As the world celebrated International Women’s Day on March 8, with the theme, #EmbraceEquity, Nigerian women have been counting their losses from the just concluded National Assembly elections. Results released by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of members elected to the 10th National Assembly shows worrying stagnation in the number of women elected to the National Assembly. In the Senate, only three women have been announced as winners in the elections so far. They are: Oluranti Idiat Adebule (Lagos West), Ipalibo Harry Banigo (Rivers West) and Ireti Heebah Kingibe (Federal Capital Territory). This represents a decrease of 57% in women’s representation in the Senate, with the number falling from seven in the 9th Assembly to a low number of three. In the House of Representatives, 15 women have been declared elected with 34 seats left to be declared. This accounts for 13.3% increase from 13 women in the 9th Assembly. These numbers do not represent a significant improvement in female representation, from what has obtained in the National Assembly since the beginning of Nigeria’s 4th republic.
A Constitution Alteration bill proposing additional women-only seats in the National Assembly and State Houses of Assembly failed to pass during the 9th Assembly’s Constitution Review exercise. Structural barriers such as culture, religion, patriarchy, finance and political violence pose challenges to women’s political participation. Years of advocacy by women’s groups and civil society organisations have yielded a few wins but not quite the substantial improvements hoped for. Perhaps a more effective strategy to achieve this goal will be the use of precise instruments like legislation.