Out of the 1,019 females who contested in the Nigerian 2023 state houses of assembly elections, only 48 won. This amounts to 4.7 percent success rate for women.
Compared with the 2019 election where 45 women were elected into the state legislatures, the number of females elected into the state parliament in the 2023 election increased by three. Nevertheless, it is a far cry from a proper representation.
On March 18, Nigeria conducted its 28 governorship elections and 36 houses of assembly contests.
According to available data, a total of 10,240 candidates contested for the 990 state houses of assembly seats across the 36 states. Of these contestants, 9,221 were male, while 1,019 were female.
The outcome of the state legislative elections conducted on March 18 shows that only 48 females emerged winners out of the 1,019 that contested, representing only 4.7 percent of the total
This represents less than 1 percent increase when compared with the number of female lawmakers elected into the outgoing state assemblies. In the 2019 election, female representation in the 36 states’ houses of assembly members was only 4.41 percent.
A breakdown of the 48 females elected into the state legislatures in 2023 by states showed that Ekiti State had the highest number. Out of the 26 seats in the state’s house of assembly, six will be occupied by women. In 2019, only four females were elected into the Ekiti State House of Assembly
Kwara and Akwa Ibom States were next with the highest number of elected female lawmakers in 2023. The two states have five and four females in their state parliaments, respectively.
In the state’s outgoing assembly, Akwa Ibom has only two female lawmakers out of the 26 seats in the state. This has now increased to four.
Surprisingly, Kwara State, with the second highest number of female elected lawmakers in the just concluded state house of assembly election, had no female lawmaker in its state’s parliament in 2019.
In Lagos State, only three females were elected. This is the same as Ondo State. While the Ondo State number increased by one, Lagos State maintained the same number of female lawmakers it had in its state parliament in 2019.
Further analysis showed that 15 states do not have a single female elected lawmaker in the just concluded state houses of assembly elections.
Out of the seven states in the North-West region, all except Kaduna State will be male-dominated houses of assembly. Kaduna State has two elected female lawmakers this year. In 2019, it had none.
In the North-East region, only Adamawa and Taraba will have female lawmakers in their parliaments in the next assembly. The other four states in the region will have none. Of the 25 seats in the Adamawa State House of Assembly, only one will be occupied by a woman, while two will be occupied by women in Taraba State. In 2019, no female was elected into the Taraba State Assembly. Adamawa state also had one.
Abia, Imo, Niger, Osun, and Rivers are also among the states that will not have elected female lawmakers in their parliaments in the next assembly.
This will be the second election in a row that Abia State will not have a single elected female in its state house of assembly. In 2019, the 24 seats in the state’s house of assembly were all occupied by males.
Finance and culture, key issues
Professor Sonaiya Oluremi highlighted the issue of finance and the unfavourable existing political culture that had been developed over the years as some of the key factors responsible for the poor female representation in Nigeria.
Over time, several and the same factors have continued to be cited by experts as core reasons for the low female representation in Nigerian parliaments – whether at the national or state level.
A political scientist and gender specialist, Damilola Agbalojobi, shared similar thoughts with Professor Sonaiya Oluremi. She believed that the high cost of politics in Nigeria did not give room for many women to throw their hats into the political ring, which ultimately affected the number of women who eventually emerged.
“Oftentimes, women do not have enough money to pay for the mandatory expression of interest and nomination forms required by political parties to run for positions on their platforms. This is not to mention the huge cost required to run an election campaign.,” she submitted.
This is true especially if the number of female candidates who contested in the just concluded state houses of elections is put into perspective. The total number of females who contested in the election was 1,019, while the number of male contestants was 9,221. This is eight times the number of female candidates.
Founder of Girls Just Want to Run, a non-governmental organisation, Nafisa Atiku, pointed out that economic and cultural issues were factors that had been responsible for the low representation of women in Nigerian parliaments.
She argued that the cost of running for office in Nigeria was high, and due to limited access to resources and economic hardship, it had become difficult for women to spend or even outspend their male counterparts who were vying for the same positions.
On the cultural issue, Atiku stated that the current cultural perception in Nigeria, where many saw women as not competent enough for the job (hold public offices), had continuously contributed to the low female representation in Nigeria.
Suggesting the way forward, she noted that, in the immediate, political parties should develop policies that would make it mandatory for certain seats – a minimum of 35 percent – to be reserved for women, just as it was practiced in many countries. According to her, this approach had the potential to increase women’s representation in parliament because more women would clinch political party tickets and eventually contest as candidates. She said this would increase the chances of more women emerging as winners.