WHEN WILL A WOMAN BE ELECTED GOVERNOR IN NIGERIA?

 

The above question comes handy particularly in the face of the emergence of Kamala Harris, the African American picked by former US Vice-President and Democrats Presidential candidate in the November presidential election, Joe Biden.

The first woman to assume office as governor in pursuant to a special election was Nellie Tayloe Ross of Wyoming (widow of late Governor William B. Ross) served January 1923 to October 1924), who was elected on November 4, 1924, and sworn in on January 5, 1925.

From this era there have been scores of female governors leading to the emergence of female Prime Ministers like Margate Thatcher and lately, Theresa May of Britain.....and Presidents like May Ellen Sirleaf of Liberia and many others.

Virginia Ngozi Etiaba emerged governor of Anambra State in controversial circumstances. In November 2006 when the then governor, Peter Obi was impeached on alleged gross misconduct by the lawmakers, Etiaba assumed duties but she transferred power back to Obi three months later when the Appeal Court nullified the impeachment on ground that the lawmakers were reckless and their act cum decision lacked merit of proof.

That was the closest a woman has gotten to the corridors or office of Governor in Nigeria. At best women end up as "rubber stamp" deputies to their male counterparts who hold sway and the keys to Government Houses.

However, we won't forget so soon that Aisha Alhassan popularly known as Mama Taraba also had one of her legs in Government House in Jalingo until the courts proved otherwise.

Critics will tell you that Nigerian women have not helped their course politically. They say, women have been nonchalant or lackadaisical in political matters thus, allowing the opposite gender to take full advantage of the situation.

Again they say, the few women who have been allowed into top positions have either shown clear signs of incompetence or got involved in messy scandals which cast a dark shadow on the chances of others....so it becomes a huge risk to entrust power of a governor to a woman.

This point has been kicked into touch by the very irresponsible acts of so many men in power who have looted the treasury with reckless abandon thus, casting the dirty robe of corruption generally on Nigerian leaders who are relatively male-dominated.

It is not enough to say Nigerian women are not ready to lead as Governor or President. Truth is their male counterparts talking about the politicians create all manners of crooked means and stumbling blocks including usage of thugs to scare them away.

In addition, they make politics here seem like the men's game. They lay landmines on the paths of the women as witnessed in the case of a certain Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mrs. Patricia Olubunmi Etteh just to hang the bone on the neck of the dog and call it a bad name.

As said earlier, women in our political environment are at best-made deputy governors or Ministers or Senators. But even in these capacities, they have not performed badly or worse than their male counterparts especially if we go by the standard of the likes of Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala among others.

Shouldn't our women politicians stand up to be counted....and given the leverage to govern or lead particularly at this point that the men in power or governance are largely disappointing the country in the discharge of their duties?

SOME CURRENT FEMALE GOVERNORS ACROSS THE WORLD

UNITED STATES

●Gina Raimondo (Rhode Island) since 2015 Incumbent

●Kate Brown (Oregon) since 2019 Incumbent

●Kay Ivey (Alabama) since 2017 Incumbent

●Kim Reynolds (Iowa) since 2017 Incumbent

●Gretchen Whitmer (Michigan) since 2019 Incumbent

●Michelle Lujan Grishas (New Mexico) since 2019 Incumbent

●Janet Mills (Maine) since 2019 Incumbent

●Kristi Noem (South Dakota) since 2019 Incumbent

●Laura Kelly (Kansas) since 2019 Incumbent

ARGENTINA

●Alicia Kirchner (Santa Cruz) since 2015 Incumbent

●María Eugenia Vidal (Buenos Aires) since 2015 Incumbent

●Claudia Ledesma Abdala (Santiago del Estero) since 2013 Incumbent

●Lucía Corpacci (Catamarca) since 2011 Incumbent

BRAZIL

●Fátima Bezerra, PT (Rio Grand do Nort) since 2019 Incumbent

JAPAN

●Yuriko Koike (Tokyo) since 2016 Incumbent

MEXICO

●Claudia Artemiza Pavlovich Arellano (Sonora) since 2015 Incumbent

KENYA

●Charity Ngilu (Kitui County) since 2017 Incumbent

●Anne Waiguru (Kirinyaga County) since 2017 Incumbent