Is Nigeria ready for a female leader?

Loading player...
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
18 Sep 10AM English United Kingdom News

Other recent episodes

Ethiopia Tigray fighting sparks fears of new war

Renewed fighting in northern Ethiopia between Tigrayan forces and the national army is threatening a return to civil war after four years of peace. On Thursday, The Ethiopian National Defense Force siad it had killed hundrends of Tigray fighters and captured a large number of others. The military described its…
24 Sep 11AM 22 min

Chad faces growing Sudan refugee burden

The UN refugee agency, UNHCR says Chad is now hosting around 1.5 million refugees and asylum-seekers from Sudan. And despite the war entering its fourth year, the flow of people has not stopped. More than 50,000 of them have arrived in Eastern Chad this year alone. We speak with Mamadou…
23 Sep 11AM 22 min

Nigeria probes the deaths of miners in custody

BBC reporter Madina Maishanu takes us inside the cells where 37 artisanal miners died last week. Nigeria’s Interior Minister Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo says a panel investigating the deaths in Niger State will examine the circumstances of their arrest, detention and whether they were tortured or denied medical care. And, from underground…
22 Sep 11AM 22 min

Gambia in crisis as blackouts persist

For months now, power blackouts have been disrupting life and business for thousands of people in Gambia. The crisis has recently sparked protests in the capital Banjul and surrounding areas and at least 20 people have been arrested. The country's main power provider, NAWEC, says the outage is the result…
21 Sep 10AM 22 min

South Africa probes discovery of women bodies

South Africa has been shaken by a string of unexplained deaths, with nine women found dead in and around Kempton Park, northeast of Johannesburg, over the past two months. South Africa has one of the world’s highest rates of gender-based violence, with women being killed at five times the global…
17 Sep 11AM 22 min