The first daughter of a pilot from Abia State in southeast Nigeria, Nnenna Elendu-Ukeje, never faced disadvantages for being a woman until she entered politics some 10 years ago.

In her three terms as member of parliament for Bende constituency in Abia, she has experienced discrimination, sexual innuendoes, physical threats and insubordination, mainly from male colleagues. But each time she fought back.

However, she is concerned that the treatment of women in politics in Nigeria, and the threats they receive, is scaring women away with less than 6%of Nigerian parliamentarians female.

She said this was detrimental to women across Africa's most populous nation of 186million people who need strong voices to fight for government policies that affect women, such as gender violence, maternal mortality and empowerment.

"We must have people who actually understand, who are the beneficiaries of these policies, being part of policy formulation," the 48-year-old single mother said.

Elendu-Ukeje is one of 27 women sitting in the 108-seat Senate and 360-seat House of Representatives since the 2015 election, from 32 in 2011. She suspects fewer women will participate in the 2019 elections, put off by the violence that has marred previous votes in certain parts of Nigeria.

During the last election, people started firing guns as Elendu-Ukeje was campaigning and she was whisked away, unscathed, but some of her security personnel were injured.

Elendu-Ukeje grew up wanting to be a teacher and has degrees in English and journalism from the University of Lagos. However, that started to change in 1999 when Nigeria left behind decades of military rule to become a democracy.

For her, being a woman in Nigerian politics means having to work twice as hard as her male counterparts to constantly prove that she has earned her place in the male-dominated world.