 Women participation in Nigerian politics. There are few women in political and leadership spaces in Nigeria. Currently only seven out of the 109 senators and 22 of the 360 House of Representative members are women. In the 2019 January elections only 13 percent of the candidates across all positions were women. The least representation for women was in the governorship elections where women constituted just 7.5 percent of the 1066 candidates. In these presidential elections only six of the 73 candidates were women. In order to achieve gender balance we need more women to participate in the elections and vie for positions. So today we'll be looking at why women are poorly represented in politics in Nigeria and how we can reduce these barriers to encourage more female participation in the 2023 elections. There are multiple factors that impact female representation in politics in Nigeria. One, political structure and systems. The high cost of politics prevents women from standing for positions. Often women don't have enough money to pay for mandatory expression of interest and nomination forms required by political parties to run for political for positions on their platforms. Number two, funding. Elections are expensive, campaign costs are exorbitant. Most women do not have the financial capacity to fund an election in Nigeria. Moreover, having been disadvantaged from time with respect to education, workplace reiteration, inheritance right and so on, women are unable to pull the same financial weight as their male counterparts. Three, societal factors. These include cultural and religious norms surrounding marriage indigenship, a concept that recognizes only ethnic groups native to particular states, and the structures that portray women as subordinates to women, to men, sorry. Not to forget stereotypes about women in leadership and stereotypes that assign leadership to men. How can we then solve the problem of female participation? One, training. Training is crucial. Women need to be trained in fundamentals of politics. They need to understand grassroots politics and start from there. When people are known at the grassroots, they are more successful. Women need to be mentored. They need to seek governance as what affects every member of the society, especially them. Legislative quotas. While for me this should not be a permanent solution, a quota system can solve for female underrepresentation in the interim. This should be in place until it becomes normal for women to contest and win elections. Three, financial support. Women who are unable to afford elections can be supported through crowdfunding means. We can also think of innovative ways to gather financial support for female candidates. However, in order to make this successful, we must ensure that only qualified female candidates, that is women, who are efficient and have proven track record, and that can stand shoulder to shoulder with their male counterparts, should be supported, especially by females. Also, political parties can give some financial considerations for female candidates, such as waiving the costs of party forms and so on. Four, media support. Every female candidate that wants to win should set up a strong media team. Such that even if they don't get the desired traditional media coverage, they can win a digital frontier. They are social media. Even at that, traditional media outlets should change their attitude towards political coverage of women. They've sometimes projected women in ways that are not relevant to leadership, politics, or elections. The media must help educate people of the dangers of cultural norms and harmful gender stereotypes and monitor fairness in elections. Five, finally, qualified and capable women should come out and vie for positions. There's no way we can eliminate this imbalance if qualified women remain hidden. So, are the men qualified? Thank you. Are the men qualified? No, no, no, you see, I mean, thank you. You got to tell you. Are the men qualified? That was my thoughts running through. I tell you, it's a calm down. So, I'm looking at the people in the National Assembly and I'm thinking to myself, what do they have against the average woman? Nothing. Most of them. Nothing. In fact, half of them are not even as competent in terms of intellectualism, education, charisma. And that informs the reason why they would publicly say, oh, let it not be that we didn't do anything for them. Let's just give them something. I'm thinking, are we asking for favors here? We're asking for our due and we're asking for what is just and what is equitable. But then again, we're going cap in hand, asking and we appear to be begging. So, we really need to get to that point where, like I'm going to say it again, we understand what we bring to the table. When we're looking for the media to do anything, we can actually set up parallel systems that compete with what is already, what already obtains. No man is going to come and try and paint the women in a good light. Are there not enough women in the media? We can't keep saying they should. They should. Like come forth and say, no one is going to relinquish power. Everybody wants it. We just have to stop asking for favors and understand that we have enough power to actually come in and do and that if not someone is not giving you something, then you can try to take it or build your own. I agree with you. I like the last one that you said. I mean, it's enough. This table seeking is enough. We have the numbers. We have the numbers and honestly, we have the money. Now, I'm going to run through five groups as you were talking about this women participation. For me, that put us essentially off the table completely. You have to market women. Remember, during one is time for elections. They go and pay respect to the EO and the market because they know she has the power to governize action. Why isn't she using her