The Concept of Supreme Manliness and the Nigeria Female Politician*

The party politics in Nigeria, if the 2003 general elections is used as a gauge could be described as male dominated. The parties still appear to be dominantly male. The accounts of the several female candidates in the elections (both in the primaries and the general elections) are also indicative of almost zero-level female tolerant party arrangements.

Most female politicians, in the details of their own relation to the parties and their structures, tend to subscribe to the notion that the parties are male-owned. This concession to the mainstream male identification with politics is borne out of the seemingly hopelessness of the female politician standing up to a male politician who is economically empowered to dominate the political environment.


“The male politicians are intolerant of the female candidate” is a very familiar refrain. Events in the parties which cast a picture of political parties moulded to suite the notion of supreme manliness gave credit to the allegations of gender discriminations. A closer look at the last (2003) elections however has indicated that the problem that most female politicians had to grapple with in the elections may have also been as a result of the crisis of identity inherent in their politics.

While it is unreasonable to claim that there are no discriminating practices in the parties against the women, it is also not far from the truth that some of the women who have gone into politics have the tendency to act as if they seek to occupy or make entry into masculine space. They in their own desperation at getting parties’ tickets to contest elections in some instances make it seem as if they have acquiesced to the traditional patriarchal form.

Even in the instances of the female candidates spending their personal money in executing their campaigns, they still submitted themselves to the control of some men they described as godfathers. In most cases these men are known to have taken their money, refused to deliver on promises made and in some cases also treat the women with open contempt.

Another feature of the female politicians’ acquiescence to the male domination is apparent in the readiness of some female politicians to play the subordinate role. Examples abound of female politicians who had indicated interest in governorship positions and had settled for the deputy slot simply because they have been told by some people that the time is not ripe for a female chief executive. Some of these female politicians, as in the case of Mrs Abiola Obadan in Osun State, South West were more popular than any other candidate in the race for their party tickets. In Mrs. Obada’s case, her popularity also cuts across the parties. Her settling for the second fiddle spot surprised people in the opposing parties too.

The female activist who cast their net with the big parties in the 2003 elections inadvertently made the notion of mainstream male identification with politics strong. The hope of many had been that with the entrance of the female activists who sought elective offices women would begin to make strong impact in the nation’s political scene. However, their succumb to the lure of standing by the next big door neighbour robbed them of this history making opportunity.

Many had assumed that such activist would instead of going of wild goose chase of entrism in parties that are fortified against penetrations from “outsiders” would join a newly registered party with a history in popular struggle. It is argued that it is in such parties that they could make enough impact and set agendas.

One of such parties is the National Conscience Party (NCP). NCP is one of the few existing parties in Nigeria whose history is rooted in popular struggle. In the words of Tony Iyare, a journalist and public Affairs analyst, “for such parties the issue of affirmative action should take prominence place, especially in the allocation of offices and fielding of contestants”. His view is that the inability of the party to go out and get the female activists to contest under the banner of NCP is a failure in itself.

The Iyare position would on the surface be acceptable. However, if subjected to deep analysis, it would in a way be a return to the same school of thought that has treated women with condescension. And as Adeyinka Olumide-Fusika, the Deputy National Legal Adviser of the NCP argued, “we can not force them to join us. We can only appeal to them based on ideas. If they share our ideas, they would team up with us”

Olumide-Fusika’s argument is that the female contestants on the platform of the NCP emerged from contest in the primaries in the parties that were open and they defeated male contestant. His argument was reinforced by Mrs. Teju Abiola, the Deputy Governorship candidate of the party who pointed out that of all the NCP female candidates in Lagos State, she was the only one that contested with another female aspirant in the primaries. “Others contested along with male aspirants and they won because party members considered them better candidates.” She held that in no other party would that have happened.

Politics is not about the “capture” of political power alone. It is also about selling ideas, about agenda setting. The real power that is embedded in politicking is in the ability of a political group to bring to the fore their ideas and principles and get it noticed if not fully imbibed. The practical example of the NCP too is in the entrism works of the Democratic Socialist Movement (DSM), which appears to be the dominant group in the party.  This is definitely a classic example of the ways in which the female politician would have started the process of a cultural shift in the political terrain. In not seeking a voice for themselves and building a party that if not cast in their picture would take some elements of theirs, they have inadvertently helped, for the main time, in sustaining the concept of supreme manliness in Nigerian politics.

* Being contribution to a book, Nigerian Woman and Entrism in Politics, Published by Gender Development Action (GADA), Lagos, Nigeria 2004