The low number of female candidates who will be participating in the 2023 general elections is a huge setback in attaining 35 percent affirmative action in elective and appointive offices in Nigeria, chairperson of the House Committee on Women in Parliament, Taiwo Oluga, has said.

Oluga raised the alarm yesterday at a media briefing organised by the Nigerian Women Trust Fund, the European Union Support to Democratic Governance in Nigeria (EU-SDGN), and a host of other civil society groups in Abuja.

According to her, five states, Kano, Sokoto, Taraba, Yobe, and Zamfara would not have a single female elected official in 2023 as non was nominated for federal elections the next year.

“The implication of this is that, even before next year’s elections in the country, it is crystal clear that 13.5 per cent States will not have any female member in the National Assembly,” Oluga stated.

Oluga, who is representing Ayedoade/Irewole/Isokan federal constituency Osun state, lamented that despite the advocacy and attempt by women groups and parliamentarians to have increased women’s participation in politics in Nigeria, not much progress seems to have been made.

She said: “Going by the number of women, who are currently nominated by various Political Parties and are vying for elective offices in the forthcoming 2023 General Election, there are serious issues of concern as it seems that the figure in the current Assembly might worsen if drastic steps are not taken Immediately.

“Before the last Primary Elections, Nigeria ranked amongst the lowest number of women participation in governance in Africa, with about 6.2 percent of national Parliamentarians being women.

“For the 2023 Senate Elections, out of the 1,101 candidates contesting for 109 seats, only 92 are women. Amongst the nominated candidates across all political parties for the House of Representatives Elections next year, 288 women are contesting out of 3,122 aspirants, depicting that the number of women participation in politics or contesting elective offices is on a steady decline since 2015.”

Oluga identified patriarchy, stigmatisation, illiteracy, odd meeting schedules, financing and lack of economic empowerment, cultural and religious barriers, and political violence as some of the challenges to women’s participation in politics in the country.

However, she said that the lawmakers shall forthwith step up its activities on the need to discourage the factors that discourage women political participation in Nigeria.

The lawmaker added that the intervention will be backed by collaborative efforts between the legislators, development partners, civil society groups, religious and traditional institutions to remove the factors behind women’s low participation in governance.

She added that if a woman is appointed as defence minister, the country’s security challenges would be effectively tackled.

“For the first time in history, let a woman be appointed as minister of defence, and you will see the action; you will see a positive change in our security architecture,” she stated.

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