With barely one year to the 2027 general elections, Nigerian women risk remaining largely excluded from the corridors of legislative power, as 13 states continue to operate all-male Houses of Assembly and a long-awaited constitutional amendment to guarantee women’s seats hangs in the balance.
From Bauchi to Zamfara, not a single woman currently sits in the state assemblies of Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Imo, Jigawa, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Abia, Osun, Sokoto, Yobe and Zamfara.
This is a stark reflection of the structural barriers confronting women in Nigerian politics and a warning that meaningful change may persist into the 2027 electoral cycle.
Women’s rights advocates said the clock is ticking on the Reserved Seats for Women Bill, a proposed constitutional alteration sponsored by Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Benjamin Kalu, which seeks to guarantee special seats for women in the National Assembly and State Houses of Assembly.
Without urgent political will, they warn, Nigeria’s gender imbalance in governance may persist for another legislative term.
Speaking in Abuja on women representation, Osasu Igbinedion Ogwuche, Chief Executive Officer of TOS Group and National Convener of the Reserved Seats for Women Bill Campaign Coalition, urged President Bola Tinubu to intervene decisively to fast-track the bill’s passage before election campaigns begin.
“Time is running out,” Ogwuche said, noting that failure to secure legislative approval could force women’s groups to seek an executive bill as an alternative pathway.
She described the proposal as a temporary but necessary corrective measure to reverse decades of systemic exclusion of women from decision-making spaces.
The bill proposes amendments to Sections 48 and 49 of the Constitution to create one additional Senate seat and one House of Representatives seat per state and one each for the FCT reserved exclusively for women.
It also seeks to amend Section 91 to add three special seats for women in each State House of Assembly, alongside adjustments to electoral provisions to support implementation.
The urgency of the reform is underscored by Nigeria’s dismal standing globally.
According to data from the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), women occupy just about four per cent of seats in Nigeria’s National Assembly, far below the global average of roughly 27 per cent.
In the 109-member Senate, only four women currently serve, while the House of Representatives, with about 360 members, has around 15 female lawmakers.
This places Nigeria among the bottom five countries worldwide for women’s parliamentary representation, with global rankings ranging from 178th to 180th out of more than 180 countries.
Advocacy Lead of TOS Foundation, Andikan Umoh, attributed the imbalance to high campaign costs, political violence, patriarchal party structures and weak institutional support for female candidates, noting that Nigeria lags behind African peers such as Rwanda, South Africa, Namibia and Senegal, where constitutional quotas and party reforms have boosted women’s representation.
Rejecting claims that the bill seeks special treatment, campaigners insist it is about democratic inclusion.
“All democracies already operate corrective mechanisms from federal character to zoning. Reserved seats for women simply expand the pool of merit and strengthen democracy,” Umoh said.
The women’s group said the stakes are clear, adding that without decisive action now, Nigeria risks entering the 2027 elections with half of its population still largely shut out of the nation’s law-making chambers wit its nascent democracy the poorer for it.
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