Low Participation of Women in Nigerian Politics

Photo Credit: Pollit Analytics

By Oluwadarasimi Otunla

On the 29th of November, a meeting was held regarding “He for She”, a movement for men supporting gender equality. During this meeting, The UN women's representative of Nigeria, Mrs. Beatrice Eyong, stated that Nigeria has the least participation and representation of women in the UN, and as a country, in its political sector.

During the meeting, the program specialist, Desmond Osalobo said “The women’s participation in politics in Nigeria is extremely appalling, and very unsatisfactory...”

She went on to compare Nigeria’s representation in the Parliament to that of countries like Rwanda and Senegal. These countries have a good level of women representatives in the Parliament which is a percentage of 67% and 57% respectively, compared to Nigeria having just 4.1% of representatives in the National Parliament. According to her, factors like the patriarchal system in Africa, societal beliefs, and religion have made men dominant in the society of today.

The meeting was concluded by the INEC’s acting director of Gender and inclusivity, Mrs. Dorathy Bello, and The Deputy director of civil society organizations(CSOs). Mrs. Ndidi Okafor urged the political parties of the state, to abide by the rules in their constitution and ensure the inclusion of women in their parties to help uplift the political participation of Nigerian women.