According to the report, this has resulted in strong lobbying and calls for specific steps to improve women’s representation in elective offices.

The failure of recent constitutional amendment proposals to raise the number of women in federal and state legislatures has sparked public outrage.

The story of Nigeria’s first elected female Senator, Chief Franca Afegbua is nothing short of inspiring. From running a premium salon in Lagos, to winning an international hairdressing competition in London, she went on to become the first elected female Senator in Nigeria.

Afegbua made history when she contested and won the Bendel-North Senatorial District seat in the 1983 elections in a political atmosphere dominated by men, not very different from what obtains today.

Running for office on the platform of the National Party of Nigeria against the incumbent at the time, a seasoned politician from the opposition Unity Party of Nigeria in control of old Bendel State (present-day Edo and Delta States), Afegbua showed that women support women in politics.

‘’It should be noted that since the general elections of September 1983 when Senator Franca Afegbua was elected the first female Senator in Nigeria, the electoral fortune of women has not seen a dramatic improvement.

‘’The number of elected women in Nigeria’s politics remains abysmally low. Today, of a total number of 109 senators in Nigeria’s 9th National Assembly, only 8 are women while Nigeria’s 360-member House of Representatives has only 13 women’’, PLAC says.