non-disclosure of assets to the Code of Conduct Bureau, and alleged fund mismanagement at Nexim Bank.
President Tinubu had forwarded 48 names as his ministerial nominees to the National Assembly out of which only nine of them were women.
Gender experts had criticized the list, stating that women got only 19 per cent out of the 35 per cent promise made by the President to women during his campaign.
Manager of Project and Lagos field office, ActionAid Nigeria, Mrs. Vivian Efem-Bassey, noted that the reason politicians don’t keep to their campaign promises to women was due to patriarchy and lack of accountability.
She said, “I believe patriarchy comes to play which believes in the practice of male dominance.
“Little wonder our politics toes the patriarchal line. Women are given support roles like mobilising fellow women to vote for party flag bearers who are usually the men. Women are also seen in welfare positions and organising events.
“Lack of accountability on the part of the political office holders and lack of demand from the citizens. Now, what respected platforms are available to keep public office holders to account? We don’t hold them accountable to the offices they occupy.”
She added women hold the notion that “half bread is better than none and not wanting to push too much so they don’t lose it all,” was one of the mindsets aiding lack of accountability of campaign promises to women.
Reacting to this, the Executive Director of Invictus Africa, Bukky Shonibare, lamented that the president had refused to keep to his campaign promises, warning that Nigerian women “will keep watching to see other aspects of the President’s promises regarding women like fighting gender-based violence. This would let us know if we can trust him after analysing his 100 days in office.”
