₦airaland Forum

DETAILS ON BILL TO CREATE ADDITIONAL SPECIAL SEATS FOR WOMEN IN NATIONAL ASSEMBLY, STATE HOUSES OF ASSEMBLY

Mr. Speaker, Honourable Colleagues, permit me to lead the debate on the general principles on A Bill for An Act to alter the provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 to create additional special seats for Women in the National Assembly and State Houses of Assembly. You would recall that the Bill was read for the first time on Thursday 22nd April, 2021 in this hallowed Chamber

Mr. Speaker, my respected Colleagues, this 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. The provision is subjected to a review after four general election cycles of sixteen years for the purpose of either retaining, increasing, or abolishing the temporary measure

The Bill is comprised of six major clauses that seeks to alter Sections 48; 49; 71; 77; 91; and 117 as set out below-

1. Alteration of Section 48
Section 48 of the Principal Act is altered by substituting the existing section 48 with a new section “48” –

“48. Composition of the Senate
(1) The Senate shall consist of:

(a) three Senators from each State and one from the Federal Capital Territory; and

(b) an additional Senator for each State and for the Federal Capital Territory, who shall be a woman.

(2) Notwithstanding the provision of subsection (1) of this section, nothing shall prevent a woman from contesting for any of the senatorial seats referred to in subsection (1) (a).

(3) The provisions of subsection (1) (b) shall commence after the current life of the National Assembly and shall be reviewed after 16 years from its commencement notwithstanding any other provision of this Constitution.”

2. Alteration of Section 49
Section 49 of the Principal Act is altered by substituting the existing section 49 with a new section “49” –

“49. Composition of the House of Representatives
(1) Subject to the provisions of this Constitution, the House of Representatives shall consist of:
(a) three hundred and sixty members representing constituencies of nearly equal population as far as possible, provided that no constituency shall fall within more than one State; and

(b) two additional members for each State and for the Federal Capital Territory, who shall be women.

(2) Notwithstanding the provision of subsection (1) of this section, nothing shall prevent a woman from contesting for any of the seats in the constituencies referred to in subsection (1)(a).

(3) The provisions of subsection (1) (b) shall commence after the current life of the National Assembly and shall be reviewed after 16 years from its commencement notwithstanding any other provision of this Constitution.

3. Alteration of Section 71
Section 71 of the Principal Act is altered by inserting immediately after sub-sections (1) (a) and (b), new subsections “(2)” and “(3)” –

71. Senatorial districts and Federal constituencies
(1) Subject to the provisions of section 72 of this Constitution, the Independent National Electoral Commission shall –

(a) divide each State of the Federation into three Senatorial districts for purposes of elections to the Senate;

(b) subject to the provisions of section 49 of this Constitution, divide the Federation into three hundred and sixty Federal constituencies for purposes of elections to the House of Representatives.

(2) For the purpose of section 48 of this Constitution, a State shall constitute an additional senatorial seat to be occupied by a woman.

(3) For the purpose of section 49 of this Constitution, the Independent National Electoral Commission shall divide each State of the Federation into two Federal constituencies to be occupied by women.

4. Alteration of Section 77
Section 77 of the Principal Act is altered in subsection (1) by substituting the words “every Senatorial district or Federal constituency” in lines 1 and 2 with the words “every Senatorial district, Federal constituency and the additional seats”–

“77. Direct election and franchise
(1) Subject to the provisions of this Constitution, every Senatorial district, Federal constituency and the additional seats established in accordance with the provisions of this Part of this Chapter shall return one member who shall be directly elected to the Senate or the House of Representatives in such manner as may be prescribed by an Act of the National Assembly.”

5. Alteration of Section 91
Section 91 of the Principal Act is altered by substituting the existing section 91 with a new section “91” –

“91. Composition of the House of Assembly
(1) Subject to the provisions of this Constitution, a House of Assembly of a State shall consist of:
(a) three or four times the number of seats, which that State has in the House of Representatives divided in a way to reflect, as far as possible, nearly equal population; and

(b) one additional member from each of the three senatorial districts in the State referred to in section 48 (1) (a) of this Constitution, who shall be a woman.

(2) Notwithstanding the provision of subsection (1) of this section, nothing shall prevent a woman from contesting for any of the seats in the constituencies referred to in subsection (1)(a)

(3) The provisions of subsection (1) (b) shall commence after the current life of the State House of Assembly and shall be reviewed after 16 years from its commencement notwithstanding any other provision of this Constitution.

Provided that a House of Assembly of a State shall consist of not less than twenty-four and not more than forty-three members.”

