Bill To Reserve 1 Female Senatorial Seat Per State For 2nd Reading

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A bill to make it compulsory for every state to reserve one seat
for female senator will soon come up for second reading in the
House of Representatives.

Rep Taiwo Oluga, who is the Chairman, House Committee on Women
in Parliament, made this known when receiving the Legal Defence and
Assistance Project, LEDAP, a coalition partner to Advance Gender
Equality, SAGE, in Abuja.

She said that the bill is an initiative of the committee and
part of the efforts being made to increase women representation in
government.

“What we are proposing in the bill is to have at least a senator
from every state, it can be two out of the three.

“It is not just because the female want to occupy positions, we
want to complement the efforts of the men; we are not in
competition, just to complement them.

“Why is the committee advocating this? It is because we know we
have women who are intelligent and are capable in this country.

“We have females that have the ability, they have demonstrated
the ability; we are just 12 in this 9th House but our contributions
on the floor cannot be swept under the carpet, the house recognises
that.

Ms Oluga commended the contributions of female lawmakers to
national issues such as security, health and in reducing the number
of children out of school.

The lawmaker said that the issues in the country today cannot be
addressed without the participation of women.

She said that women, with population of about 100 million cannot
be ignored or left out in the scheme of things.

Ms Oluga said that following the interventions of the committee
all 20 female lawmakers in the National Assembly were included in
the Constitution Review Committee.

“My own personal opinion is to have 360 members divided by two;
how we are going to do it, let the political parties and the INEC
cooperate and let everyone be on the same page and make it a
reality.

“If you cannot do that, in 2023 give us the 35 per cent
affirmative action, and that is what we are doing in collaboration
with all stakeholders,” she said.

Earlier, the Senior Programme Manager, Pamela Okoroigwe, said
that there was need to strategise on how to increase women
representation in government.

Ms Okoroigwe said that such strategy was most necessary as the
Constitution was being amended by the National Assembly.

She also recommended that the Constitution should be amended to
change the language to reflect all gender.

She said that “He” as used in the constitution should be removed
and let ‘Chairman’ be replaced with ‘Chairperson’.

Ms Okoroigwe said that the constitution should be amended to
ensure 35 per cent affirmative action for women was reflected in
political parties’ candidates.

According to her, INEC can be empowered by the constitution to
enforce it by deregistering political parties that fail to
conform.

Ms Okoroigwe said that the constitution should be amended to
make it mandatory for the offices of chairman and secretary of
political party leadership be occupied by a man and woman at all
times.

She said that the constitution should also be amended to reflect
35 per cent affirmative action in ministerial appointments and in
the Judiciary.

The Programme Manager, Civil Society Legislative Advocacy
Centre, CISLAC, Okeke Anya, said that the SAGE is a USAID supported
project.

He said that the aim was to drive a campaign to increase the
number of women in governance across all tiers.

Mr Anya said that a political party advisory group was being
worked on to engage political parties on the need to produce more
female candidates.

He said that a Civil Society group was also in place to help
amplify and increase the momentum of the SAGE. NAN