Nigerian women have with great aplomb taken up the challenge of showing their mettle in the unfolding contest for political supremacy in the country.

And with great encouragement from Mrs. Patience Jonathan, arguably the most political visible First Lady in Nigerian history, the women are showing forth a kind of political vigour as never before.

However, the agitation from the women does not always receive feminine solidarity as in Kwara State where Senator Gbemi Saraki's governorship ambition is reported to have received the strong disapproval of the influential friend of Mrs. Jonathan, Mrs. Bola Shagaya.

No woman has ever been elected as a governor, though some have made some pointed efforts towards that goal. Senator Joy Emodi, is remembered to have made a high profile campaign that put her in pole position to become governor of Anambra State in 1998 before the Gen. Sani Abacha transition programme was truncated. No woman since then has been able to make such a high profile campaign until now.

Only two women under the present democratic regime have acted as governor in the country. When erstwhile governor of Anambra State was impeached under controversial circumstances, his deputy at that time, Dame Virginia Etiaba acted as governor from November 2006 to February 2007.

Strategy to equip women

The other woman was Mrs. Biodun Olujimi who acted as governor albeit briefly when Mr. Ayodele Fayose was removed from office. But as the 2015 general elections draw near, women politicians are gearing up in an attempt to raise their profile in the polity.

Perhaps, as part of efforts and strategy to equip women with the capacity to fully participate in the forth-coming primaries and congresses, the PDP held a one-day workshop for all its female aspirants.

The workshop was aimed at maximizing the gains of President Goodluck Jonathan's drive for increased female participation in governance and to prepare all female aspirants including all the incumbents for the task of contesting for elective positions in 2015 general election.

Hosted by the First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan, it was put together by the National Woman Leader of the PDP, Mrs Kema Chikwe.

With the push for a female governor, observers of political events opine that this, perhaps, remains a tall dream considering the type of politics currently being played in the polity.

But these female politicians are not resting on their oars as they are optimistic that their dreams will, one day, become a reality.

Gbemi Saraki (Kwara State)

Gbemisola Ruqayyah Saraki was elected to represent the PDP in Kwara Central Senatorial District from 2003 to 2011.

Prior to that, she was a member of the House of Representatives in 1999. She is one of the prominent female governorship aspirants in the country today having contested as the candidate of ACPC in 2011 against the incumbent Governor Abdulfatah of Kwara State, who was ironically backed by her brother and former governor of the state, Bukola Saraki.

Despite the backing of her father in 2011, she lost the election, and not a few would like to see how she will single-handedly pull through this time around with her brother in the APC. Gbemi Saraki has reportedly written a letter to the chairman of the state chapter of the party and its Elders' Committee to that effect.

Saraki said her decision to vie for the office of governor "is informed, on the one hand, by calls by family members, friends and several thousands of members of our party who are convinced about my capacity to lead the state out of its present state of hopelessness and stagnation which the ruling party has deliberately thrown it into."

She remains one of the frontline aspirants in the Kwara State chapter of the PDP.

Ngozi Olejeme (Delta State)

Mrs Ngozi Juliet Olejeme is the chairman of the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust-fund (NSITF) and has thrown her hat in the Delta governorship race on the platform of the PDP.

Olejeme was appointed chairman of the NSITF in June 2009 by late President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua.

She saw to the successful enactment into law of the Employees' Compensation Act in December 2010, and the setting up of necessary human and physical infrastructure for the implementation of the Act, which was signed by President Goodluck Jonathan.

Her campaign for the office has so far been described as robust.

Helen Esuene (Akwa Ibom)

Born 23 November 1949, Esuene is a former civil servant who was appointed Minister of State for Health, and later Minister of Environment and Housing in the cabinet of President Olusegun Obasanjo between 2005 and 2007.

In Akwa Ibom, Senator Helen Udoakaha Essuene, who represents Akwa Ibom South Senatorial District is already stirring the hornet's nest.

She is one former first lady who is currently the only female in the Akwa Ibom state governorship race on the platform of the PDP.

She was recently harassed by political thugs in Essien Udim Local Government Area when her campaign train berthed in the area. She, however, remains committed to seeing her dreams becomes a reality.

Ada Chenge (Benue State)

Mrs. Roseline Ada Chenge was the first female Managing Director of the Lower Benue River Basin Development Authority, LBRBDA.

She remains the only female governorship aspirant contesting on the PDP platform.

Relying on her experience at the commission, she believes that her sinking of over 900 hand pump boreholes, 450 motorized boreholes, 120 solar boreholes and construction of eight earth dams in four states to boost agriculture and mitigate flooding will sway the delegates at the PDP primaries.

She has pledged to industrialise the state's enormous agro-allied potentials by harnessing them into maximum productivity, if given the opportunity to govern the state.

Nkechi Nwaogu (Abia State)

Nkechi Justina Nwaogu is the only female governorship aspirant on the platform of the PDP in Abia State.

Born on May 29, 1956, Nwaogu has been in the Senate since 2007 where she represents Abia Central Senatorial District.

Though she has been asked to shelve her governorship ambition, the chairman, Senate Committee Chairman on Oil and Gas remains dogged has vowed to pursue her governorship ambition to a logical end.

She is leaving no stone unturned to take over the reins of power from the outgoing governor of Abia State, Chief Theodore Orji.

Ndidi Abanum (Delta State)

Mrs Ndidi Abanum Abanum, who hails from the Ukwani area of Delta, announced that she was not one to be intimidated out of the race by anybody.

Abanum, who has picked the PDP nomination form ahead of the party's governorship primary election, said she would bridge the gap between the rich and the poor in the state.

Bridging the gap

In an attempt to curry favour, she has vowed to make ex-militants commissioners in her cabinet and at the same time, fight poverty if elected.

Chris Anyanwu (Imo State)

Senator Chris Anyanwu is a second term senator, who is entrenched in battle against several men in the Imo 2015 governorship race.

To her admirers, she has made tremendous impact in the political landscape of the state especially during the 2011 governorship elections, which saw to the emergence of the incumbent governor, Owelle Rochas Okorocha.

At the National Assembly, she is a big voice on issues of good legislation and she has raised the image of the Nigerian Navy which she oversights as Senate Committee Chairman.

Bob-Abbey Hart (Rivers State)

Mrs Abieatedoghu Bob-Abbey Hart, a lawyer cum politician from Rivers State has declared her intention to contest the 2015 governorship election in the state.

Bob-Hart who was elected into the House of Representatives in 1997 to represent Bonny/Degema federal constituency and has said her motivation to contest the governorship election stemmed from the burning passion to deliver quality governance to the people of the state.

The governorship hopeful who expressed optimism that she would clinch the party's ticket for the election said she had built political bridges across the state.

Hart, a former member of the House of Representatives said, "I am a practising lawyer, graduated from University of Science and Technology, Port Harcourt, Rivers State in 1991, 23 years ago, a development consultant and an intellectual in the business of developing strategies and concepts for nation building."