6. Alteration of Section 117
Section 117 of the Principal Act is altered in subsection (1) by inserting immediately after the words “every State constituency” in line 1, the words “and the additional seats”–

“117. Direct election and franchise
Subject to the provisions of this Constitution, every State constituency and the additional seats established in accordance with the provisions of this part of this Chapter shall return one member who shall be directly elected to a House of Assembly in such manner as may be prescribed by an Act of the National Assembly.”

My respected Colleagues, Women has only 4.4% percent representation in the 9th National Assembly, you may wish to note that Nigeria has been identified as the worst performer in women representation in parliaments, in the West African region and one of the lowest in the whole of Africa. This is evidenced in the most recent Inter-parliamentary Union (IPU) ranking of women in parliaments where Nigeria ranks 179 out of 187 Countries Worldwide. Eritrea is the only African Country ranked lower than Nigeria and this is because there have not been national elections since its independence in 1993. The situation is worse at the States Houses of Assembly level, where a good number of our States do not have a single woman in their State Assembly. In some of these States, men chair the Women Affairs Committee because there is no woman available to take the role.

Currently more than 130 Countries have adopted some type of special measure (or quota system) to address women’s under-representation. Over 75 percent of these cases were introduced in the last 20 years – particularly since 2000. Strikingly, the majority of Nations that have adopted special measures/quota systems are low or middle-income countries – many of them in Africa. A very good example is South Africa, where the introduction of quotas in the 1994 election by the African National Congress (ANC) party resulted in 27% of women in their very first democratic election. Currently South Africa has 46.5% of women in their lower chamber and is one of the top ten Countries for women in parliament. Rwanda is the world leader in women’s political participation with 49% of women in their lower chamber. This followed from deliberate constitutional efforts taken to include women in government to foster re-building of the Country post-genocide in 2003.

Even conservative countries are beginning to realise the usefulness of political inclusion of women. For instance, women in countries such as Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Mauritania, Morocco, the State of Palestine and Tunisia have successfully lobbied for the introduction of various measures, such as electoral quotas, to increase and strengthen women’s political representation. Between 2010 and 2017, the majority of countries in the Arab region have seen an increase in the representation of women in their parliament. In 2013, it may also interest you to note that for the first time, 30 women were appointed to Saudi Arabia’s Shura Council (advisory body), representing 20 per cent of seats as of 2021. In Algeria, the proportion of female members of parliament (MPs) tripled, from 8% to 32% in line with a quota introduced in 2012. In Afghanistan, women now make up about 27 percent of the upper and lower houses of parliament and were active in drafting the country’s new constitution. This was facilitated by a male President who signed and supported declarations of women’s rights and in 2005 appointed the first female governor. Our West African neighbour, Senegal, adopted a parity law in their Constitution in 2012. This was facilitated by then President, Abdoulaye Wade and resulted to an almost 50-50 balance between men and women in the Senegalese Parliament. Nigerian women are not even asking for 50-50 but 35% which is what is indicated in our National Gender Policy and several international Treaties that we are signatory to. The number is identified as the “critical mass/number” of women required to achieve impactful results.

Mr. Speaker, my respected Colleagues, I would like emphasis that women’s inclusion in politics is not just a women or human rights issue, but also an issue of reflecting our history and traditions in our governance process, and I truly believe that this Bill has potential for improving women’s political representation, therefore I urge all my respected Colleagues to support that the Bill be read for the Second Time and committed to the Ad-Hoc Committee on the Review of the Constitution for further Legislative action.

Thank you.

Rt.Hon [Barr] Nkeiruka Onyejeocha
[Sponsor of Bill]
Deputy Chief Whip
House of Representatives
Federal Republic of Nigeria

Download this to learn more: https://placng.org/i/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Special-Seats-for-Women-in-the-Nigerian-Legislature.pdf

Pls post the links to 5 posts which exemplify the hatred "that can tear a nation apart" for investigation.

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As reported on Nairaland in 2017, the Federal University Of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB) banned the niqab, which is an Islamic dress that covers the entire body of a woman except her eyes. The reason for this was obviously to ensure that people on campus could be identified. They didn't ban the hijab, which covers a woman's face and neck, or the chador, which covers a woman's entire body except her face.

Recently, a former student of FUNAAB came to the university dressed in a the niqab. The security men insisted that she must remove her face-covering veil before she could enter university. Subsequently, the university confirmed that the niqab is banned at FUNAAB.

