Despite Nigeria's position as Africa's most populated country, with over 200 million people, and a female population of 49.46 percent according to the World Bank, women's representation in politics remains alarmingly low. While women have equal rights to vote and contest elections as men do, these rights have not translated into enough representation for women in politics in Nigeria. According to the 2022 Gender Equality and Governance Index report, Nigerian women occupy only 8 of 109 seats in the lower house of parliament and 21 of 360 seats in the upper house. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) reported that approximately 44 million women, or 48 percent of registered voters, participated in the 2023 elections. Nevertheless, the outcomes and unfortunate incidents that unfolded during the 2023 general elections underscore the challenges and obstacles faced by women voters, aspirants, and candidates. The Nigerian parliament's bias against gender equality and affirmative action frustrates progress. Its predominantly male parliament has consistently opposed legislation that seeks to grant women equal rights, voting against various bills aimed at implementing affirmative action for women. Here is a tweet by the Nigerian parliament retracting its decision on some gender equality bills: Breaking: Constitution Review: @HouseNGR rescinds decisons on three women-related bills for re-consideration. They are the bills on citizenship, indigenship and 35% affirmative action for women. — House of Reps NGR (@HouseNGR) March 8, 2022 In response to these decisions, women across the country took to the streets to protest and urged the National Assembly to reconsider these bills. The prevalence of intimidation, harassment, cyberbullying and physical attacks on female politicians, as well as voters is a key obstacle to advancing women’s political participation. Hajia Gambo Sawaba, the most jailed woman politician in Nigeria’s history, was publicly flogged, had her hair shaved off with a broken bottle and was imprisoned 16 times. During the 2023 presidential and National Assembly elections in Nigeria, several women — both voters and political leaders — became targets of violence. For instance, Hon. Na’anyil Magdalene Dakogol, an aspirant for the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the Qua'an Pan South State constituency of Plateau, was kidnapped on the day her party conducted the primaries election. In another incident, a woman was assaulted by political thugs wielding bottles while waiting in line to cast her vote at a polling unit in the Surulere area of Lagos State. In another incident, a woman had to flee her home because of attacks on her village. The traumatic experiences of these women and others have led to a loss of interest in voting and political engagement. Sheba Kura, the former women’s political leader of Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) in Kaduna State, northern Nigeria, told Global Voices via a phone interview that marital obligations often restrict women’s active participation in politics as many political meetings are held late at night hours, among other challenges: I probably wouldn’t be a politician if I was married. Sometimes, political meetings are scheduled for 11:00 p.m. or 12:00 a.m. For married women, some of their husbands won’t allow that. Also, when it’s time for campaigns, they will use women to campaign for them but after they win, they will dump women. When you go to polling units, a lot of voters are women but when it comes to working with women or giving women appointments after elections, they don’t want to work with us. While speaking about the barriers faced by female politicians in a Twitter space entitled “Female Political Candidates With SPPG” on August 13, 2022, Khadijah Abdullahi-Iya, a governorship candidate for the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) in Niger state said: One of my sisters-in-law told me that the (opposing) APC gubernatorial candidate is like my husband’s family. They are related. You cannot be part of that family and want to run against him. The high cost of campaigning is also a significant barrier to women's participation in politics in Nigeria. The 2022 Gender Equality and Governance Index report shows that running a political campaign has become prohibitively expensive, creating a significant disadvantage for women. Economic disparities often prevent women from accessing the same financial support systems available to men. Despite the expectation that a recent amendment to the Nigerian Electoral Act would curb campaign spending, it instead resulted in escalated campaign costs.