With less than a year to the 2027 general elections, concerns are mounting that Nigerian women may once again be excluded from meaningful legislative representation, as 13 states currently operate all-male Houses of Assembly and a long-awaited constitutional amendment to guarantee women’s seats remains stalled.
Gatekeepers News reports that the affected states are Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Imo, Jigawa, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Abia, Osun, Sokoto, Yobe and Zamfara, where no woman currently holds a seat in the state legislature.
Women’s rights advocates warn that unless urgent action is taken, the situation may persist into the next electoral cycle.
At the centre of the debate is the Reserved Seats for Women Bill, a proposed constitutional amendment sponsored by the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Benjamin Kalu. The bill seeks to create special legislative seats for women in the National Assembly and State Houses of Assembly.
Speaking in Abuja, 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 and fast-track the bill before political campaigns begin.
“Time is running out,” Ogwuche said, warning that failure to secure legislative approval could force women’s groups to push for an executive bill as an alternative.
She described the proposal as “a temporary but necessary corrective measure” to reverse decades of systemic exclusion.
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, as well as 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 changes to electoral provisions to support implementation.
Nigeria ranks among worst globally
The urgency of the reform is reinforced by Nigeria’s poor global ranking on women’s representation.
Data from the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) shows that women occupy about four per cent of seats in Nigeria’s National Assembly, far below the global average of 27 per cent.
Out of 109 senators, only four are women, 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.
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.
He noted that Nigeria lags behind African peers such as Rwanda, South Africa, Namibia and Senegal, where constitutional quotas and party reforms have significantly boosted women’s representation.
Rejecting claims that the bill seeks special treatment, Umoh said:
“All democracies already operate corrective mechanisms from federal character to zoning. Reserved seats for women simply expand the pool of merit and strengthen democracy.”
Campaigners warned that without decisive action, Nigeria risks heading into the 2027 elections with half of its population still largely excluded from law-making, to the detriment of its democracy.
