Kuni Tyessi in Abuja
Ahead of the 2027 general election, only 10.1% of National Assembly candidates are women, a development stakeholders have blamed on the failure of political parties and structural barriers.
This was disclosed on Thursday, at a media convening themed ‘Beyond Participation: Amplifying Women Candidates, Advancing Political Leadership and Building an Inclusive Nigeria for 2027’ held at the Bolingo Hotel, Abuja.
Presenting INEC’s final list, the Executive Director of Gender Strategy Advancement International (GSAI), Dr. Adaora Sidney-Jack, revealed that out of 4,408 candidates for the National Assembly, only 443 are women.
“A breakdown shows 115 women out of 1,109 candidates for the Senate (9.6%) and 328 women out of 3,600 candidates for the House of Representatives (10.2%)”.
Dr. Sidney-Jack noted that although the figure is a slight improvement from 380 women in 2023, progress is very slow.
She lamented that states like Jigawa, Nasarawa and Yobe have zero female senatorial candidates, while Akwa Ibom leads with 10.
“The problem is not lack of qualified women, but structural barriers in our political system,” she said.
She called on the media to be intentional partners in democracy by giving fair, balanced and evidence-based coverage to the 443 women on the ballot, focusing on their policies and competence, not just their gender.
She also renewed calls for the return of the Reserved Seats for Women Bill as part of electoral reform, clarifying that it is not a replacement for competitive elections but a temporary corrective measure.
Corroborating her, the Executive Director of the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), Mr. Auwal Musa Rafsanjani, blamed political parties as custodians of leadership.
He said if parties do not present women, youth and persons with disabilities, Nigerians will not have them on the ballot.
“We give political parties too much comfort. We don’t question their primaries. The last primaries were funny but everyone kept quiet,” Rafsanjani said.
He criticized the sale of expression of interest and nomination forms at ridiculous prices, with no pushback from citizens.
Rafsanjani also called for introspection, noting that the popular demand to be “carried along” does not work in power politics.
“Nobody carries anybody in the power business. You have to be out there and participate,” he said, lamenting how difficult it is to get women to appear on TV programmes to discuss national issues.
Both speakers agreed that early preparation is key. They supported calls to encourage daughters to contest for positions like Student Union President from an early age and for women to invest in themselves to be taken more seriously.
They concluded that building an inclusive Nigeria for 2027 requires moving “from participation to influence, from presence to power”.
Similarly, Executive Director, Peering Advocacy and Advancement Centre in Africa, Ezenwa Nwagwu, said the next generation of women will “kick the door open” for political inclusion.
Ezenwa maintained that women have been polite for too long in demanding political inclusion, warning that if the doors remain closed, the next generation will not ask politely.
Speaking on women’s participation in politics, he said: “If we bang and they don’t open, we kick it open and the people who will do that will not be polite people.”
He noted that years of knocking politely have not yielded enough results, and that continued exclusion will force a more forceful push for representation and power by women.