Laraba MUREY
As Nigeria inches closer to a decisive phase in its constitutional amendment process, the League of Women Voters of Nigeria, NILOWV, has renewed its call for the speedy passage of the Special Seats Bill, aimed at improving women’s participation in both the National and State Houses of Assembly.
The group made the appeal on Monday during a media parley in Abuja with the theme: “Advancing Women’s Inclusion and Representation in Leadership and Politics.”
The event was organised in partnership with the Nigeria Association of Women Journalists, NAWOJ, Lawyers Alert, the Center for Redefining Alternative Civic Engagement for Africa (RACE Center), and other civil society partners, with support from UN Women.
Speaking during the parley President of NILOWV, Hon. Irene Awunah-Ikyegh, said the bill is long overdue and critical to addressing the glaring gender imbalance in Nigeria’s political space. She said the time for lip service was over.
“We cannot say we are practicing democracy when we don’t have inclusion,” she said.
Awunah-Ikyegh decried Nigeria’s poor record in female representation compared to other African countries. She pointed out that only four women currently occupy seats in the 109-member Senate, and just 16 serve in the 360-member House of Representatives an overall 4.2% representation in the 469-member National Assembly.
She explained that Special Seats Bill, sponsored by the Deputy Speaker of the House, proposes adding 74 seats for women in the federal legislature -37 in the Senate (one per state and the FCT) and 37 in the House of Representatives (also one per state and the FCT). At the state level, three women would be elected per senatorial zone into State Houses of Assembly.
“These are not handouts or emergency slots,” she clarified. “Women will still go through party primaries and campaign like every other aspirant.”
On concerns about cost implications, Awunah-Ikyegh said studies show that the increase in legislative expenditure would be less than one percent. She argued that the developmental cost of sidelining women—seen in poor maternal health indices, low girl-child school enrollment, and worsening inflation far outweighs the budgetary concerns.
“It is high time we bring and embrace diversity in leadership and governance,” she said.
“The bill offers an advantage by fostering diversity and bringing more expertise to governance… more effective governance, more checks and balances, more bills that are more of social welfare of the citizens.”
“We are strategizing massively, mobilizing support of the grassroots to ensure this bill will not suffer the fate of other similar bills, about 5 of such bills thrown out in the previous National Assembly.”
“This new campaign is focusing on the grassroots to ensure massive support for the bill is obtained as well as the buy-in of women because that is where voting takes place”
Also speaking, the National Chairperson of NIgeria Association of Women Journalists NAWOJ, Aisha Ibrahim, represented by the National Vice President, Zone D, Mrs Chizoba Ogbeche, reiterated the commitment of NAWOJ and media towards effective advocacy of the bill to scale through, adding that it would benefit all and sundry.
Ogbeche, who further explained the need for strong legislative backing of the bill, added that NAWOJ is fully committed in the campaign as the flag off campaign has been stepped down across all 36 states of the federation were the Association is situated,also urged for more advovacy and the need for Nigerians to be actively involved in the process and ask questions on clarity of any aspect of the bill.
“This media parley is to set the tone for mass mobilization of Nigerians to support the bill..it is an opportunity to place Nigeria on the global map of inclusive democratic governance”
On her part, a representative from RACE Africa, Evelyn Ugbe, while clarifying the misconception about the bill that alleges that when passed will serve only the interest of elites,noting that it is all inclusive and will benefit every woman and girls interest.
For Executive Director of lnclusive Skill intiative, Angelina Ugben reaffirmed commitment of their organisation towards speedy actualisation of the bill aimed at promoting inclusive governance.
