A bill that seeks to create additional special seats for women in the National Assembly and State Houses of Assembly, on Wednesday, scaled through Second Reading on the floor of the House of Representatives.
The Bill is sponsored by the deputy chief whip of the House, Hon. Nkiruka Onyejiocha representing Umunnechi/Isikwuato federal constituency of Abia State with over 100 members of the House including Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila and all the principal offices as co-sponsors.
It was read for the second time on Wednesday during plenary at the lower chamber of the National Assembly in Abuja, the nation’s capital.
The proposes two additional members of the House of Representatives from each state and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), and one additional senator from each state, who shall be women.
While leading the debate on the general principles of the bill, Hon. Onyejeocha argued that the “bill seeks to alter the provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 to remedy 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 Assembly and State Houses of Assembly as a temporary measure to promote women’s representation.
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Speaking on the intendment of the legislation, Hon. Onyejeocha applauded the Speaker, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila for including all the serving women Parliamentarians into the House of Representatives’ Special Ad-hoc Committee on Constitution.
While noting that over 70 Northern lawmakers endorsed the bill, she underscored the need to subject relevant Constitutional provisions to a review after four general election cycles of sixteen years for the purpose of either retaining, increasing, or abolishing the temporary measure.
According to her, all the political parties would be compelled to comply with the Constitutional provisions to allocate a seat for women in any elective positions, adding that if any political party fails to comply others may use such lacuna to wrestle such position during the election.
She proposed the alteration of Section 48 by substituting the existing section 48(1 and 2) with a new section which provides that three Senators from each State and one from the Federal Capital Territory; and an additional Senator for each State and for the Federal Capital Territory, who shall be a woman.