How the Lagos APC Primaries Exposed the Gap Between Gender Policy and Political Reality

The All Progressives Congress built its 2027 narrative around inclusion. “Deliberate mobilization of women,” “35% affirmative action,” “discounted nomination fees,” and “reserved seats” are all in the party’s public messaging and founding documents. The test of any policy is what happens when power is actually being shared. In Lagos, the test just failed.

Ninety-one aspirants contested the APC House of Representatives primaries in Lagos State on May 16, 2026. Twelve were women, making up 15.4% of the field. That figure was already below the party’s stated 35% affirmative action target before a single vote was cast. The outcome narrowed that gap to zero. Of the 12 female aspirants, only Uzamat Akinbile-Yusuf of Alimosho was declared a winner, and her ticket remains contested. Lagos went into the primaries with one female House member, Kafilat Ogbara of Kosofe, and exited with none guaranteed. This was not a statistical accident. It was a structural outcome of how the party managed the process.

Kosofe Federal Constituency illustrates the mechanism of exclusion most clearly. No primary election took place in all the wards of Kosofe Federal Constituency. Despite this, the ticket was handed down to a male aspirant through a false declaration by the electoral returning officer, Gabriel Olusesan Dada. Kafilat Ogbara, the only female incumbent in Lagos, was adjudged to have performed poorly, and the process was used to justify replacing her. If the party’s internal dynamics required a change of candidate, the logical application of its own inclusion policy would have been to replace her with another female aspirant from the same constituency. Remi Odunsi, who contested in Kosofe, should have been given the ticket instead. She was already in the race, had mobilized her structure, and her emergence would have preserved the seat for a woman in line with the party’s stated commitment to gender inclusion. That did not happen. The result is that Lagos lost its sole female voice in the House, and there was no mechanism within the party’s process to prevent it. The same pattern repeated in Amuwo Odofin and other constituencies where notable female aspirants like Ramota Akinlola-Hassan and Rasheedat Adu contested but were defeated by male counterparts. The party’s discounted nomination fee for women reduced the financial barrier to entry, but it did nothing to address the political barrier at the point of selection.

The APC’s stated policy on gender inclusion operates at three levels, all outlined in its manifesto and constitution. First, on financial incentives, the party requires women to pay only 50% of the standard nomination fees for primary elections across legislative and executive positions. This was applied in Lagos, allowing 12 women to contest. But lowering the cost of entry did not translate to securing outcomes. Second, on structural representation, the APC Constitution establishes mandatory positions for female leaders across party organs, wards, and Board of Trustees representations. The National Working Committee has also deliberately increased female representation across national convention and coordination committees. These provisions ensure women are present in party administration, but they did not extend to protecting their chances at the ballot. 

Third, on electoral targets and policy commitments, the APC’s “Renewed Hope 2023 – Action Plan for a Better Nigeria” manifesto commits the party to work with the National Assembly to pass legislation promoting female employment in all government offices, ministries, and agencies, with the goal of increasing women’s participation in government to at least 35 percent of all governmental positions. The manifesto further states that members of the Federal Executive Council are to reserve certain senior positions for women while the private sector will be encouraged to do the same. Beyond the manifesto, party leaders have publicly reaffirmed this commitment. Former National Women Leader Dr. Betty Edu stated that women can be rest assured they will be given the right seat at the table and will be given 35 per cent affirmative action from the President.

What happened in Lagos shows a disconnect between these commitments and the reality on the ground. The party lowered the cost of entry and mandated female presence in party structures, but it did not secure the electoral outcome. There were no safeguards to ensure that women who contested were not all concentrated in unwinnable contests, and no intervention when constituencies with female incumbents were flipped to male candidates. In Kosofe, the absence of ward-level primaries and the false declaration by the returning officer made the disregard for inclusion even starker. Party leadership at both state and national levels had publicly committed to implementing gender inclusion. Yet during the primaries, there was no visible intervention to protect female candidates or enforce the 35% target at the ticket level. The result is a process that looks inclusive on paper but produces an exclusively male slate in practice.

The political cost of this failure goes beyond the 12 women who contested. It weakens the party’s credibility on gender issues ahead of 2027. If Lagos, the state where APC’s national leadership is based, cannot produce female House candidates, it undermines the party’s argument for inclusion nationwide. It also affects grassroots mobilization. Women constitute the bulk of party mobilizers in Lagos. They organize, canvass, and deliver votes. A process that sidelines them at the candidate selection stage risks demoralizing the very base the party relies on for turnout. More importantly, it sets a precedent. Other state chapters will take cues from Lagos. If the center does not enforce inclusion, peripheral states have no incentive to do so.

Correcting this requires more than statements. The party needs to act before the general election cycle advances further. The NWC and Lagos APC should review constituencies where female aspirants lost and assess whether the process complied with the party’s inclusion commitments in the constitution and manifesto. In Kosofe, the failure to conduct primaries in all wards, the false declaration by Gabriel Olusesan Dada, and the decision to bypass Remi Odunsi in favour of a male candidate must be addressed. They should use negotiated arrangements and party mechanisms to ensure at least 5–6 women emerge as APC House candidates from Lagos, in line with the 35% target. It must also be made clear that state chapters will be held responsible for failing to meet inclusion benchmarks in ticket distribution.

The Lagos APC primaries did not just produce winners and losers. They produced data. And the data shows that gender inclusion, as currently practiced in Lagos, is symbolic. The party’s own constitution and manifesto commit it to 35% affirmative action, reserved positions, and active promotion of women in government. If the party is serious about these commitments, the primaries must be treated as a case study in what not to do. The failure can still be corrected, but only if the leadership acknowledges it as a failure first. 

Women in Lagos mobilized for a party that promised them a seat at the table. What they got was a table with no seats. That gap between promise and practice is the real story of the Lagos primaries.