Women account for only 11.7% of the 77 candidates cleared to contest the 2027 National Assembly elections in Edo State. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) final list shows 68 men and nine women. The Senate has 26 candidates: 21 men and five women. Women hold 19.2% of senate candidacies. The House of Representatives has 51 candidates: 47 men and four women. Women hold only 7.8% there.
Nigerian politics has a gender problem. In 2023, women won only 17 of 469 federal legislative seats. That is 3.6%. Nigeria ranks 181st out of 193 countries in the Inter-Parliamentary Union’s ranking of women in national legislatures. The 2019 rejection of five gender bills by the National Assembly confirmed the pattern. Political parties pay lip service to inclusion but field mostly male candidates.
Among the five female senate candidates are Herberta Okonofua of the ADC and Evelyn Adudu of the APM in Edo Central. Maria Oisamoje of the NDC runs in Edo North. Osahenoma Ekhorutomwen of the ADP and Brigitte Epelle-Asemota of the NDC run in Edo South. In the House, Abimbola Eragbe of the Labour Party and Elizabeth Jemitola of the PDP run in Akoko-Edo. Rabietu Momodu of the Labour Party runs in Etsako. Omosede Igbinedion of the APC seeks re-election in Ovia. Youth representation is also low. Only three of 77 candidates are under 35. The youngest is 33-year-old Shedrach Udugbai of the ADC. The oldest is 75-year-old Adams Oshiomhole of the APC. The average age is 48.7 years. No candidate is designated under the Persons with Disabilities classification. The major parties are worse. The APC has one woman among 12 contestants. The PDP has one among five. The NDC has three.
Winners: Male candidates, who dominate the field. Major parties, which avoid internal gender quotas. Losers: Women, who are locked out. Young people, who are sidelined. Persons with disabilities, who are invisible. Edo voters, who face a narrow choice.
Bottom Line: Nine women out of 77. Three young people out of 77. No candidates with disabilities. Edo’s 2027 field is a mirror of Nigeria’s exclusion.