The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has challenged Nigeria’s political parties to turn their commitments to women’s political participation into concrete action, warning that a democracy that mobilises women as voters but offers them limited pathways to political leadership has yet to realise its full representative potential.
The Commission issued the challenge at a strategic engagement with political party leaders, female candidates, civil society organisations, development partners and the media in Abuja ahead of the 2027 General Elections.
Opening the engagement on behalf of INEC Chairman, Prof. Joash Amupitan, National Commissioner Prof. Rhoda Gumus said the disparity between women’s participation at the polls and their presence in elective office remained one of the country’s most pressing democratic gaps.
She said women accounted for 44,414,846 of the 93,469,008 registered voters in the 2023 General Election, representing 47.52 per cent of the electorate.
The figure, she added, has grown even more pronounced in the ongoing voter registration exercise for the 2027 elections.
According to Gumus, 3,867,997 Nigerians had completed registration in the third phase of the exercise as of July 26, 2026, with women accounting for 2,037,589, or 52.68 per cent, compared with 1,830,408 men.
“Women therefore accounted for the majority of new registrants in the final phase of the exercise,” she said.
“Women are not marginal to Nigeria’s electoral population. They are a substantial part of the electorate.”
However, the commissioner noted that women’s numerical strength as voters had not translated into comparable representation as candidates or elected officials.
She cited the 2023 elections, where only 1,556 of 15,331 candidates across major elective positions were women, representing just 10.15 per cent.
The outcome at the National Assembly was even more stark: only three women were elected to the Senate and 16 to the House of Representatives, representing 2.8 per cent and 4.4 per cent of the respective seats.
“A substantial gap appears to exist between women’s participation as voters and their participation as political leaders,” Gumus said.
She urged political parties to examine the practical barriers confronting female aspirants and candidates, including access to party leadership and structures, campaign platforms, media visibility, fundraising networks, mentoring, political communication, logistics, security and grassroots mobilisation.
The Commission also challenged parties to consider whether women were being given genuine opportunities to advance through their internal structures rather than being treated merely as voters or symbolic participants.
“The participation of women is not a favour to women. It is a democratic imperative,” Gumus declared.
She urged political parties to move “from commitment to action, from aspiration to implementation.”
In a welcome address by the Secretary to the Commission, Dr. Rose Oriaran-Anthony, INEC similarly stressed that improving women’s political representation could not be left to the electoral commission alone.
The address, read on her behalf by the Director, Gender and Inclusivity Department, Lakunuya Dorothy Bello, said political parties had a particularly important responsibility because they are the principal vehicles through which citizens organise, seek elective office and participate in democratic governance.
Their policies, structures and internal processes, the Commission said, ultimately influence who gets the opportunity to contest elections and who emerges victorious.
INEC therefore called for collective and sustained action by political parties, civil society groups, development partners, the media and other stakeholders.
The Commission’s objectives for the engagement went beyond general advocacy. They included securing concrete commitments from political parties to support female candidates, promoting equitable access to campaign resources, increasing the visibility of women candidates, strengthening protection against political violence and harassment, creating a more supportive environment for women and ensuring political support for women extends beyond the 2027 elections.
It also sought stronger monitoring, collaboration and accountability among stakeholders.
Presenting the objectives, Deputy Director, Gender Relations, Mrs. Hembadoon Akaayar, said the Commission expected participating parties to make commitments that could be measured and followed up.
“Our expectation is that this engagement will produce practical and measurable commitments from participating political parties rather than general expressions of goodwill,” she said.
The gender gap in Nigerian politics was further highlighted in the keynote address delivered by Oluwole Osaze-Uzi, a former INEC Director of Voter Education, Publicity, Gender and Civil Societies Liaison and former Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Edo State.
Osaze-Uzi said Nigeria remained one of the countries lagging behind in the representation of women in elected public office.
Although women constitute roughly half of Nigeria’s population and electorate, he noted that they account for only about five per cent of representation in the National Assembly. No woman has also been elected President or Governor since the return to democratic rule in 1999.
He noted, however, that the political landscape is gradually changing, pointing out that while no woman contested the presidency in 1999, three women are among the 14 presidential candidates for the 2027 election.
Osaze-Uzi urged Nigeria to draw lessons from African countries that have made greater progress.
He cited Rwanda, where women’s parliamentary representation rose from less than five per cent in 1994 to nearly 64 per cent today, as well as Senegal’s 2010 Parity Law and voluntary party quota systems in countries including Namibia, South Africa, Mozambique and Cape Verde.
According to him, 41 of Africa’s 54 countries now operate some form of gender quota.
He identified legal, cultural, financial, security and political barriers as major factors limiting Nigerian women’s participation and called for stronger legal frameworks, enforcement mechanisms within political parties, dedicated campaign funding, mentorship programmes and zero tolerance for intimidation, threats and sexual harassment.
The experience of other African countries, he argued, also shows that significant progress can be achieved through voluntary quotas where there is sufficient political commitment.
For INEC, the central message of the Abuja engagement was that women’s growing influence as voters must be matched by meaningful opportunities to compete for and occupy political office.
With women accounting for almost half of registered voters in 2023 and more than half of new registrants in the latest phase of voter registration, the Commission said political parties now have an opportunity to close the gap between women’s electoral participation and political representation before the 2027 polls.
