The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has challenged political parties in Nigeria to move beyond verbal commitments and take concrete, measurable steps to increase women’s participation and representation in politics ahead of the 2027 General Elections.
The Commission made the call on Wednesday, September 9, 2026, during a strategic engagement with political party leaders, female candidates, civil society organisations, development partners and the media at Rockview Hotel Royale, Abuja.
The engagement, organised ahead of the 2027 elections, focused on strengthening women’s political participation and representation and identifying practical measures political parties and other stakeholders could adopt to address the persistent gender gap in elective positions.
In his opening remarks, INEC Chairman, Prof. Joash Amupitan, represented by National Commissioner, Prof. Rhoda Gumus, said a democracy that mobilises women as voters but provides limited opportunities for them to emerge as political leaders had yet to fully realise its representative potential.
Prof. Gumus said the issue of women’s political participation was not merely about their involvement in a single electoral cycle, but concerned the character, inclusiveness and long-term sustainability of Nigeria’s democracy.
According to her, women constitute a significant proportion of Nigeria’s electoral population, but their numerical strength at the polling unit has not translated into corresponding representation in elective offices.
She disclosed that 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.
“Women are not marginal to Nigeria’s electoral population. They are a substantial part of the electorate,” she said.
Prof. Gumus further disclosed that the trend had continued in the ongoing voter registration exercise for the 2027 General Elections.
She said that out of 3,867,997 Nigerians who completed registration in the third phase of the exercise as of July 26, 2026, women accounted for 2,037,589, representing 52.68 per cent, while men accounted for 1,830,408.
She noted that women therefore constituted the majority of new registrants in the latest phase of the registration exercise.
However, the National Commissioner said the substantial presence of women as voters was not reflected in their representation among candidates or elected political office holders.
Citing data from the 2023 elections, she said only 1,556 of the 15,331 candidates across major elective positions were women, representing 10.15 per cent.
She added that 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,” she said.
Against this backdrop, Prof. Gumus urged political parties to critically examine their internal structures and processes and determine whether women were being given genuine opportunities to advance from party membership into leadership and elective positions.
She specifically called for practical support for female candidates in areas including access to party structures and leadership, campaign platforms, media visibility, fundraising networks, mentoring, political communication, logistics, security and grassroots mobilisation.
She stressed that women’s participation in politics should not be treated as a concession or favour.
“The participation of women is not a favour to women. It is a democratic imperative,” she said.
She consequently urged political parties to move “from commitment to action, from aspiration to implementation.”
In a welcome address, the Secretary to the Commission, Dr. Rose Oriaran-Anthony, represented by the Director, Gender and Inclusivity Department, Lakunuya Dorothy Bello, said achieving meaningful advancement in women’s political participation required collective action.
She said the objective could not be achieved by INEC or any single institution acting alone, but required sustained commitment from political parties, civil society organisations, development partners, the media and other stakeholders.
According to her, political parties occupy a particularly important position because they are the principal vehicles through which citizens organise, seek elective office and participate in democratic governance.
She explained that party policies, structures, internal processes and practices significantly influence who gets the opportunity to contest elections and ultimately emerge victorious.
Dr. Oriaran-Anthony therefore urged participants to approach the engagement with openness and a spirit of collaboration, stressing that the meeting should provide an opportunity to move beyond simply acknowledging the challenges confronting women to developing practical and achievable solutions.
Presenting the objectives of the engagement on behalf of Mrs. Bello, the Deputy Director, Gender Relations, Mrs. Hembadoon Akaayar, outlined seven key goals for the deliberations.
They include securing concrete commitments from political parties to support female candidates; promoting equitable access to campaign resources and opportunities; increasing the visibility of female candidates; strengthening protection against violence, intimidation, harassment and discrimination; promoting a supportive political environment for women; encouraging sustained political support for women beyond the 2027 elections; and strengthening collaboration, monitoring and accountability among stakeholders.
Mrs. Akaayar said the Commission was particularly interested in obtaining 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.
She added that INEC wanted stakeholders to move from broad statements of support to commitments that were specific, measurable and capable of being monitored.
Delivering the keynote address, Oluwole Osaze-Uzi, Esq., a former Director of Voter Education, Publicity, Gender and Civil Societies Liaison at INEC and former Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Edo State, said Nigeria continued to lag behind several African countries in the representation of women in elected public offices.
Speaking on the theme, “Strengthening Women’s Political Participation and Representation: Opportunities, Challenges and Strategies for Political Parties Towards the 2027 General Elections,” Osaze-Uzi noted that women account for roughly half of Nigeria’s population and electorate but occupy only about five per cent of seats in the National Assembly.
He also pointed out that no woman had ever been elected President or Governor in Nigeria.
The former INEC director traced the history of women’s participation in presidential contests from 1999, when there was no female presidential candidate, to the 2027 electoral cycle, where three women are among the 14 presidential candidates.
He said Nigeria’s record stood in contrast to developments in several other African countries that had adopted legal or voluntary mechanisms to increase women’s representation.
Osaze-Uzi cited Rwanda as a prominent example, noting that female parliamentary representation rose from less than five per cent in 1994 to nearly 64 per cent today.
He also referenced 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, demonstrating that deliberate institutional measures can significantly improve women’s representation.
Osaze-Uzi identified several factors responsible for the low representation of Nigerian women in politics, including legal and institutional limitations, cultural attitudes, insecurity, financial constraints and inadequate political will.
He called for stronger legal frameworks and effective enforcement mechanisms within political parties to promote women’s inclusion.
He also recommended dedicated campaign funding for women, mentorship programmes and deliberate measures to create safer political environments for female candidates.
He advocated a zero-tolerance approach to intimidation, threats and sexual harassment against women seeking elective office.
The former Edo State Attorney General further noted that meaningful progress could also be achieved through voluntary party quotas where political leaders demonstrate genuine commitment and political will.
The Commission urged political parties participating in the engagement to use the platform to develop concrete commitments capable of improving the prospects of female candidates ahead of the 2027 General Elections.
INEC maintained that the increasing number of women participating in voter registration demonstrated that Nigerian women were already deeply engaged in the democratic process as voters.
The challenge, it said, was to ensure that their significant electoral presence was matched by meaningful opportunities to contest elections, secure party support and occupy positions of political leadership.
Prof. Gumus consequently stressed that women, who constitute almost half of Nigeria’s electorate and accounted for the majority of new registrants in the latest phase of voter registration, must be given a fair and meaningful opportunity to contribute to the leadership of the
