Key points
- A coalition of women-led civil society groups is demanding immediate electoral reforms following a post-primary audit that exposed a severe gender gap.
- An institutional review of 22 political parties showed that only three recorded female aspirant participation above 20 percent.
- Current trajectories indicate women might occupy a mere 2.7 percent of Senate seats following the 2027 general elections.
- Advocacy leaders are pushing for the passage of the Special Seats Bill as a necessary legal framework to rectify systemic imbalances.
- The coalition issued a seven-point charter of demands, including the adoption of mandatory female deputy governorship candidates.
Main Story
A network of women-led civil society organizations has issued a joint demand for immediate structural electoral reforms ahead of the 2027 general elections.
The call follows a detailed post-primary audit that revealed widespread gender disparities and exclusionary practices across 22 operational political parties. In a joint statement released on Sunday in Abuja, groups including the Voice of Women Empowerment Foundation, the Women in Politics Forum, the EneObi Centre for Development, and Gender Strategy Advancement International urged legislative and policy adjustments to reverse the underrepresentation of women.
The data-driven audit highlighted major systemic hurdles faced by female aspirants, such as arbitrary candidate substitutions, unvetted consensus agreements, and pressure to step down from races. The review showed that only the Peoples Democratic Party, the Young Progressives Party, and the Youth Party managed to cross a 20 percent threshold for female aspirant participation, while other major parties fell significantly behind. Given that only three female candidates secured senatorial tickets across all monitored parties, advocates warned that female representation in the upper legislative chamber could drop drastically in the upcoming political cycle without immediate intervention.
To address these barriers, the coalition is urging the executive and legislative arms of government to codify gender equity into law. Civil society leaders emphasized that the lack of representation is a political hurdle rather than a shortage of qualified female leaders. Beyond legislative adjustments, the organizations are demanding that the Independent National Electoral Commission introduce stricter oversight mechanisms and publish transparent gender-disaggregated primary reports. They also called on internal party machineries to enforce internal democratic rules and hold actors accountable for intimidation against female contenders.
The Issues
- Overcoming deeply entrenched institutional barriers and arbitrary backdoor candidate adjustments within internal political party frameworks.
- Enacting legal pathways like the Special Seats Bill to systematically guarantee gender balance rather than relying solely on rhetorical advocacy.
- Introducing transparent, data-driven tracking mechanisms through the electoral umpire to monitor gender diversity metrics in real-time.
What’s Being Said
- Explaining how unfair internal nomination dynamics systematically disadvantage female candidates, Ms. Bukky Shonibare, the Executive Director of Invictus Africa, noted: “the review exposed persistent structural barriers against women, including forced withdrawals, opaque “consensus” arrangements and last-minute candidate substitutions.”
- Outlining the institutionalized nature of political bias within party leadership, Mrs. Toun Sonaiya, Co-founder and Executive Director of VOWEF, warned that: “gatekeeping has become institutionalised”
What’s Next
- The coalition will maintain its tracking of the 2027 electoral pipeline to document exclusionary actions and demand accountability from political parties.
- Advocacy teams will focus on lobbying President Bola Tinubu and the National Assembly to back the passage of the Special Seats Bill.
- Civil society groups will pressure political parties to adopt internal rules requiring the selection of female deputy governorship candidates.
Bottom Line
A coalition of prominent Nigerian women’s groups has demanded urgent electoral interventions ahead of the 2027 elections, using a post-primary audit to show that structural exclusion could leave women with just 2.7 percent of Senate seats unless the Special Seats Bill is passed.
