A guide to the steps, the documents and the offices a woman meets on the way to a seat in Nigeria.
A woman who decides to stand for office in Nigeria meets a set of documents before she meets a set of voters. She meets the constitution of her political party. She meets the Electoral Act. She meets the candidate nomination form. She meets the timetable published by the Independent National Electoral Commission. Each document sets a condition. Each condition has a deadline. A person who reads the documents first is better prepared for what follows.
This post names each step. It names each office that holds the record. It names each document a person can request. The aim is to make the path clear enough that a woman who has never stood for office can see where to begin.
What the Constitution says about who can stand
The Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria sets the qualifications for each elected office. A person who wants to stand for the House of Representatives must be a citizen of Nigeria, must have reached the age of thirty, must be a member of a political party, and must be sponsored by that party. A person who wants to stand for the Senate must have reached the age of thirty-five and must meet the same other conditions. A person who wants to stand for a State House of Assembly must have reached the age of thirty.
The Constitution does not set a separate qualification for women. It sets one qualification for all citizens. What the Constitution does not do is remove the practical conditions that fall more heavily on women. Those conditions are party sponsorship, campaign funding, and access to the records that a nomination requires.
A woman reading the Constitution for the first time should note one point. The Constitution is the document that the courts use to decide who is qualified. Every other document in the process sits underneath it.
What the Electoral Act requires
The Electoral Act sets out how a person becomes a candidate on the ballot. It sets the timetable. It sets the fees. It sets the requirement that every candidate must be sponsored by a registered political party. It sets the requirement that every party must submit its list of candidates to the Independent National Electoral Commission by a fixed date before the election.
Two parts of the Act matter most to a first-time candidate. The first is the party primary. A person who wants to stand on a party ticket must first win the party primary. The primary is run by the party, under rules the party publishes. The second is the nomination form. The form is issued by the party. It carries a fee. The fee varies by the office.
A copy of the Electoral Act is available from the Independent National Electoral Commission and from the National Assembly's website. The Act is written in sections. A person reading it for the first time should go to the sections that name the office being sought, and read the section twice.
What the Independent National Electoral Commission publishes
The Independent National Electoral Commission is the office that runs federal and state elections. The Commission publishes the timetable for each election cycle. The timetable names the date of the party primaries, the date for the submission of candidate lists, the date of the campaign period, and the date of the election. The timetable is published on the Commission's website and in national newspapers.
The Commission also publishes the final list of candidates for each office. The list names every candidate, the party, and the constituency. A woman considering office can read the list from the last election cycle to see how many women stood for each seat in her state. The list is the record that WATAG reads when it counts the number of women on each ballot.
The Commission's state offices hold the local records. A person who wants to see the candidate list for a state constituency can visit the state office of the Commission and request the record.
What the political party requires
Every political party in Nigeria publishes its own constitution and its own rules for primaries. The rules set the fee for the nomination form, the date and place of the primary, and the way the primary is conducted. The rules also set the way a person becomes a member of the party, which is a step that comes before the primary.
A woman who wants to stand for office should first decide which party she will join. She should then read the party constitution. She should then check the party's state office for the local rules. She should then pay the membership fee and receive the membership card, because the membership card is the record that the party uses to check a person's standing in the party.
The party also decides who is on the ballot on the party ticket. A person who wins the primary receives the party ticket. A person who loses the primary can appeal to the party's appeal panel, and in some cases to the courts. The appeal has a deadline. The deadline is set in the party constitution.
What the campaign requires
A campaign for elected office in Nigeria requires three things: money, time and a network. The money covers the nomination form, the campaign materials, the transport, and the agents at each polling unit. The time covers the primary, the campaign period, and the election day. The network covers the party members, the community groups, and the volunteers who will speak to voters.
The Electoral Act sets a limit on campaign spending for each office. The limit is not high. A candidate who spends more than the limit is in breach of the Act. A woman planning a campaign should read the limit before she sets a budget.
A campaign also requires a record. Every donation above a set amount must be recorded and reported. The report is filed with the Independent National Electoral Commission. A woman planning a campaign should keep the record from the first donation, so that the report at the end of the campaign is complete.
What happens after the election
Once the election is held and the result is declared, the winner receives a certificate of return from the Independent National Electoral Commission. The certificate is the record that shows the winner has taken the seat. The Commission publishes the result for each constituency.
A woman who wins a seat takes office on the date set by the Constitution. She meets the records of the office on the first day: the standing orders of the house, the register of members, the register of bills, and the register of committee membership. Each record is a public document. A person can request a copy from the clerk of the house.
A woman who loses the election can request the result sheet for each polling unit. The result sheet is the record that shows how each unit voted. The sheet is the document a petition to the election tribunal relies on. The petition has a deadline, which is set in the Electoral Act.
Where the records sit
Every step in the path sits on a record. The record is held by a specific office.
- The Constitution sits with the National Assembly.
- The Electoral Act sits with the National Assembly and the Independent National Electoral Commission.
- The timetable sits with the Independent National Electoral Commission.
- The candidate list sits with the Independent National Electoral Commission.
- The party constitution sits with each political party.
- The nomination form sits with each political party.
- The certificate of return sits with the Independent National Electoral Commission.
- The standing orders sit with the clerk of each house.
A woman who knows which office holds which record is a woman who knows where to go when a question arises.
How WATAG reads these records
WATAG reads the records named above, and it writes reports on what the records show. The reports count the number of women on each ballot, the number of women who took a seat in each house, and the number of bills each woman in office sponsored. The reports name the seat, the state and the year, so a reader can compare the numbers across time.
WATAG also trains women to read the same records. The training covers how to read a budget record, how to follow a policy document, and how to write to a public office. A woman who joins the training leaves with a set of skills that stays useful whether or not she stands for office.
The WATAG page on women political participation covers the records in full:
Women Political Participation - WATAG
WATAG is a Nigerian governance NGO that tracks public records, trains citizens to
read budgets and policy documents, and publishes reports on women's political
participation and public spending.
Website: watag.com.ng
