The last general elections held in April in Nigeria were important in many respects. First of all, it was the first time when the incumbent civilian administration conducted the elections and handed over the power to another government. Secondly, women participated in these elections.

Though the elections were flawed, as attested to by the international and local observers, the results had been accepted by weary and hopeful Nigerians, who did not want a military take over.

To understand the performance of women and how they enter politics, I analyzed the number of women participated in the elections. However, my observations are not complete as the election results are being contested in several courts with the allegations of omission of names by the electoral commission.

I am monitoring the situation and would continue to update.

The figures are based on data collected from the website of Nigeria’s electoral commission (INEC). The data excludes election conducted for the local council chairmanship for the FCT. The site seemed to be having some problems and thus, it is tentative as well.

A total of 7,160 candidates participated in the April elections. Out of this number, 628 were women. A break down of candidates is given below:

- Out of 25 candidates contested for president’s office, only one was a woman
- Five women contested for vice president’s office
- 474 candidates contested for governorship in the thirty six states, including 14 women running for governor’s office and 21 women running for deputy governor’s office
- 799 candidates contested for Senate, including 59 women;
- 2,342 candidates contested for House of Representatives, including 150 women
- A total of 5,647 candidates contested for the positions in the assembly of which 358 were women.

Women’s participation in the elections was not evenly spread across the country and my study revealed interesting patterns.