UN advocates more female representation, reserve seats for women at Assemblies

The United Nations Women and Women Aid Collective (WACOL) has advocated for a Reserved Seat for women in politics to give them a sense of belonging and amplify their voice in the Nigerian political landscape.

This call was part of the WACOL programme to “Advance Women’s Political Participation in Nigeria”, a project sponsored by the UN Women with support from the Canadian Government.

In a one-day State-level Advocacy Town Hall meeting in Abakaliki, stakeholders committed to supporting the Reserved Seat Bill.

The event was attended by selected stakeholders and critical actors in women’s advancement with a focus on building consensus and consolidating a memorandum to be presented to the Constitutional Review Committee during the upcoming zonal public hearings.

Joy Ngozi Ezeilo, Professor and Executive Director of WACOL, condemned the low level of women’s representation in elective positions in Nigeria, describing it as unacceptable.

Represented by the Head of Programmes, Nkechi Igwe, Ezeilo said the campaign would be stepped down to the grassroots to enable more of the population to gather the knowledge and lend their voices to the issue.

She said, “Looking at the percentage of women both in the National and State Assemblies, it is quite infinitesimal compared to the efforts women put into politics.

“We observed that when it comes to voting and those that register to vote during elections, it is always more women, but when it comes to the number coming out for elective positions, we have a limited number of women representing us there.

Related News

“And we know that there’s no society that can survive without women’s work.

“So, what we are asking for is a specially reserved constituency seat exclusively to be contested by women.

“Having drawn lessons from countries that have adopted this reform through constitutional review and how it positively impacted their governance system, we find the opportunity of the review of the Nigerian constitution, as amended, to bring out this issue.”

She further explained that WACOL has developed a strategy of engaging volunteers who would take the campaign to churches, markets and other public places to explain to the people the essence of the Reserved Seat Bill and win their support.

“The UN Women is supporting almost the 36 States of the Federation for this advocacy to go on simultaneously because we want a lot of people to be aware of this issue of Reserved seats so that when the zonal hearing comes up, a lot of people must have been aware and throw their support behind the bill.

“We know that voting for the reserved seat bill is a win for all Nigerians the Reserved Seat Bill in Nigeria, also known as the Specific Seats Bill, aims to increase women’s representation in the National and State Assemblies by creating additional seats that are contested and filled only by women.

Okechukwu Okpara a resources person for the programme represented by Helen Kalu, the Programme Manager, WACOL/UN Women Political Participation Project and Lead Facilitator at the event, explained that the bills a temporary measure designed to boost women’s participation in decision-making, with a “sunset clause” that would abolish the seats after a set period of 16 years.