NOTHING is new about all the noise made over women’s representation in elective political offices. At a point, it seemed that there was a law reserving 35 per cent of the elective positions for women.

How was this to be achieved? Was each political party to reserve those places? Suppose the electorate (including women) refused to vote for women candidates? What plan was made to achieve this objective?

Agitations for more women representation in political offices follow a common trend. After elections, lamentations about the plight of women are heard. A long silence follows. A few months to the next elections, another round of lamentations issues.

None of these approaches is capable of getting women more representation in a sphere men dominate and in which women have competitive disadvantages, the commonest of them being finances and political meetings held in the dead of the night, when most women considered responsible should be at home.

Mrs. Josephine Anenih, Minister of Women Affairs made the type of laughable intervention that showed women were deceiving women about elected offices. Amazingly, she made a show of it.

In January 2011, after the party primaries, she told the media of a seminar for women candidates to share their experiences at the primaries. A presidential candidate, Mrs. Sarah Jubril got only a vote at the primaries (presumably her vote) in the midst of more than 100 women delegates, including Mrs. Anenih.

Mrs. Anenih’s seminar was to review the strategy for the attainment of the 35 per cent representation for women. ‘’We will also do a proper documentation of those to benefit from the funds that will be released to them as a mark of support and encouragement toward the realisation of their political ambition, and the advancement of the course of women,’’ Mrs. Anenih said. The ministry had launched a N100 million support fund for women in politics.  There are no details of beneficiaries.

Next to join in the deceit was UN Women (formerly UNIFEM) which expressed dismay and shock at the abysmally low number of women candidates after the party primaries. It later started advertising support for women candidates, weeks to the elections.

African countries like Rwanda and Tanzania, which have met or exceeded the 30 per cent representation in parliaments the 1995 Beijing Conference on Women recommended, relied on special legislations that reserved seats for women. Wishful thinking cannot make the changes possible.

Women are making progress, but the 2011 elections may see a dip. The number of female senators increased from three in 2003 to nine in 2007, and in the House of Representatives, from 13 to 24. At only 33, women formed a mere 7.6 per cent of the combined total of 469 federal legislators. In the state legislatures, 54 women (8.6 per cent of the total) were elected in 2007 as opposed to 29 in 2003.