Politics
Democracy and Women’s Representation in Nigeria
By Agbeye Oburumu
Women have been underrepresented in Nigeria’s democracy. Since the return to democracy in 1999, Nigerian women have held less than 5 per cent of the seats in the National Assembly. Currently, women hold 4.2 per cent of the seats in the National Assembly, ranking Nigeria 178th out of 182 countries for female parliamentary representation. In 2023, women contested only 10.1 per cent of total candidacies. This underrepresentation results from party practices that systematically exclude women. For example, nomination processes that favour men, costly campaigns, and political violence targeting women aspirants. To ensure women’s due representation, the National Assembly should enact a binding gender quota, political parties should remove financial barriers to women’s candidacy, and authorities should penalise gender-based political violence.
Nigeria’s 2006 Gender Policy set a 35 per cent affirmative action target for women in elective office. Two decades on, women’s representation remains below 5 per cent. In 2023, only 65 women won seats out of 1,400. UN experts documented widespread intimidation, blackmail, and violent attacks against women candidates at Nigerian primaries. The continued exclusion of women from politics weakens Nigeria’s democracy by limiting their significant voices in decision-making and undermining inclusive governance.
The National Assembly should enact the 35 per cent target into law. The Reserved Seats Bill before the National Assembly would create additional seats for women in both the Senate and House of Representatives. The bill should empower the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to reject any party list that does not meet minimum gender thresholds. The strongest case against quotas should rest on merit, and not on money and proximity to power.
Two African countries show the value of enforced quotas. Senegal’s 2010 parity law requires every candidate list to alternate women and men, and its electoral commission rejects lists that do not comply. Women’s representation in Senegal’s National Assembly rose from 22.7 per cent before its 2010 parity law to 44.2 per cent by 2022. Despite declining to 41.2 per cent after the November 2024 elections, it still has the highest share in West Africa.
Rwanda’s 2003 Constitution mandated a 30 per cent quota, although women held roughly 18 per cent of parliamentary seats. That single decision drove representation to 63.8 per cent by 2024, the highest of any parliament globally, as the Rwandan parliament confirmed. Rwanda’s women parliamentarians then rewrote the inheritance law, land rights, and equal pay protections. The argument that quotas produce incompetent leadership cannot survive that record. Nigeria has cited Rwanda for decades and must now act on that citation.
Nigeria’s two dominant parties set nomination fees that most candidates cannot afford. The All Progressives Congress (APC) and the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) fees for the State House of Assembly hit 20 million naira, and the presidency reached 200 million naira in 2026. Parties should subsidise fees to encourage women candidates, adopt binding internal gender quotas, and open primaries to independent monitoring.
Kenya’s Constitution requires parties to show gender-compliant lists or face electoral consequences. UN Women Nigeria already works with INEC and the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs to combat political violence and prepare women for leadership. The Nigerian Women Trust Fund has always promoted training women for leadership roles, starting from basic skills. The federal government should fund and scale both through structured fellowship programs that place women in the Ministries of Finance, Health, Education, and Justice. This model will create a candidate pool that reflects gender equality. The structural benefit will be a party system that can no longer use money as the sole filter for access. Women do not need pity, but access, and the current system gatekeeps that access
Penalising gender-based political violence is an urgent step to protect women who already face structural and systemic barriers. In 2025, the Senate suspended Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, one of only four women in the 109-seat chamber, after she accused Senate President Godswill Akpabio of sexual harassment. Senator Akpabio denied the allegation, and the Senate dismissed Natasha’s petition on procedural grounds without a public hearing or investigation. The dispute later generated multiple court proceedings, including a defamation suit filed by Akpabio and litigation over her suspension, but the Senate never investigated the substance of the allegations.
Gender-based violence against women also occurs during party primaries. UN Women has recorded the intimidation of women aspirants and pressure on them to withdraw. Sustained abuse of this kind discourages women from contesting.
Legislation alone cannot end the intimidation of women in politics, but it can criminalise it and attach real penalties. Bolivia became the first country to criminalise political violence against women when it passed Law 243 in 2012, though weak enforcement has limited its effectiveness. Nigeria should enact and enforce a similar law. INEC should establish a dedicated reporting unit for gender-based political violence with a published response timeline. The National Orientation Agency should run ward-level civic education programs across all 36 states before the 2027 election cycle. Platform regulators should require social media companies operating in Nigeria to publish quarterly reports on the gendered removal of political content. Nigeria must treat this violence as a democratic emergency, not a cultural norm.
Binding quotas, lowering candidacy costs, and legal protections for women seeking and holding office would create a National Assembly that no longer relies on wealth for access and represents the entire country. Nigeria must implement these reforms before the 2027 elections and not let political history repeat itself.
Agbeye Oburumu is a writing fellow at African Liberty.
