House of Representatives moves to create 74 extra seats for women in parliament

House of Representatives moves to create 74 extra seats for women in parliament

A bill to reserve 74 seats for women in the national assembly and state houses of assembly has passed second reading in the House of Representatives.

The bill which is titled ‘A bill for an act to alter the constitution of the federal Republic of Nigeria to 1999 to provide for seat reservation for women in the National and State Houses of assembly; and for related matters,’ was sponsored by deputy speaker Benjamin Kalu.

The bill which seeks to alter sections 48, 49, 71, and 117 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) provides for ‘Special seat reserved exclusively for women in the Senate and House of Representatives for each state of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory.”

The bill is to take effect after the expiration of the current 10th assembly and will be reviewed every 16 years.

Joshua Gana, Co-sponsor of the bill and member representing Lavun/Mokwa/Edati Federal; Constituency, Niger State who lead the debate on the motion, noted that the proposed law will address the “profound imbalance and the under-representation of women in the National Assembly and at sub-national levels.”

The bill was however vehemently opposed by some members including Ghali Tijanni who said it offends the spirit of the constitution and called for its outright rejection, and Juwonlo Alao-Akala who submitted that the bill has the potential to promote inequality because it sought to give special treatment to women.

Deputy Speaker Kalu before ruling on the bill suggested stepping it down this was opposed by Ahmed Satomi. The bill was subsequently put to a voice vote and those in favor had their way, after which it was referred to the committee on constitution review.

The bill if passed seeks to amend Section 91 to allocate three special seats for women in each state’s House of Assembly, distributed across the three senatorial districts of each state.

This is not the first time the National Assembly is considering such a bill, the gender and equal opportunities bill which was an Initiative of Senator Biodun Olujimi, in the 9th assembly was stood down after first reading following concerns by some senators citing socio-cultural and religious reasons.

Senator Olujimi’s bill was aimed at eliminating all forms of discrimination against women in Nigeria.

However, speaker of the House Tajudeen Abass had assured that the failed gender bills in the 9th assembly would be revisited especially the one seeking more legislative seats for women.

Nigeria is the lowest ranked Sub-Saharan African country on the number of women in parliament according to data from the Inter Parliamentary Union (IPU).

In a reaction however, Debo Adeniran who is the chairman of the Centre for Anti-Corruption and Open Leadership opposed the creation of additional seats for women saying the National Assembly did not need more seats as it was already overcrowded.

“It will be superfluous because we already have an overcrowded National Assembly. There is no reason why we should create more. As a matter of fact, our suggestion at the level of the Committee for the Defence of Human Rights and CACOL is that we don’t need bicameral legislature at the national level, the way we have it.

“That the House of Representatives is enough, and that we should not have more than three representatives in each of the states. Yes, and they should be holding constituency meetings regularly, such that the constituents will have the opportunity to get regular feedback from their representatives.

“You will be able to carry out what is called a needs assessment and whatever bill is being considered will have to emanate from different constituents, not that the legislature or the legislator representing any constituency would think on behalf of the people. So, the creation of more seats in the Assembly is, as I said, superfluous, unnecessary, and unwarranted. There’s no reason for it,” he said.

Gerald Katchy, National Coordinator, Initiative Against Human Rights Abuse and Torture, who added his voice to the call opposing extra seats said, the move if actualized will be a waste of resources considering the amount of money lawmakers currently earn.