As Nigeria heads toward the 2027 general elections, the Nigerian Women Trust Fund (NWTF), through its flagship initiative, Towards Inclusive Governance in Nigeria (TIGN), is intensifying advocacy for gender-balanced political participation and structural reforms within political parties.
The project, supported by the Open Society Foundations, is designed to address systemic barriers that continue to limit women’s representation in politics despite years of policy advocacy and legal gains.
One of the project’s core interventions is pushing for the implementation of the 35% Affirmative Action policy, which mandates that at least 35% of appointive and elective positions be reserved for women. In 2022, NWTF led a coalition that secured a landmark court judgment directing the Federal Government to enforce this policy. Yet, nearly three years later, the ruling remains unimplemented. A glaring symbol of the disconnect between legal reforms and political realities.
Through strategic engagements, legal tracking, and capacity-building for women in politics, the TIGN project is spotlighting the persistent weaknesses in Nigeria’s democratic architecture, especially within political parties, the gatekeepers of leadership. This advocacy finds strong resonance in recent comments by Cynthia Mbamalu, director of programmes at Yiaga Africa, who recently decried the state of internal democracy within Nigerian political parties.
Mbamalu, speaking during an interview on Tuesday, identified defections, weak party structures, and ideological bankruptcy as significant threats to inclusive governance and, more specifically, to women’s inclusion.
“Each of these parties, the foundational challenge they are dealing with is a lack of internal party democracy,” she said.
“You cannot claim to contest in a democratic system when your parties do not imbibe the values and principles of democracy.”
Her comments validate the focus of the TIGN project, which links party-level dysfunction, such as flawed candidate selection processes and unregulated internal structures to the systemic exclusion of women and young aspirants. These undemocratic practices, Mbamalu warned, have turned elections into battlegrounds for elite interests, where credible female candidates are often pushed aside in favour of party loyalists.
“The lack of ideological clarity in Nigeria’s political parties is also a major issue,” she noted. “You cannot hold any party and say this is what differentiates this party from the other. It’s almost like the only difference is their party logo.”
The TIGN project recognises this ideological vacuum as a key reason why efforts to institutionalise gender equity often collapse at the party level. As the only constitutionally recognised vehicle for producing electoral candidates, political parties must be held accountable. A sentiment echoed by both NWTF and Mbamalu.
“Without parties being organised and democratic, how can they ensure that they are producing candidates from a democratic process so that citizens can have the freedom to choose from qualified and competent candidates?” Mbamalu asked.
NWTF, through TIGN, is working to establish a fourth tier of accountability in Nigeria’s democratic system. This tier directly targets political parties and their role in shaping political outcomes. The project also supports women leaders at national and subnational levels, provides technical guidance on party reforms, and tracks commitments to gender inclusion.
As Mbamalu rightly concluded, Nigeria is “in a nightmare of political actors who understand the rules but refuse to be regulated by them.” For NWTF, this reinforces the urgency of TIGN’s mission: to transform Nigeria’s political landscape into one that is transparent, inclusive, and truly democratic.
With the 2027 elections on the horizon, Towards Inclusive Governance in Nigeria is not just a project but a movement toward ensuring that women are no longer left behind in Nigeria’s democratic story.