Now the Muslim Rights Concern, a very important muslim rights organization headed by Professor Ishaq Akintola, is challenging the niqab ban at FUNAAB. According to him, the niqab ban violates the freedom of religion guaranteed by the constitution, which says "Every person shall be entitled to freedom of ... religion ... to manifest and propagate his religion or belief", so it's illegal.

He said, "No institution of learning, from primary to tertiary, whether federal, state, or even private, has the right to prohibit the use of hijab or niqab. It is a contravention of the provisions of Section 38(i) & (ii) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended. To that extent, therefore, all anti-niqab pronouncements, memos, circulars, posters, etc issued by FUNAAB are null, void and of no legal effect whatsoever. Same goes for all such declarations and actions in other academic institutions throughout Yorubaland."

He provided a possible compromise to address the security concerns: "if the authorities are not just keen on profiling Muslims, all they need to do is to ensure that Muslim women wearing niqab or hijab are checked by female security personnel. Their identities can also be verified by female officials who will take them to one side and take a look at their faces and cross-check on their identity cards."

He called for muslim students to take action against the niqab ban, saying, "FUNAAB has crossed the red line. This oppression must stop and Muslim students have to take their destiny in their hands or the humiliation will continue ad infinitum. From now on, any institution in the South West that messes up with Allah-given fundamental human rights of Muslim students will face the wrath of the students." (peacefully)

Source: https://www.muricnigeria.com/funaab-ban-on-niqab-is-illegal-muric/

Lovenorth:
The locals are the ones contributing to the problem but they will come and blame the government later because of the hypocrisy

This particular spill looks like the fault of the oil company though. It's not the typical pipeline vandalism situation.

This is an open and shut case of infidelity. His wife knows that he's a serial cheat, and worse, she knows that everyone knows, which means that they won't respect her if she decides to stay with him. She cannot forgive him after all this publicity. RIP to this man's marriage.

Amotolongbo:
Give him money to do what?

For whatever he needs. Men who are rich give money to their wives all the time. If a man is rich and never helps his wife financially I don't think the marriage would work, but it's usually not an issue because men are expected to provide for their wives. I think she was the defacto breadwinner but as a woman society had not equipped her for the role so she failed at it. The same goes for the man. I bet he didn't know how to use seduction to extract cash.

The main problem was that she didn't give him money. Why would you marry a guy if you dont trust him with money?

What she called emotional and verbal abuse sounds like they were fighting but she wanted to make herself the sole victim. The husband should have handled it better. He is not entitled to her money. But I think the lady contributed more to the failure of her marriage than she realizes.

She speaks of trying to get him to aspire higher which means she was not satisfied with his professional and financial status. So why marry him if his level was not high enough for you? She could have just given him money from time to time like most men who are richer than their wives tend to do.

deji17:
The story no get source?

See my latest thread which contains a link to the entire report.

Farnesyl1989:
Headline and content are two parallel lines!! Content is telling us the Merriam Webster version of massacre!! Op you can do better! If anyone ask you to mention just at least one person who died, you'll be ranting!!

I mean:

Gbenga Sesan has made a copy of the recently submitted Lagos #EndSARS Judicial Panel Report available for download here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1sFvNF5pnW1HDLv9hN07EubXlYqkiJxrS/view

It's over 300 pages long. Many articles will be written about it tomorrow. Enjoy.

According to the following excerpt from the report of the Lagos #EndSARS Judicial panel, the Lekki Shooting of October, 20, 2020 was a massacre.

Whether there was a massacre at Lekki Tollgate on October 20, 2020.

The atrocious maiming and killing of unarmed, helpless and unresisting protesters, while sitting on the floor and waving their Nigerian flags, while singing the national anthem can be equated to a 'massacre' in context.

"A massacre has been defined as the killing of multiple individuals, which is considered to be morally unacceptable, especially when perpetrated by political actors against defenceless victims" - Wikipedia

The panel considered whether what took place at the Lekki Tollgate on the 20th October, 2020 was a MASSACRE. According to the learned authors of Merriam-Webster online dictionary, one of the meanings of massacre is "the act or instance of killing a number of usually helpless or unresisting human beings under circumstances of atrocity or cruelty.

