National Council of Women's Societies

The formation of the National Council of Women's Societies was prompted by the large number of women's organizations in the Western region during the nation’s First Republic. The regional minister in charge of social welfare, Oba Akran, called on these organizations to unite and present a common platform in their rapport with governmental and international institutions. In March 1958, members of these women organizations attended a meeting in Ibadan to discuss the establishment of an umbrella organization to unite women in the country. The NCWS was formally inaugurated in 1959 as an organization for women's group in the country.[2]

Key organizations that came together to form NCWS include Women's Cultural and Philanthropic Organization in Eastern Nigeria, Women's Improvement Society, Women's Movement, Nigerian Women's Union and Federation of Women's Societies. Between 1961 and 1962, the organization established regional branches in Kaduna, Enugu and Lagos.[3]

In the formative years, NCWS was a group of elite women interested in promoting their interest and the interests of less privileged women. [4]

In the early 1960s, NCWS took an active role in promoting initiatives to increase the participation of women in the Economy of Nigeria through training classes and credit programmes.[5] Economic lectures on self-sustenance were delivered by individuals such as Aduke Alakija and other elite women. In the early 1980s, after the crash of oil prices, NCWS organized economic literacy programmes for the market women community.

NCWS goal of affecting national life through active participation of women has led the organization to support women's suffrage in Northern Nigeria during the First Republic. In the late 1950s, it started a voting rights campaign to allow women to vote and be voted for and visited regional leaders such as Ahmadu Bello to press on those interests.[6] The NCWS was also involved in mobilizing women to participate in the political process during the short-lived Third Republic.

The goals of NCWS include among others, to improve the welfare, progress and standard of living of women in Nigeria, and to increase the role of women in affecting political life through access to decision making.[8] Other aims include to ensure through legal and political means that women have the opportunity to participate as responsible members of their communities development and growth. In addition, it encourages the affiliation of all women NGO's in the country to come under its platform.

The following women have led the National Council of Women Societies.

• Kofo Ademola (1958–1964)
• Elizabeth Abimbola Awoliyi (1964–1971)
• Kofoworola Abeni Pratt (1971–1976)
• Ronke Doherty (1976–1980)
• Ifeyinwa Nzeako (1980–1984)
• Hilda Adefarasin (1984–1988)
• Emily Aig-Imoukhuede (1988–1993)
• Laila Dogonyaro (1993–1995)
• Amina Sambo (1995–1997)
• Bolere Ketebu
• Ramatu Usman
• Nkechi Mba
• Laraba Gloria Shoda

During its formative years, NCWS was plagued with conflicts bordering on religious and geographical divisions, state subvention and support of specific government policies such as the austerity programme of President Shehu Shagari's administration and the harassment of street vendors.[9] The issue of financing has earned NCWS criticism from some groups. For a long time, federal and state government gave subventions to NCWS which allowed the organization to build a national headquarters in Abuja and also own a commercial building in Victoria Island, Lagos.[10] This financing relationship have sometimes made NCWS less critical of some actions of the government such as the annulment of the democratic process in 1993 a few years after mobilizing women to come out and participate in the electoral process.[10]

• Women in Nigeria

• Iyabo Olojede (2000). Women's interest organisations: encounters with the state on issues of good governance (Report). Civil Society and Governance Programme, IDS.