Female heads of State have been something of a rarity in Africa. Current and recent incumbents can be counted on the fingers of one hand: Tanzania’s Samia Suluhu Hassan, who has been at the helm since March 2021, as well as Liberia’s Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Malawi’s Joyce Banda, both of whom have joined the ranks of elder states-people, having retired from office.

Hassan would not be President had her predecessor, John Magufuli, not died in office, paving the way for her, as his number two, to serve the balance of his term, which ends in 2025. Banda, too, was previously a Vice President and took the top job following the death of her boss. She was in the hot seat from April 2012 to May 2014.

So, of this female Presidential trio, Johnson Sirleaf is the only one whose ascension to power came on the back of a general election.

But there is a possibility – two, actually – that Africa might be on its way to having another Madame President. This could be as early as within a month, if one Sara Nyanti succeeds in her quest to dislodge George Weah as President of Liberia in elections to be held on October 10.

Weah has been President since 2018 and will be seeking a second term in next month’s election. The 56-old-year was an acclaimed footballer in his younger years, with his career including stints at top teams in England, France and Italy. His accolades as a player include the African Footballer of the Year awards in 1989, 1994 and 1995; the African Player of the Century in 1996; as well as the FIFA World Player of the Year and the Ballon d’Or – which is generally regarded as football’s most prestigious and valuable individual award – in 1995.

Weah’s prowess on the football pitch has not been reproduced in the political arena. His campaign in the last election was based on, among other pledges, ending corruption, which his predecessor, who happened to be Johnson Sirleaf, had failed to address. But the scourge remains endemic in the country, with Transparency International ranking it 136th out of 180 countries in its 2021 corruption perceptions index.

What’s more, the country has experienced economic decline since Weah took over, with about half the country’s five-million people living on less than $1.90 a day, according to World Bank figures. This has led to occasional protests.

Nyanti has served the United Nations for more than 20 years, including as the organisation’s country head in South Sudan, Yemen and Nepal. She and 18 other contestants will be seeking to capitalise on the discontent with Weah and are hoping that pundits such as those at consultancy Fitch Solutions are wrong in predicting that Weah will likely be re-elected.

In an assessment published in May, Fitch suggested that the huge number of opposition candidates will result in no clear winner in the first round of voting, resulting in a second round that Weah will likely win, albeit with a smaller margin than in the previous election.

But another female Presidential hopeful, Namibia’s Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, stands a better chance in elections due in November 2024. The 70-year-old has been nominated as the candidate for the South West Africa People’s Organisation (Swapo), the former liberation movement that has governed the country since 1990. Although the party no longer has a two-thirds Parliamentary majority, which it held for 19 years consecutive years, it is still the biggest party in the country, having captured 65.5% of the popular vote and 63 out of 104 seats in the National Assembly in the 2019 election.

In her own right, Nandi-Ndaitwah has impressive credentials. She serves as Swapo’s vice president, has held several Cabinet positions and is Namibia’s current Deputy Prime Minister. She has also been a member of the National Assembly for 23 years.

Maybe, only maybe, Africa will have more than one female head of State by the end of next year.