The House of Representatives has passed for second reading a constitutional amendment bill seeking to create special seats for women.
The bill proposed by Honourable Nkiru Onyejiocha, seeks to alter the provisions of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to address the low representation of women in Legislative Houses by providing for the creation of additional separate seats to be contested and filled by only women in the National and State Houses of Assembly, as a temporary measure to promote women’s representation.
This provision is subject to a review after four general election cycles of sixteen years for the purpose of either retaining, increasing, or abolishing the temporary measure.
Ekwi Ajide of our Abuja bureau reports that the Bill, comprised of six major clauses, seeks that every State Constituency and the additional seats established in accordance with the provisions of the Bill, shall return one member, who shall be directly elected to a House of Assembly in such manner as may be prescribed by an Act of the National Assembly.
The Bill noted that Nigeria has been identified as the worst performer in women representation in Parliaments in the West African region, and one of the lowest in the whole of Africa, especially as women have only four point four percent representation in the ninth National Assembly.
More than one hundred and thirty countries have adopted some sort of special measures to address women’s under-representation, and over seventy five percent of the cases were introduced in the last twenty years.
The Bill emphasized that women’s inclusion in politics is not just a woman or human rights issue, but also an issue of reflecting history and traditions in the country’s governance process.
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