Confronting Dwindling Fortunes Of Women’s Political Representation

Nigerian women are faced with dwindling performance in terms of political representation both in elective positions and in appointive positions at both the federal and state levels and the worsening situation demands urgent attention.

It is really disturbing that the poor female representation worsened in the current 10th National Assembly which has women occupying 3 out of 109 seats (2.7%) in the Senate and 17 out of 360 seats in the House of Representatives (4.7%), which represent 4.2% of the 469-member Assembly.

In the 9th National Assembly, there were 8 female Senators (7.3%) and 13 female Members of the House of Representatives (3.6%), which represents 4.5% of the entire Assembly.

There are reports that in about 15 state assemblies, there is not even one female representation and in the states where they won seats, they are insignificant in number.

This is a huge challenge because in other smaller African countries, female representation in parliament and other elective and appointed positions have improved tremendously. Rwanda for instance has about 61% female representation in the parliament. South Africa has 46.23%, Senegal has 46.06%, and Namibia has 44.23% among others. Even war-torn Somalia has over 20% of female representation in its parliament.

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Last year, a novel Constitution Alteration bill to provide specific legislative seats (30 per cent Affirmative action) for women at Federal and State levels was thrown out by male –dominated National Assembly.

Nigeria’s First Lady Oluremi Tinubu has taken the campaign for women emancipation a notch higher. At the just concluded 2024 First Ordinary Session of the ECOWAS Parliament in Abuja, the First lady told ECOWAS Female Parliamentarians Association (ECOFEPA) that it is time to rise to the occasion even as she acknowledged the significant barriers that women in the West African sub-region face in achieving gender parity.

She stated: “Today, we are reminded of the critical need to address and overcome the persistent gender disparities in our political systems. Despite the progress made, significant barriers still exist that inhibit the ability of African women to claim a larger stake in the political process. These barriers include deeply entrenched societal norms, systemic discriminatory practices, structural issues within our political systems, and financial incapability.”

Female activist, Veronica Cessay who is also the President of ECOFEPA noted that it has become incumbent on the “Nigerian Legislature to carry out constitutional amendments to enshrine gender equity in political representation.”