NEWS

IWD: Pro-women Groups Intensify Call For Senate’s Revisit Of Rejected Gender Bills

Published

3 years ago

March 9, 2022

BIGPEN

More women groups have lend their voices against the recent rejection of the gender bills by the Nigerian Senate as part of activities to mark the International Women Day.

The South South Zonal Coordinator of the Gender and Constitution Reform Network, Emem Okon, said the Nigerian Senate is yet to appreciate the importance of advancing equality of all citizens.

“The Senate rejected the Gender Bill despite the efforts of wives of the Nigerian President and Vice President, this is sad. Out of 109 Senators, only 7% are women! Out of the 360 members of the House of Representatives, only 22 of them are women. The Nigerian Senators must stop discriminating against women! We constitute half the population of this nation, so we deserve 50% of the seats,” the women activist said.

On her part, the Chairperson, Rivers State chapter of the Nigeria Association of Women Journalist, Susan Serekara-Nwikhana said the Nigerian Senator rejection of the Gender Bill is a wake up call for Nigerian women to take the bull by the horns by participating massively come 2023.

“If we actually desire for more women in position of power, we must use what we have to get what we want as the 2023 General Elections draws closer. We have our PVCs in our hands that can do the magic for us, since women are always more in number during campaigns and voting time.

“We must use our PVCs since we are more in number to Vote them out of those offices to allow our women occupy them and we don’t even need additional offices or positions to be created considering the high cost the country already facing.

“We must restrategise to sponsor women, who are willing, well able to go into politics to go and pick up forms to contest for positions of their choice. We must also stand by them from the beginning to the end giving them the prominence they deserved until the battle is won,” she said.

The Rivers State NAWOJ Chairperson, Susan Serekara-Nwikhana said; “here in Rivers State as we commemorates this year 2022 IWD. NAWOJ and other Women groups are embarking on a road walk in that regards to create the needed sensitisation and awareness campaign for our women to know that the change and breaking the bias that we want is already in our hands without us knowing it, the PVCs”, the NAWOJ Chairperson said.

Meanwhile, ActionAid Nigeria, a national non-governmental, non-partisan, non-religious, civil society organization, has called on the national assembly to substantiate her commitment to gender equality by re-presenting and re-considering the five proposed Gender Bills in the 5th Constitution Alteration Bills that were rejected by both Houses of the National Parliament on 1^st March 2022.

Speaking in Abuja, the Country Director, ActionAid Nigeria, Ene Obi says “In line with this year’s theme “Gender equality today for a sustainable tomorrow”, we had looked forward to really celebrating International Women’s Day 2022 because we thought it would mark a turnaround for Nigerian woman in politics, and a historic win in the struggle for women inclusion in decision making spaces, as the 2023 general elections draw closer.

“Sadly, the decision of the 9^th National Assembly has threatened the achievement of adequate women representation in governance, as they have outrightly demonstrated by their votes, that they do not want women inclusion in decision making. If, in 2022, we still have to argue for or against the pivotal role of women in governance, it means our leaders are deliberately resistant to change and still have a lot of learning to do.

“We, therefore, urge the leadership of the National Assembly of Nigeria to have the Gender Bills re-presented and re-considered. This is the only way to address the current gender imbalance across the legislative arms of governments and across the country”.