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The Nigerian Women Trust Fund (NWTF) today called on President Muhammadu Buhari to increase the representation of women in his cabinet. On Tuesday, the Senate announced the names of the ministerial nominees sent to it by President Buhari. There are only three women on the list of the initial 21 nominees.

Former governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress in Taraba State in the 2015 elections, Senator Aisha Jumai Al Hassan; Former Commissioner for Finance in Ogun State, Kemi Adeosun, and United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s Special Adviser on Post-2015 Development Planning, Amina Mohammed, are the female trio that were announced on Tuesday.

Although previous administrations fell short of the 35% minimum representation of women as required in the National Gender Policy (2006), the NWTF urged President Buhari to follow in the footsteps of previous governments that received commendations for constituting what it describes as “inclusive” cabinet. The advocacy group says gender parity in appointive and elective positions is an indication of development in any nation.

Nigeria currently falls short of  global and regional benchmarks like the Beijing Platform for Action and the Maputo Protocol to which the country is signatory to. Only 5.5% of women are in the Nigerian National Assembly. The average rate of female parliamentarians globally and in sub-Saharan Africa is 19% and 20%, respectively.

Created to address the growing concerns about the gender imbalance in elective and appointive positions in Nigeria, the NWTF called on the president to ensure that an additional ten women are included in his cabinet as this will increase the current 14.3% of women currently proposed to be in his government to meet regional and international benchmarks for affirmative action.

“We also urge Mr. President to be mindful of other opportunities outside of cabinet in which competent, deserving Nigerian women can serve their country and make appointments accordingly. We have faith in our country Nigeria. We believe that Mr. President is a man of his word. We are therefore confident that Mr. President will do what is right and select more women from the pool of strong capable women leaders, which Nigeria has, in abundance,” NWTF said in a statement.

The body said it remains hopeful that subsequent appointments would reflect gender equity and push Nigeria closer to become a role model for sustainable and inclusive development in Africa.