Women remain significantly underrepresented in the 2027 elections, accounting for only 9.7 per cent of the candidates contesting the National Assembly seats and 11.1 per cent of those seeking the presidency, an analysis of the final list published by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has shown.
The analysis of the commission's final list, obtained by Daily Trust, showed that 469 women are among the 4,863 candidates listed for the Senate and House of Representatives elections, while only two of the 18 presidential candidates are women.
The figures indicate that fewer than one in every 10 candidates contesting the National Assembly elections is female, while women constitute just over one in every 10 presidential candidates.
The Senate has the lowest female representation, with 123 women among 1,303 candidates, representing 9.4 per cent. The House of Representatives has 346 female candidates out of 3,560, representing 9.7 per cent.
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The figures were calculated from the party and gender fields contained in INEC's final list of candidates.
The presidential list, signed by the commission's Secretary, Rose Oriaran-Anthony, contains 18 presidential candidates and 18 vice-presidential candidates sponsored by 18 political parties.
Of the 18 presidential candidates, 16 are men, representing 88.9 per cent, while only two are women, representing 11.1 per cent.
The two female presidential candidates are Ada Elizabeth Frederick Okwori of the National Democratic Party (NDP) and Nkem Esther Okereke of the National Rescue Movement (NRM).
The list also contains 14 male and four female vice-presidential candidates. The female running mates are Peace Egobia Ofordile of the Allied Peoples Party (APP), Nafisat Usaku Abubakar of the Democratic Labour Alliance (DLA), Hajja Bintu Konto of the Labour Party (LP) and Patience Ndidi Key of the Young Progressive Party (YPP).
When the presidential and vice-presidential candidates are combined, the list contains 30 men and six women. This means that women account for 16.7 per cent of the 36 individuals contesting the two positions.
The other presidential candidates are President Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC), former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Peter Obi of the Nigerian Democratic Congress (NDC), Oluseyi Makinde of the Allied Peoples Movement (APM), Sandy Ojang Onor of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Donald Duke of the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP).
Others are Rufai Adekunle Omo-Aje of the Action Alliance (AA), Abbas-Bin Aliyu of the Action Democratic Party (ADP), Yusuf Kabiru of the APP, Omoyele Sowore of the African Action Congress (AAC), Sunday Adenuga of the Boot Party (BP), Moses Olusoji Adebisi of the DLA, Sunday Chibuizu Okereke of the LP, Adewole Ebenezer Adebayo of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Peter Ada Agada of the YPP and Daniel Daberechukwu Nyawanwalu of the Zenith Labour Party (ZLP).
At the Senate, male candidates account for 1,180, or 90.6 per cent, of the candidates contesting the 109-seat chamber.
The APC, which fielded the highest number of Senate candidates with 109, has only four female candidates, representing 3.7 per cent of its candidates.
The ADC presented 108 candidates, including eight women, representing 7.4 per cent, while the PDP fielded 101 candidates, of whom eight are women, representing 7.9 per cent.
The National Democratic Congress presented 99 candidates, including six women, representing 6.1 per cent, while the SDP fielded 95 candidates, with five women, representing 5.3 per cent.
The APM and ADP recorded the highest number of female Senate candidates, with 11 women each. APM fielded 104 candidates, making its female representation 10.6 per cent, while ADP presented 92 candidates, with women accounting for 12 per cent.
The Accord (A) has 10 female candidates among its 67 candidates, representing 14.9 per cent. The ZLP fielded 51 candidates, including eight women, representing 15.7 per cent.
The LP presented 68 candidates, of whom seven are women, representing 10.3 per cent, while the YPP fielded 60 candidates, including seven women, representing 11.7 per cent.
The NRM has eight female candidates among its 65 candidates, representing 12.3 per cent, while the AA fielded 39 candidates, including six women, representing 15.4 per cent.
The DLA recorded five female candidates out of 27, representing 18.5 per cent, while the AAC has four women among its 25 candidates, representing 16 per cent.
The New Nigeria People's Party (NNPP) fielded 21 candidates, including three women, representing 14.3 per cent. The BP has two female candidates out of seven, representing 28.6 per cent, the highest female representation among the parties with more than four candidates.
The All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) presented 33 candidates, including three women, representing 9.1 per cent. The NDP has three women among its 32 candidates, representing 9.4 per cent.
The APP fielded 69 candidates, of whom four are women, representing 5.8 per cent. The PRP presented 27 candidates, but none is female.
The YP also recorded no female candidate among its four candidates.
For the House of Representatives, male candidates account for 3,214, or 90.3 per cent, of the 3,560 candidates contesting the 360-seat chamber.
The APC fielded 360 candidates, including 29 women, representing 8.1 per cent. The ADC presented 346 candidates, of whom 18 are women, representing 5.2 per cent.
The NDC fielded 330 candidates, including 19 women, representing 5.8 per cent, while the PDP presented 316 candidates, with 22 women, representing seven per cent.
The APM has the highest number of female candidates among the major parties, with 42 women out of 312 candidates, representing 13.5 per cent. It is followed by the SDP, which has 33 women among its 257 candidates, representing 12.8 per cent.
The ADP fielded 256 candidates, including 30 women, representing 11.7 per cent. The LP has 22 female candidates out of 170, representing 12.9 per cent, while the NRM has 21 women among its 172 candidates, representing 12.2 per cent.
The YP recorded the highest proportion of female candidates in the House of Representatives contest, with all four candidates listed by INEC being women. However, the figure is based on only four candidates.
The NDP recorded the second-highest proportion, with 12 female candidates out of 60, representing 20 per cent. The AAC has nine women among its 50 candidates, representing 18 per cent, while the DLA has 12 women out of 68 candidates, representing 17.6 per cent.
The AA fielded 64 candidates, including 11 women, representing 17.2 per cent. The ZLP has 17 female candidates among its 105 candidates, representing 16.2 per cent, while the NNPP has eight women out of 52 candidates, representing 15.4 per cent.
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The Accord presented 159 candidates, of whom 15 are women, representing 9.4 per cent. The APP has 15 female candidates among 156 candidates, representing 9.6 per cent, while the BP has one woman among its 10 candidates, representing 10 per cent.
The APGA has five female candidates out of 70, representing 7.1 per cent. The PRP fielded 100 candidates, but only one is female, representing one per cent.
The YPP has four female candidates among 143 candidates, representing 2.8 per cent.
The analysis showed that while APM has the highest absolute number of female candidates in the House of Representatives contest, the percentage of women within a party's candidate list varies considerably.
For instance, APC has 29 female candidates, but they represent only 8.1 per cent of its 360 candidates. In contrast, NDP has 12 women out of 60 candidates, representing 20 per cent.
Similarly, APM and ADP each have 11 female Senate candidates, but women account for 10.6 per cent of APM's 104 candidates and 12 per cent of ADP's 92 candidates.
The figures also show that a party's absolute number of female candidates does not necessarily translate into a higher percentage of female representation. The 100 per cent female representation recorded by YP in the House of Representatives contest is based on only four candidates, making its percentage higher than those of parties with much larger candidate lists.
Overall, the combined figures for the presidential and National Assembly contests show that women remain a small minority of candidates seeking the country's highest elective offices.
