Why Nigeria made headlines on International Women's Day for all the wrong reasons
Senator Natasha Image by Henty Orji – Big H Studios, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).
In February 2025, a Nigerian senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan accused the nation’s Senate President Godswill Akpabio of sexual harassment. She claimed that Akpabio made unwanted advances toward her, a serious allegation that has garnered national attention.
In response, the Senate's ethics committee dismissed her claims, citing procedural rule violations, and recommended her suspension. Consequently, on March 6, 2025, Akpoti-Uduaghan was suspended for six months, during which she will be barred from her office and have her allowances and security withdrawn.
This suspension, which came just days before International Women’s Day, has sparked threats of protests from women groups, who condemn her suspension as a punitive measure against a woman speaking out against alleged misconduct.
In a statement posted on social media, Akpoti Uduaghan said her suspension from the Senate invalidates the principles of natural justice, fairness, and equity and insisted that she will continue to use her position as “Senator” to serve her constituents.
In a separate incident, personnel of the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) attacked the headquarters of the largest electricity distribution network in Sub-Saharan Africa, Ikeja Electric (IE), in Lagos after the latter disconnected power to an NAF facility due to unpaid electricity bills.
According to a report on Arise News, uniformed Air Force officers stormed the premises, demanding an immediate reconnection to the power grid, during which the woman CEO of Ikeja Electric, Folake Soetan, was reportedly assaulted and forced into the trunk of a vehicle within the premises.
In response to both incidents, a prominent Nigerian women's group, Women in Management, Business, and Public Service (WIMBIZ), denounced the “violent siege” on Ikeja Electric by Nigerian Air Force personnel and the intense intimidation and harassment of its CEO Folake Soetan.
Underrepresentation of women in Nigerian politics
Nigeria's political landscape continues to reflect significant gender disparities. Since the transition to electoral democracy in 1999, only 157 women have been elected to the National Assembly, comprising 38 senators and 119 members of the House of Representatives. In contrast, 2,657 men have been elected during the same period, highlighting the vast underrepresentation of women.
According to the Carnegie Endowment For International Peace, at the end of the 2023 general elections, the number of women in the National Assembly fell by 19 percent compared to the last assembly. Women currently occupy three percent of seats in the Senate and four percent in the House of Representatives.
When Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu assumed office in May 2023, only seven out of the 46 sworn-in ministers were women. A subsequent cabinet reshuffle, which created additional ministries, saw the total number of ministers rise to 48. However, the gender gap widened further, with men holding 41 ministerial positions (83.3 percent) while women remained at just seven (16.7 percent) — well below the 35 percent threshold Tinubu had pledged during his campaign.
Previous governments have similarly struggled to meet gender inclusion targets. Former President Muhammadu Buhari appointed only six women out of 42 ministers in his first term, a figure that rose to seven in his second term. Goodluck Jonathan’s government fared slightly better with 13, which represents over 31 percent of the 41-member cabinet. Looking back to 1999, President Olusegun Obasanjo initially appointed just three women out of 28 ministers, although he later raised this to nine, accounting for 30 percent female representation in his second term.
In July 2017, the Nigerian Senate voted against a proposal to amend the Constitution to provide 35 percent affirmative action for women in federal and state cabinets.
Despite ratifying the Maputo Protocol and the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), both of which advocate for gender parity, Nigeria's female representation in the National Assembly remains critically low.
In the Senate, women hold only four out of 109 seats (2.7 percent), while in the House of Representatives, they occupy just 17 out of 360 seats (4.7 percent), bringing their total representation to 4.2 percent of the 469-member Assembly.
This places the country among the lowest in terms of female political representation globally. It is particularly concerning for a nation vying for a leadership role in Africa, especially when compared to countries like South Africa and Kenya, which have made more significant strides in gender representation.
Historical context and the shift in women's roles
Historically, women’s political struggle in Nigeria dates back to the early colonial era when they mobilized against colonial policies and the social and economic inequalities they reinforced. For instance, Alimotu Pelewura led protests against price controls that disproportionately affected market women, while Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti played a pivotal role in Nigeria’s independence movement, notably as the only woman in the 1947 delegation to Britain to lobby Nigeria’s self-government. However, history often reduces her legacy to being merely the first woman to drive a car in Nigeria.
Over the years, the erosion of women's roles in leadership can be attributed to various socio-political factors, including the colonial imposition of patriarchal structures and gender policies that marginalized women's political and economic participation.
Comparative analysis with other African nations
Ranked 125th position out of 146 countries on the Global Gender Gap index, and 29th in the Sub-Saharan region, Nigeria struggles with gender inclusion in the political space. Notably, eight of the ten lowest-ranked countries on the index are in Africa, including Morocco, Niger, Algeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mali, Guinea, Chad, and Sudan.
While Nigeria lags in female political representation, other African nations have made notable strides. In 2024, Ghana elected its first female vice president, while Namibia made history with the election of its first female president, a historic milestone in African politics. In contrast, Nigeria, in its 64 years of independence, has yet to elect a woman to any of its top three executive and legislative positions — president, vice president, or senate president. At the federal level, the highest-ranking political office ever held by a woman remains that of Speaker of the House of Representatives, a position briefly occupied by Patricia Etteh for just four months (June to October 2007).
The Global Gender Gap Index, which assesses countries across four key dimensions (economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, health and survival, and political empowerment), however, lists Nigeria as one of seven countries with equal gender representation in senior economic roles. Notable figures include Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the first African and first woman to lead the World Trade Organization (WTO), Amina Mohammed, Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations, and Arunma Oteh, former Vice President and Treasurer at the World Bank, among many others.
Even though Nigerian women excel across various sectors, political appointments remain one of the few areas where gender equality is still a distant goal.
The suspension of Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan has now drawn global attention, with her case reaching the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), where she is seeking intervention.
Similarly, in a letter to the Nigerian Senate, former Minister of Education Oby Ezekwesili urged the Nigerian Senate to convene an immediate corrective action over what she noted as “the unconstitutional suspension of Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan.”
The letter, which was posted on X, follows widespread public condemnation of the actions of Senate President Godswill Akpabio and other senators, which Ezekwesili describes as a breach of democratic principles and an injustice against Akpoti-Uduaghan.
*Urgent Letter To The Nigerian Senate to Course-Correct Democratic Breaches and Injustice Against Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan*
Now that many more Citizens have caught up on and collectively condemned the unacceptable behavior and Injustice perpetrated by @Senator_Akpabio… pic.twitter.com/lCLid0zPP6
— Oby Ezekwesili (@obyezeks) March 10, 2025
Meanwhile, a petition calling for the senate president to step down for investigation has gathered over 17,000 signatures.
As the world observes Women's Month, Nigeria faces a critical test in its commitment to gender inclusion in politics.
