The Leaders of Tomorrow Impact Campaign, under the Naija NextGen Project, has raised the alarm over what it described as the continued exclusion of women and youths from Nigeria’s political system ahead of the 2027 general elections.
The group also demanded the full implementation of the 35 per cent affirmative action target contained in the National Gender Policy, warning that without deliberate structural reforms, the 2027 elections could reproduce the poor representation of women and young people in elective positions.
In a statement issued by its Founder, Delmwa Deshi-Kura, and made available to journalists in Jos on Saturday’, the group described Nigeria’s political system as one that systematically shuts out women despite their numerical strength and contributions to national development.
Deshi-Kura, a Nigerian media executive and impact filmmaker, said Nigeria’s poor representation of women in elective offices was not due to a shortage of qualified candidates but the outcome of structural barriers within the political system.
Nigeria’s 2023 elections also reflected persistently low female political participation and representation.
She said: “Nigeria, by contrast, has 15 women in a 356-member House of Representatives and four in a 107-member Senate.
That is 4.2 and 3.7 per cent, respectively, placing Nigeria near the bottom of the global parliamentary table.
“This is not due to a shortage of qualified women. It is the predictable outcome of a political system that filters women out long before voters encounter their names on a ballot.”
Deshi-Kura noted that repeated efforts to address gender imbalance in Nigeria’s political space had failed to produce the desired results, citing the rejection of gender-related constitutional amendment bills in 2022 and delays surrounding proposals for special seats for women.
She said proposals aimed at increasing women’s representation had undergone several revisions, including suggestions for additional seats in the Senate, House of Representatives and state Houses of Assembly.
According to her, the proposals were yet to secure the required constitutional backing despite sustained lobbying and advocacy.
The group also cited data from the 2023 general elections as evidence of what it described as systemic exclusion of women from Nigeria’s political process.
“Nigeria’s 2023 election offers a sobering baseline. Women represented nearly half of the electorate but only 1,556 of the 15,331 candidates, approximately 10.2 per cent.
“There was one female presidential candidate, no female vice-presidential candidate, and only 26 women among 420 governorship candidates. None of the women who contested for governor in 2023 won,” she said.
Deshi-Kura further accused major political parties of failing to position women in constituencies and contests where they had realistic chances of winning.
She said while the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, fielded no female governorship candidate in 2023, the All Progressives Congress, APC, fielded Senator Aishatu Dahiru Ahmed, popularly known as Binani, in Adamawa State, while the Labour Party presented Beatrice Itubo in Rivers State.
“Women were visible but rarely positioned within parties and constituencies where victory was structurally attainable
“Going by Nigeria’s antecedents, this is a feature of the system, not a bug,” she said.
According to her, the major exclusion of women and youths occurs during party primaries rather than at the general election stage.
“Women and youth are encouraged to participate symbolically, yet must enter primaries shaped by opaque delegate systems, prohibitive costs, patronage networks and political intimidation.
“The ballot is, therefore, only the final stage of exclusion; the decisive losses often occur inside the parties,” she added.
While acknowledging recent breakthroughs by women, including Esther Nkem Okereke, Anita Zugwai-Chukwu and Doris Ogala, in securing party tickets, Deshi-Kura warned against mistaking political visibility for meaningful inclusion.
“These candidacies matter and should not be diminished. But visibility must not be confused with measurable impact or transformation,” she said.
The Naija NextGen founder stressed that Nigeria already had policy frameworks supporting greater inclusion but lacked effective enforcement mechanisms.
“Nigeria has repeatedly affirmed the principle of greater inclusion, including the 35 per cent target contained in its National Gender Policy.
“Yet aspiration without enforcement has become a sophisticated form of exclusion. Every election cycle begins with promises of inclusion and ends with long, winding explanations for exclusion,” she said.
Deshi-Kura maintained that increased female representation was not merely a matter of fairness but essential to democratic governance and national development.
“A democracy cannot consistently exclude roughly half its population from decision-making and still claim to be drawing upon its full reserve of intelligence, experience and legitimacy,” she said.
She added that greater participation of women in leadership could improve development outcomes, particularly in areas relating to children’s nutrition, health and education.
The group, therefore, called on the National Assembly to enact enforceable affirmative-action mechanisms, including reserved seats for women, while urging political parties to publish gender-disaggregated data on candidates and internal party processes.
“Crucially, the National Assembly should give serious consideration to enforceable affirmative-action mechanisms, including reserved seats.
“Without intentional structural intervention, exhorting women and youths to ‘participate more’ is merely asking them to compete harder inside a system that was not designed to admit them in the first place,” she said.
Deshi-Kura said the 2027 elections presented an opportunity to correct the imbalance, adding that appointments after the elections must also reflect the demographic composition of the country.
“The 2027 elections are one opportunity for correction, but they are not the only one. Appointments made after the elections to federal and state cabinets, agencies, commissions and advisory bodies must also reflect the country being governed.
“Inclusion should not be confined to women’s portfolios,” she added.
She said the Naija NextGen Impact Campaign would, in the coming months, deploy storytelling, town hall meetings and digital engagement to strengthen information integrity and encourage informed civic participation.
“The onus, therefore, lies on us to lend our voices to the campaign and join the movement to better integrate women and youths into the 2027 election cycle,” she said.