Is Nigeria ready for a female leader?
Nigeria heads to general elections early next year, but women remain underrepresented in politics despite making up nearly half the population. We explore the barriers they face.
In January 2027, Nigeria will be heading to the polls. But there’s one thing still largely missing from the ballot, women. According to Nigerian civil society organisation, policy and legal advocacy centre, Nigeria has one of the lowest rates of women’s political representation in the world.
In fact, women make up less than 5% of members of parliament. And currently only 54 women hold positions across 990 seats in State Houses of Assembly, and 15 states have no female legislators at all.
Focus on Africa host, Nkechi Ogbonna, spoke to Ufuoma Nnamdi-Udeh, the Executive Director of Enough is Enough, a civic society organisation and Zainab Buba Galadima, a politician based in Abuja.
Presenter: Nkechi Ogbonna
Producers: Keikantse Shumba, Fana Negash, Bella Twine and Carolyne Jotham
Technical Producer: Davis Mwasaru
Senior Producer: Priyanka Sippy and Blessing Aderogba
Editors: Daniel Dadzie and Maryam Abdalla
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- Fri 18 Sep 202615:06GMTBBC World Service East and Southern Africa & West and Central Africa only
- Fri 18 Sep 202619:06GMTBBC World Service East and Southern Africa & West and Central Africa only
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