Against the above ‘contextual’ definitions, the Panel considered the following evidence before it:
1. The EndSARS protesters at the Lekki Toll Gate were defenseless members of the civil populace, youth and young adults;

2. Both the Lagos State Government and indeed the Federal Government were well aware of their status, objectives and the nature of their protest;

3. The presence of protesters at the Lekki Toll Gate did not threaten the territorial integrity of Nigeria and could not be considered as a civil insurrection to warrant the intervention of the Nigerian Army;

4. Some top officials of the Lagos State Government met with the youths at the Lekki Toll Gate around 12-1pm of October 20, 2020, seeking selected representatives to discuss an urgent matter with them with a view to persuading them to leave the Lekki Toll Gate;

5. Officers and soldiers of 65 Batallion of the Nigerian Army, led by Lt. Col Bello, left their base with blank and live ammunitions to confront and disperse youths holding only their national flags, with live bullets;

6. The soldiers actually shot blank and live bullets directly and pointedly into the midst of the protesters at the Lekki Toll Gate, with the deliberate intention to assault, maim and kill;

7. The soldiers turned back ambulances that were invited to render first aid and assistance to the wounded protesters;

8. The Panel finds that the Nigerian Army had exited the Panel at the time of the testimony of the EndSARS protesters so that their testimonies and evidence were largely uncontroverted through contrary evidence from those accused of shooting, especially the Nigerian Army. The only witness of the Nigerian Army, Brigadier-General Taiwo admitted that he was not personally present at the Lekki Toll Gate on October 20, 2020.

9. The Panel finds that the cross-examinations of the EndSARS protesters by the Lagos State Government, Lekki Concession Company and the Nigeria Police Force did not impeach the direct evidence of the eye witnesses, whereas the evidence of the Lagos State Government, the Lekki Concession Company and the Police came from witnesses who stated that they were not at the Lekki Toll Gate on October 20, 2020.

10. It was alleged and corroborated that the soldiers had their vans parked at the Lekki Toll Gate and removed as many bodies and corpses of the fallen protesters which they took away with their vans. One of the protesters who was shot and taken for dead, Olalekan Sanusi, who eventually escaped to narrate his ordeal and experience stated that 11 corpses were in the van, where he was placed in and presumed dead. Miss Dabira Ayuku also corroborated the above by stating that she saw about 7 dead bodies placed in one of the military trucks at the Lekki Toll Gate on the night of 20th October, 2020.

It was alleged and corroborated that soldiers picked bullet shells on the night of October 20 and policemen followed up in the morning of October 21 to pick bullet shells.

12. Several unidentified bodies were removed by security agencies and LASEHMU (Lagos State Environmental Health Monitoring Unit) and deposited at various hospital mortuaries in Lagos State.

13. Three (3) trucks with brushes underneath were brought to the Lekki Toll Gate in the morning of October 21st October, 2020 to clean up the scene of bloodstains and other evidence.

14. There was abundant evidence before the Panel that the Lagos State Waste Management Authority (LAWMA) indicated in its Twitter handle that it had effectively cleaned up the Lekki Toll Gate scene immediately after the incident of October 20, 2020.

15. The denial of ambulances by the soldiers, which could have assisted in the prompt and effective treatment of injured protesters, was cruel and inhuman and it contributed immensely to the large number of deaths and casualties on the part of the protesters, especially those from the Lekki Toll Gate.

16. The Panel finds the cases of death or injured protesters as credible and uncontroverted.

17. The Panel finds that most EndSARS protesters and victims of the Lekki Toll Gate Incident of October 20, 2020 were largely unwilling to be identified in public for fear of persecution or harassment by the security agencies and the government generally. Immediately after the protest, there was palpable fear that the Army and Police were visiting hospitals to ‘finish up’ the protesters to the extent that some of them could not return home immediately. Some of the protesters received threats and some were being trailed by unknown persons.

The Lagos #EndSARS Judicial panel has published the names of the casualties of the army and police during the Lekki Tollgate Shooting/Massacre of 20-10-20. Their names are in the images below:

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SATANICALLY:
Coming from someone with no single female super moderator. I only know of Lalasticlala and Mynd44..

Hopefully, Seun would take his own advice and make the male to female ratio of his Super Moderators even..

We have 4 paid moderators. Mukina2 and Dominique are the females.

tsdarkside:
look...i dont understand....women are good in many other areas....

if nigerian women were that interested in politics,believe me nobody can stop them...
its nigerian women you are talkin about here....very strong head....

They would be more interested in politics if it wasn't dominated by men and the things men care about. If 50% of NASS was female the things females care more about such as how to ensure that all girls are allowed to go to school, how to take care of women and children in refugee camps, how to protect women from sexual assault and domestic violence, etc would be in the news more often and women would be more interested. In other words, women don't care about politics because politics is dominated by men and focused on men's issues.

tsdarkside:
and risk somebody like stella bra to have it easy to reach the top....??

noo....nigeria should have a system like china built on merrit and not because of penis or vagina....

