2027: GSAI decries systemic exclusion of women from party primaries
Political parties in Nigeria have continued to resist genuine reforms that will guarantee women equitable participation in the country’s electoral process, Executive Director of Gender Strategy Advancement International (GSAI) Adaora Onyechere Sydney-Jack, has said.
Sydney-Jack, while speaking to journalists in Abuja on Sunday accused political parties of sustaining structures that deliberately exclude women from emerging as candidates in ongoing primary elections across Nigeria ahead of the 2027 general elections, saying
Source: UGC
She argued that despite years of advocacy and constitutional guarantees of equality, women remain largely sidelined during candidate emergence processes through practices such as exorbitant nomination fees, political intimidation, monetised delegate systems, and exclusion from strategic negotiations where candidacies are determined.
According to her, political parties have continued to treat inclusion as campaign rhetoric while resisting genuine reforms capable of guaranteeing women equitable access to political leadership.
She said, "the troubling reality is that the recent primaries currently ongoing across parts of Nigeria have shown little or no meaningful shift from the entrenched norm. Across multiple political spaces, women continue to report being sidelined, pressured to step down for male aspirants, excluded from strategic negotiations, or subtly threatened with political ostracization should they insist on contesting."
Sydney-Jack maintained that the exclusion of women from party primaries was not accidental but deeply institutional, driven by opaque consensus arrangements, elite patronage networks, and patriarchal power structures embedded within political parties.
“These realities create a democratic bottleneck that excludes women before the general election even begins,” she stated.
The GSAI executive director further called for enforceable accountability mechanisms against political parties that fail to meet affirmative action targets for women.
“There should be enforceable accountability mechanisms. Democracy cannot rely solely on moral persuasion. Possible sanctions or incentives could include reduced public funding access, mandatory quota compliance, incentives for gender-balanced tickets, or electoral penalties for persistent exclusion. Several democracies already implement such measures,” she said.
She noted that although women constitute a significant percentage of Nigeria’s voting population and grassroots political mobilisation structures, they are often relegated to ceremonial positions within parties with little influence over delegate selection, zoning arrangements, financing, and ticket allocation.
“In Nigeria, women participate massively as mobilisers, campaigners, financiers at grassroots levels, and voting blocs. Yet, when candidacy and power-sharing emerge, women are reduced to ‘Women Leader’ structures without consequential influence,” she added.
Sydney-Jack said advocacy for women’s political inclusion has struggled to dismantle entrenched political and economic interests that continue to dominate party primaries.
“Primaries in Nigeria are not merely democratic exercises; they are often transactional arenas shaped by financial leverage, elite patronage, and deeply gendered power relations,” she said.
She identified some of the major barriers confronting women seeking elective office to include high nomination fees, limited access to campaign financing, political violence, cultural stereotypes against female leadership, and exclusion from informal negotiation spaces where candidacies are brokered.
Drawing comparisons with other African countries, Sydney-Jack said nations such as Rwanda, Senegal, Namibia and South Africa had significantly improved women’s political representation through constitutional quotas, parity laws, and gender-balanced candidate systems.
She warned that Nigeria risks democratic and economic stagnation if political parties fail to undertake reforms that promote inclusive participation.
“Countries that have intentionally expanded women’s political participation have reaped measurable developmental dividends. In Liberia, the emergence of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf symbolised not merely female representation, but a broader reconstruction of governance confidence after conflict. In Tanzania, the leadership of Samia Suluhu Hassan has further reinforced conversations around women’s executive leadership within Africa’s democratic evolution,” she said.
Recalling her personal political experience, Sydney-Jack said she also encountered structural barriers when she contested elections in Imo State in 2019.
“It is cultural because patriarchal norms still frame leadership as masculine. It is financial because elections in Nigeria are prohibitively expensive. It is institutional because party constitutions rarely contain enforceable gender mechanisms. It is political because power holders often resist reforms that could redistribute influence,” she stated.
She urged the National Assembly, the Independent National Electoral Commission and political parties to institutionalise enforceable quota systems, ensure transparent primary elections, and implement reforms that would make party processes more inclusive ahead of the 2027 elections.
Among the reforms she proposed are subsidised nomination forms for women, public campaign financing support mechanisms, reserved delegate slots for women, mandatory quota systems within party executives, transparent digital delegate accreditation, and zero tolerance for violence and intimidation during primaries.
She said: "Several reforms are immediately achievable: Financial Reforms such as free or heavily subsidized nomination forms for women, public campaign financing support mechanisms, gender equity political funds, institutional Reforms, reserved delegate slots for women, mandatory quota systems within party executives, transparent digital delegate accreditation. Security Reforms and zero tolerance for violence and intimidation during primaries"
Source: Legit.ng
