During the run-up to the 2015 general Election, candidates and parties made a number of promises in manifestos, through the media, and on the campaign trail. In an effort to provide accountability to these promises, SBM Intelligence have conducted a large-scale, cross-party, cross-sector report that identified a total of 170 promises made by Buhari and his APC party, and analysed the extent to which they had been fulfilled. These promises are split across 24 different sectors and issues, one of which concerned gender.
The report identifies seven promises made by Buhari regarding gender equality and women’s empowerment. These included: ensuring women’s constitutional rights and representation in government; to provide greater opportunities for women’s economic empowerment; to protect women’s economic empowerment specifically in rural areas; to use the party structure to promote gender quotas for state and assembly seats; to implement the National Gender Policy, including 35% of appointive positions for women; to promote constitutional amendments expanding representation for women and persons with disabilities; and finally, to work with the senate to pass the National Disability Act and the Gender and Equal Opportunities Bill.
Of these seven promises, none have been completed according to the report. One promise, that concerning the promotion of minimum seat numbers for women in state and national assemblies, is rated as ‘ongoing’, while the remaining six are deemed to have had little movement forward. On the contrary, the report notes that Buhari’s cabinet features just six women, while the seven women senators (out of 108 senators total), and eleven women representatives in the House of Representatives each mark a record low in women’s participation in Nigerian politics since 1999.