2023 ELECTIONS: Only 6% of Nigeria’s governorship candidates are females

About 416 persons will be contesting to be governors in the 2023 general elections, across 28 states of the federation. However, only 24 of them, which accounts for 6%, are females.

This is a drop in the total number of female governorship candidates, 85, that contested in the 2019 governorship election. Although the number of registered political parties has been reduced by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from 92 in 2019 to 18, as the electoral umpire deregistered 74 parties.

There have been calls for improved female participation in politics. This is so because in Nigeria’s 23 years of uninterrupted democracy, the country has not produced any female elected President, Vice President, or Governor. They are often relegated to the position of a Deputy Governor, even though there are more men than women occupying the position across the country.

The 24 women vying to be Governors in 2023 are contesting in 17 states; the other 11 states do not have female governorship candidates.

Benue has the highest number of female governorship candidates, three. They are Roseline Chenge of the Action Democratic Party (ADP), Sam Abah of the National Rescue Movement (NRM), and Sharon Dabo of the Zenith Labour Party (ZLP).

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Abia, Delta, Kano, and Lagos have two female governorship candidates each. Helen Onokiti of the Accord Party, and Annabel Cosmas of the All People’s Party (APP) are vying for the governorship seat in Delta. 40-year-old Furera Yakubu of the Boot Party (BP) and Aishatu Mahmud of the NRM are contesting in Kano.

Lagos has Funmilayo Kupoliyi for the Allied People’s Movement (APM) and Abiola Adeyemi for the APP. In Abia State, Nnennaya Lancaster-Okoro and Gladys Johnson-Obuneke will be flying the tickets of the People’s Redemption Party (PRP) and the Social Democratic Party (SDP) respectively.

Meanwhile, while the People’s Democratic Party does not have any female governorship candidate, the All Progressive Congress is represented in Adamawa by a female, 51-year-old Aishatu Dahiru.

The female governorship candidates in the 2023 general elections also include: 36-year-old Fatima Abubakar of the Africa Democratic Congress (ADC) in Borno; 41-year-old Marikana Ibiang of ADP in Cross River; 42-year-old Binta Umar of Action Alliance in Jigawa; and 41-year-old Motunrayo Jaiyeola of APM in Kwara.

Others are: Khadijah Abdullahi-Iya of the All Progress Grand Alliance (APGA) in Niger, Aduragbemi Euba of the Youth Progressive Party (YPP) in Oyo, Patricia Tsakpa of the ADP in Nasarawa and Beatrice Itubo of the Labour Party in Rivers.

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