Nigeria women under the auspices of WOMENIFESTO has called on the Senate President and the Speaker of the House of Representatives to convene an urgent meeting to discuss how to reverse the wrong done to women at the National Assembly (NASS), threatening to continue to occupy NASS.
Co-convener, Womenifesto, Dr Abiola Akiyode-Afolabi, made the call in a statement signed in Abuja, saying that there is the Urgent need for NASS to re-convene, reconsider, and immediately pass the five women/gender-related bills and the the Gender and Equal Opportunities (GEOB) Bill, currently before the Senate.
She noted that Nigeria has a woeful women representation in political and elective positions at the National Assembly (comprising the Senate with 109 members and the House of Representatives with 360 members totaling 469 members of parliament), only 29 are women which is 6% of the total.
She added that the low women representation in leadership positions amount to denying half of Nigeria’s population the voice and opportunity to contribute to governance and development.
She said the 440 men at the Nigeria NASS shows a male-dominated legislature rejecting an attempt to recalibrate this imbalance, thereby introducing a cog in the path to addressing age-long discrimination against women, which also has stunted development.
”On the first day of Women’s History Month – March – the Nigerian legislature voted to: Deny citizenship to the foreign-born husband of a Nigerian woman but a Nigerian man’s foreign-born wife gets automatic citizenship, deny Nigerians in the Diaspora the right to vote, deny women the ability to take indigeneship of their husband’s state after 5 years of being together.
”The male dominated senate denies 35% appointed positions for women, deny women 35% affirmative action in party administration and leadership as well as rejected specific seats for women in the National Assembly,” she said.
She stated the need for women’s right as full citizens to participate in all spheres of life, in particular in governance and decision making based on the principles of non-discrimination, equality and social justice.
