Franca Afegbua (20 October 1943 – 12 March 2023) stands in Nigerian political memory as a trailblazer: the first woman to win election to the Nigerian Senate by popular vote. Her narrow, symbolic tenure in 1983 came at the close of the Second Republic, but its significance has endured. Afegbua’s life, from beautician and entrepreneur to lawmaker, speaks to the uneven but real openings that the Second Republic offered to women, and to the fragile nature of democratic gains in Nigeria’s post-colonial history.
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Early life and pre-political career
Born in Okpella, Etsako East in the former Bendel State (now in Edo State) on 20 October 1943, Franca Afegbua trained as a beautician and built a successful salon business in Lagos, serving upscale clients. Biographical accounts record that she undertook post-secondary training in Sofia, Bulgaria, and won recognition in international hairdressing competitions, credentials that enhanced both her professional reputation and social networks. Though often presented in brief profile pieces, these facts are corroborated across obituary and regional archival notices.
Entry into politics
Afegbua’s entry into electoral politics was facilitated by national party networks. She developed links with political actors in the Middle Belt and the South-South; Joseph Tarka’s influence is frequently cited in profiles as a factor in her alignment with the National Party of Nigeria (NPN). In 1983, she accepted the party’s nomination to contest the Bendel North senatorial seat. Her campaign combined local outreach, appeals to constituency concerns, and a personal narrative of enterprise and independence, a contrast to many established, male-dominated political machines of the period. Contemporary press accounts describe her as an improbable candidate who mobilised a cross-section of voters to win an upset victory in the senatorial contest.
Historic election and brief tenure
The 1983 general elections delivered Franca Afegbua to the Senate as the only woman elected to the upper chamber that year. This made her the first woman in Nigeria to reach the Senate through direct election (as distinct from earlier female senators who had been appointed in the First Republic). That distinction is important: the parliamentary record shows earlier female Senate membership by nomination or appointment, for example, Wuraola Esan is widely cited as a woman who sat in the Senate in 1960 via appointment, but Afegbua’s 1983 victory was singular because it was won at the ballot box. Acknowledging both facts gives proper historical context to her achievement.
The Second Republic’s National Assembly was inaugurated in October 1983, so her formal service began then; the return of military rule on 31 December 1983 truncated the Second Republic and dissolved elected institutions. Afegbua’s senatorial career was therefore brief in office, but long in symbolic consequence: her election offered a public example that women could win high, national legislative office by popular consent.
Political significance and legacy
Afegbua’s election resonated with women’s organisations and activists across Nigeria. Her success is cited in retrospective commentary as a milestone that inspired later female aspirants to legislative office. While the Second Republic yielded only a handful of women in high office, Afegbua’s presence in the Senate in 1983 became a recurring reference point in public debates about quotas, party selection processes, and the structural barriers that limit women’s representation in Nigeria. In subsequent decades, women’s groups have invoked her example when advocating for more inclusive candidate selection and legislative reform.
What is well documented, and what is not
What is well documented: Afegbua’s biography as a beautician-turned-politician; her 1983 election for Bendel North on the NPN ticket; and her death on 12 March 2023, which elicited national tributes and media obituaries. What remains less exhaustively recorded in academic archives are the full details of her campaign manifesto, exhaustive vote counts at the micro-level, and the inner party negotiations that placed her on the ticket; such reconstructions rely heavily on interviews and local memory. Readers should therefore treat precise claims about strategy or specific policy pledges as reconstructions rather than as verbatim archival records.
Death and remembrance
Franca Afegbua died in March 2023; family statements and press reports recorded the event, and a public outpouring of condolences from political and civic leaders followed. At the time of her death, commentators reiterated her status as a pioneer for women’s political representation in Nigeria and urged renewed efforts to translate symbolism into durable institutional change. Her life remains a touchstone in debates about gender, electoral politics, and representation in Nigeria.
Author’s note
Franca Afegbua’s story is at once specific and emblematic. She was a successful entrepreneur, an outsider candidate who broke a gender barrier by winning a senatorial seat, and a figure whose short time in office belies a sustained symbolic importance. For historians and policy-makers alike, her legacy underlines two truths: that electoral breakthroughs can matter even when they are short-lived, and that symbolic firsts need translation into structural reforms if they are to become the norm rather than the exception.
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References
TheCable obituary: “Franca Afegbua, Nigeria’s first elected female senator, is dead.”
Premium Times / Punch / Nation obituaries and profile pieces (March 2023).
Fact-check / historical note on earlier female senators (Wuraola Esan) — Dubawa and other retrospective pieces.
