Executive Director of Yiaga Africa, Samson Itodo, has advised female candidates contesting the 2027 general elections to adopt strategic campaigns and put robust measures in place to protect their votes.

Mr Itodo gave the advice in an interview with journalists on Monday in Abuja on the decline in the number of female candidates in the 2027 general elections.

A recent report by Dataphyte, published in September, revealed that women made up 10 per cent (508) of the 5,094 candidates nominated in the 2023 general elections.

That figure, however, declined to 9.7 per cent in the build-up to the 2027 general elections, with just 475 out of 4,899 candidates being female.

Mr Itodo, while speaking with journalists on the low representation of women in politics in Nigeria, attributed the decline to a lack of internal democracy within political parties.

He also identified negative societal attitudes towards women’s leadership, as well as the high cost of elections, as other major factors affecting women’s participation in elections.

“The fundamental reason there’s a decline in women participation is first lack of internal democracy within parties.

“In this particular round, we see how the National Assembly eliminated indirect primaries and most parties now adopted consensus.

“You see a complete hijack of the entire machinery for candidate nomination where party leaders are publicly making statements like, they awarded this ticket to this person or that person,’’ Mr Itodo said.

Other major barriers, according to him, are negative perceptions of female leadership and the soaring cost of seeking party nominations.

“We are a society that is still struggling with women leadership. And that’s why some parties think that women are not electable; therefore, they rather have men on the tickets than to have women.

“The cost of elections is also one other factor because you have this astronomic rise in the cost of seeking party nomination.

“When you have an already financially disadvantaged segment of the society, you actually expect the current outcome,’’ he said.

On the way forward, Mr Itodo identified credible elections and intensified campaigns for female candidates as critical measures to bridge the gap between women’s and men’s representation in the 2027 general elections.

“I think the way out of this, for those who are on the ballot, is to continue to intensify their campaigns. Parties need to demonstrate that they are really supporting women participation by putting their resources and their support behind women.

“We also need to ensure that the elections are credible because if men manipulate elections, you’re not going to have women emerge from those elections.

“I think that this again further raises the need to look at other ways of ensuring that women representation in public office is guaranteed,’’ he said.

The executive director advised female candidates in the 2027 general elections to ensure that they campaign actively, bearing in mind that “our politics is local.’’

“The female candidates have to get the numbers behind them, focus more on issues, build a strong support base or watch their votes so that their votes will not be stolen.

“I don’t think that, because you’re a woman, you will not put mechanisms in place to secure your vote.

“You will be very shocked at how the men will ensure that you don’t emerge a winner in this election,’’ he said.

 (NAN)