power then to raise people instead or negotiate with them when they come and say, look, I want two or three people in the next election cycle from this place. I want them to be mentored. I want them to be put there. I want, I want, I want the same way they come and say, I want, I want, I want, I want. Why isn't she, that is one power of law to the business groups. Do you know how many business women business groups we have in Nigeria? The strong number of women in the strong representation and the economics that they represent. That's another power of law. But we stick to only that empowerment that is only money that makes a woman. Meanwhile, not even you and your money, they will drag you away, they will call you a shower. Meanwhile, women that can again also enter corridors of power and demand, but we have tunnel vision. Go to the mothers union now in churching. Always use it to buy the wrapper, tie it, and decide if the woman is separated since before. So the level of power play at that water. Meanwhile, this is all around the country. So imagine if the head or whoever the head of the whole mothers union is, I'm just giving an example of one denomination. Decide that you know what? We need to have godly women in politics. If it is them alone, galvanized. Do you understand? Okay, one more. Women in politics, we were at zero before. We didn't have women at all. But now we have percentage, at least we say seven percent in this group. And 12 percent tried in this group. Please, can I know what they are after they entered? What exactly did they do to pass on the knowledge of the data document? Because there are women in their locales who are interested, but they are more interested in trying to keep up with the men here. It's for building their own empires. That is where the problem is. Last one, SMEs, which still will go with the business group. But do you know the number of women that are in smaller medium enterprises? Do you know the amount of economics there? It is because of the force of that group. That is why a lot of things were done to try and make it easier because women were leading the trade on smaller medium enterprises. So my point here is that we have the numbers. We have the money. We have the skills. I just don't understand why we have not been able to govern nice. And that for me is the best way. Thank you. You know, honestly, you covered what you took at home. And as I was listening to Ruth talk, I will be honest with you. As a fellow woman, I was slightly, and that's an understatement, annoyed. Okay, that's the goal actually. We'll continue. I was very, very upset. And I thought to myself, you know, so while I understood what you were talking about and what you meant, I literally saw it as still seeking permission as excuses. But you know, at the point is this, and comfort just took it home. The reality is that women have everything that comfort has said. And all the things that you put as barriers to women in participation were previous things. I think the one of the things that's happening is the mindset of women, what it is that we are actually thinking as important has not been properly defined for us by us. We're still allowing the narrative that has been passed to us by men, by generations, by cultural systems, to let us think where they can be. Like today was, today is world war one. And that was in my children's school, to one read, you know, so they said, okay, volunteer parents. And I thought, okay, you know what, I might as well do something useful for society, even if it's my children. And when I got there, we had to buy a book. And I thought, so I saw different books. Of course, my first instant was to pick dog dives, we impaled those. And I thought, and I saw books on who is, you know, the series on popular people. And I said, today is the day we are breaking that bias starting with these children. So I looked for who is Kamala Harris, who are Serena, Venus and Serena Williams, Helen Keller. I picked four books on women. And I went to the four classes. I said, children today is world war one. We're going to talk about women. You see this class today, we're going to break the bias. And we're talking about Kamala. And I realized that these things start from Austin down and seen in our silos, our circles, start to see what are the value systems, what are the problems. So I want to look beautiful. Yes, I want to secure the bag and make financial employment. But what am I doing with it? So the women in authority, the women that are already in politics, what are you doing without power? And I think again, like I was saying, when we're on one of the breaks, those things that they have actually made derogatory. See, let me tell you something. Women, all of us is our paths are different. The other room and kitchen are our power systems. If I'm going to use what I want, I'm going to use what I want. So maybe we better start thinking about how we're going to be sensible with this. There are only two genders on the, there are only two sets of genders on the earth. There are men and women. So let's talk about sex inside it. Men use manipulation. They use logic to talk about courage. This is what we have to go and want. I mean, this is a very insightful conversation. I think I liked the direction that you two went. I mean, when I was writing my script, I was thinking, but, but you know, what I've learned from all of this is that we actually have the power. We do. We're just not channeling the power in the right direction to achieve a particular goal. So it's high time women wake up and understand that they carry the power and they can actually make that change. And that's what this IWD for 2022, sorry, is all about. Break the bias. So women wake up and, you know, enter politics. Don't wait anymore. Don't take permission. But wait for permission. Yes. Don't take permission as well. So any toy is up next after break.