Women’s Leadership Summit Kicks Off in Gombe

By Najib Sani, Gombe

The North-East Women in Political Party Summit 2025 has officially begun in Gombe State with women from different political parties, and members of women peers support network, gender desk officers of IPAC and INRC in the north east participating.

The summit themed “Reclaiming the Political Space: Women Leading Northeast’s Renewal” was organised by LEADTOTS Development Initiative, a non governmental organisation working towards inclusive leadership with support from National Endowment for Democracy.

Participants at the Women Leadership Summit in Gombe

Executive Director of LEADTOTS Development Initiative, Nicholas Oshojah Afeso, during the opening ceremony of the summit explained that the two-day summit brings together 60 exceptional women political leaders, INEC gender desks, and party representatives from across the Northeast region.

Afeso emphasised the importance of women’s leadership in the region’s renewal, stressing that women’s leadership is not optional but it is essential because they have what it takes to be leaders.

Nicholas Oshojah Afeso addressing participants during the summit

He encouraged participants to engage boldly and commit wholeheartedly to the summit’s goals urging the them to make the space become a launchpad for a new movement that challenges old structures, builds new alliances, and commands political relevance of women with courage and clarity.

According to him, over the two days of the summit, participants would explore key topics, including breaking patriarchy, designing issue-based campaigns, and financing women’s political ambitions.

Hauwa Gana Ibrahim, the women leader of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Yobe State, has expressed concern that women are underrepresented as delegates within political parties.

She opined that this underrepresentation often leads to men being favoured during primary elections.

The women leader also pointed out that a new law, which requires party executives to contest for delegate positions rather than automatically holding them as delegates, has disproportionately affected women.

According to her, this change has further disadvantaged women, primarily due to the financial constraints they face in contesting for the delegates positions.

“Number one problem women have is all the political parties have to go for primaries and women have minimum of delegates. And this new law that the last assembly have brought, has given more challenge to the women because even those who are in the executives in the parties are no longer delegates,” Ibrahim said.

Rifkatu Maxwell, Head of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Voter Education and Publicity, Gombe State, also highlighted that the delegates selection process favours men in primary elections.

“The delegates selection process in political parties favours men, and most of the delegates participating in primary elections are men, which make them often choose men over women,” Rifkatu said.

She urged women to rally behind female candidates in 2027 elections, even if they belong to different parties.

This is just as she advised women to form alliances or coalitions in the 2027 elections to secure better representation in governance, citing the example of the opposition merger that led to their victory in the 2023 presidential election.

“Women should put aside party differences and support female candidates contesting against men, in order to increase their chances of winning.

“In the INEC voters register, there are more women and youth than men, and hence, women can change their dominance in terms of leadership,” she said.

The INEC official said there is a bill before the National Assembly to reserve one senate seat for women in each state, advocating also for reservation of at least three seats for women in state assemblies.

Another thing she recommended is for political parties to provide free nomination forms for women to encourage them to contest elections, citing the fact that INEC provides free forms.

Halima Mahdi, a women activist in Gombe State, re-echoed the sentiments saying lack of women delegates make them unable to field parties’ tickets and advised the summit to change it in the north east by 2027 through mobilising women.