There are many smart, capable, brilliant women who have never tried to contest for office because they know that the odds would be against them simply because they are women. My proposal, if implemented would level the playing field and thus motivate those brilliant women to get involved in politics.

DOTian:
Utopian..
It can be 70% women and 30% men, yet he who plays the piper dictates the tune.. It's like making igbos ministers while Buhari is still the president....What matters is that you put in place adequate legislative and policy structures to safeguard and enhance the forward movement of women in the society. Most floor managers in China are women, but they don't even make up to 1/3 of the politburo..

My proposal for executive roles like presidency is to make gender-mixed tickets compulsory by law. So a male presidential candidate will only be allowed to pick a female running mate and a female presidential candidate will only be allowed to pick a male running mate, by law. Same for governors. That way, if anything happens to the president or any governor, a woman will become the acting president or acting governor, and she might even be re-elected if she does a great job.

WesternOligarch:
This guy and his stupid liberal ideas, how would this reduce unemployment or even reduce gender inequality on a wider level? Rubbish.

1) We are a nation of laws. If 50% of the people making laws are women, then it will be very difficult to pass laws that are misogynistic because women won't vote for them. Male legislators seeking to have their bills passed will have to make them more women-friendly to win the votes of their female colleagues. Also, with the cooperation of enlightened lawmakers, bills that make life better for women will be easy to push through. That's the goal.

2) The existence of a large number of female legislators visibly fighting for women's rights will cause other Nigerian women to believe that they, too, can fight for their rights and win.

flokii:
I don't think Mr Seun understands the kind of country we are living in where muslim men want to hide their wives at home, fully kitted in hijab never to be seen on the streets.

Hardly will you see female senators or reps member from the North cos of their religious fanaticism. It's only Southern women that get the opportunity to contest, vote and be voted for due to a much liberal disposition in the South.

That is precisely the problem I am trying to solve. Nigerian women will never get proportional representation if it's not mandated by law. A lot of men (and some self-hating women) will do everything they can to frustrate women who try to rise to the top in politics. A legal mandate that 50% of legislators must be women is the proposed solution. Only 4.4% of lawmakers are women, which is unacceptable.

Legitimate concerns include the fact that constituencies will have to be merged to avoid increasing the cost of governance, and the difficulty of getting such a law passed by the same people who have been holding women back.

I just received the pictures below which show Bola Tinubu and Prof Yemi Osinbajo greeting and hugging each other as the vice president received the elder statesman in Aso villa. This seems to contradict the reports of a rift between them.

1 year of English language education plus a year of vocational training could make them productive.

Does it still work?

Interesting.

Body

The most idiotic thing I've read this year. Yet now that they are bold enough to say it out loud, it seems clear that they want to do it.

He should stop allowing himself to be sidelined like this. He needs to pick activities that are most relevant to Nigerians at this point in time.

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https://www.nairaland.com/6768218/female-lieutenant-pours-dirty-water discuss here!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rEOZEbKM5i4

Agba Jalingo, of Cross River Watch, reported about a female lieutenant who poured dirty water on a corps member after an argument:

This is what a commissioned female Army officer, Lt. Chika Viola Anele, did to a youth corp member, Ezeiruaku Ifeyinwa Fidelia, serving at the 13 Brigade headquarters in Calabar after having an argument.

We understand that the leadership in 13 Brigade are working to kill the matter. Let us make the officer very popular for all the wrong reasons.

Share the video until it gets to the Chief of Army Staff and that Chika girl is brought to book.
#JusticeForIfenyinwa
#SayNoToMilitaryBrutality
- Agba Jalingo

https://www.facebook.com/firstbabaisa/posts/10161377218424408

Other journalists have since reported that the abusive female officer has been arrested:

I just received a call from some officers of the HQ Nigerian Army, they assured me that this female officer has been detained and is being questioned by the Military Police. They assured me that she will be brought to book.
We are watching and following.

Baba Isa

https://www.facebook.com/firstbabaisa/posts/10161377374389408

Just after reading Firsts Baba Isa s post ,and expressing joy,i also got a call from Enugu.
.Major AAA of the public Relations dept, Nigerian army .
He spoke really well and gave his assurances that the Lt. Chika Viola is being brought to book.
He mentioned, that the Lt. Chika Anele must be going through some exuberance.
However,there are consequences for her actions ,which he further explained .She is currently detained,and this would be followed by a couple of processes . The good part is,the urgency with which the matter is handled .
Social media is a very useful tool ,let's use it as Citizens.
Agba Jalingo thanks for blowing the whistle

https://www.facebook.com/dianamary.nsan/posts/608693933816005