Fewer women are expected to return to Nigeria’s National Assembly following a decline in the number of parliamentary seats won by women in the 2023 general election.

Development Diaries reports that women won three seats in the Senate, and 14 in the House of Representatives, making a total of 17 women for the tenth National Assembly.

At the state level, only 48 women have been elected as lawmakers. It is understood that out of the 10,232 candidates that ran for legislative seats across the 36 states of the federation, there were 1,049 women, which represented 10.2 percent.

Yiaga Africa, in a report titled No Country without Women, noted that 3,032 women, representing 12.9 percent of the total number of candidates, ran for offices in the 2019 general election.

Despite increased agitation in the last three years for gender balance and more active women participation in Nigerian politics, the numbers are getting smaller.

Every assembly always makes promises as part of their legislative agenda to allow more women to participate in politics and governance, but the promises never see the light of day.

Development Diaries calls on the incoming president-elect, Bola Tinubu, to ensure that he fulfils his manifesto promise to work with the National Assembly to pass a law to increase women’s participation in government to at least 35 percent.

We further urge the president-elect to ensure that members of the Federal Executive Council reserve certain senior positions for women, as promised in his manifesto.

We also urge the incoming government to ensure that Nigeria respects the international treaties, which entrench the rights of women, to which the country is a signatory.

Photo source: Commonwealth Secretariat