Why violence against women in politics must stop

By Idris Mohammed

The value of political equality is central to normative theories of democracy. It is not in dispute that women are equal citizens and therefore should share equally with men in public decision-making. Otherwise, there is a democratic deficit.

By contrast, since the return of democracy in Nigeria, women have always been at the forefront of growing and developing our electoral process, despite that the system still shortchanges them. The percentage that voted in previous elections was an indication that women deserve to be included in democratic governance. Why then has election violence against women increased from one part of the country to another?

In Nigeria, there is a lot of identity-based violence against women running daily both offline and also on our social media platforms. During the recent primaries in the country, female aspirants faced challenges from their male counterparts. For example, a female aspirant posted on her social media handle that she failed to get a ticket from her party because she pushed back advances from . Another said she was forced to step down for a male candidate for gender reasons.

This violence often spikes around elections because it is used as a tool for political intimidation, but little is known about how much of and in what ways this violence is directed at women.

Violence against women takes different forms and dimensions, it can be physical, psychological, sexual, cultural and economic. Denying women a chance of getting the party ticket because she refuses sexual advancement from the party chieftains, denying them access to financial support, assault, hate speech, and cultural barriers are attached to the issue especially in Northern Nigeria, these are just a few examples. Furthermore, women have often received threats from opponents, members of their own party and even from their own family members.

These forms of violence have become apron strings used to limit inclusive participation of women in our democratic process. The numbers of aspirants released from INEC indicated gender gap or disparity if one compares to other democratic countries of the world.

During the November 16th 2019 Governorship elections in Bayelsa and Kogi states, there were terrible reports of violence against women including a woman leader that was set ablaze by unknown supporters of a particular candidate in her constituency. Women were sexually abused and abducted in Ekeremu Local Government of Bayelsa State and a lot of very frightening stories of violence against women in politics were rampant.

More so, during the 2011 general elections in Nigeria, there were reports that female National Youth Service Corps volunteers experienced sexual harassment, threats and other hate crimes at polling units across the country. In a nutshell, women are targeted for violence before, during and post elections specifically because they are ‘women’ and to stop them from exercising their democratic or civic rights.

On Sept. 1st 2018, the National Democratic Institute designed and launched a campaign titled: “Stop Violence Against Women in Election” with the aim of documenting and reporting incidents of election violence against women to relevant stakeholders such as election officials, security agencies, women groups, religious bodies and other organizations that are interested in elections. In spite of this effort, women are still confronting violence on a daily basis. Punch, Vanguard and ThisDay of 24th September 2018 reported 60 cases of violence against women recorded in the Osun gubernatorial elections.

Violence against women in elections is a threat to the integrity of the electoral process — it can affect women’s participation as voters, candidates, election officials, activists, and political party leaders, and it undermines the free, fair, and inclusive democratic process. With this, it has become imperative for stakeholders to develop new strategies aimed at promoting peaceful and violence-free elections, especially ones that grant women the freedom to participate in the electoral process without fear of any form of intimidation or violence. Also, women should be encouraged to report issues of violence against them to the appropriate authorities.

This story is part of a series highlighting the work of journalists who participated in TechHer’s Gender Reporting for Media Professionals Workshop. Find out more about Idris Mohammed.