Is Nigeria ready for a female leader?
Focus on Africa

Is Nigeria ready for a female leader?

B2Upper-intermediateSeptember 18, 202622 min
  • Interview
  • Politics

In January 2027, Nigeria will be heading to the polls. But there’s one thing still largely missing from the ballot, women. According to Nigerian civil society organisation, policy and legal advocacy centre, Nigeria has one of the lowest rates of women’s political representation in the world. In fact, women make up less than 5% of members of parliament. And currently only 54 women hold positions across 990 seats in State Houses of Assembly, and 15 states have no female legislators at all. Focus on Africa host, Nkechi Ogbonna, spoke to Ufuoma Nnamdi-Udeh, the Executive Director of Enough is Enou...

Play episode

Opens the player: the full transcript, every word clickable, with translation and flashcards.

Try it: tap any word

Real sentences from the start of this episode. Every word is marked with its level.

Sentence 1 of 12 · 0:00

, . ,

to you from Lagos, Nigeria. And a quick note before we go on, this episode

Hear this sentence

Tap a word to see its meaning in your language.

Do you know these words?

8 harder words from this episode. Tap one to see what it means, then mark it.

  • B21:14
  • B23:45
  • C16:30
  • B28:43
  • B212:20
  • C115:27
  • C118:19
  • B220:11

Mark a few words and we'll tell you how this episode fits your level.

Is this episode right for you?

B2

B2 · Upper-intermediate

Comfortable if you already follow TV news

A1 28%A2 33%B1 26%B2 12%C1 2%
  • 86% of the words are B1 or easier.
  • 172 words a minute: natural, fairly fast speech.
  • 106 harder words (B2 and up) in the whole episode.

Transcript

The opening of the episode. The whole transcript is in the player.

0:00

Hello and welcome to Focus on Africa, the conversation. I am Keiichi Ubonu, speaking to you from Lagos, Nigeria. And a quick note before we go on, this episode has also been filmed and will be available on the BBC Africa YouTube page from tomorrow, Saturday 19th September in the evening. Do take a look, share and leave a comment there.

0:28

Now, Nigeria continues to record low female representation in politics, despite women making up nearly half of the country's population. We explore the barriers that limit women's participation in politics and the challenges they face both in seeking elected office

0:45

and while serving in leadership positions. I think one of the foundational barriers is societal barrier. Our idea of a leader is a man. And so to even break that mental block in somebody's head,

That was the opening. The rest of the episode (22 min) is in the player: every word clickable, with translation, saved words and flashcards.

Continue in the player

Automatically generated from the audio. May contain errors. Audio belongs to its publisher and is played from their feed. Rights holders can request removal — copyright & takedown policy