Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja
Civil Society organisations, Women’s rights advocates, governance experts and development partners met yesterday in Abuja to consider a proposal by the National Assembly’s Committee on Constitution Review to adopt Electoral College system in the conduct of election for additional seats for women in the country’s legislative chambers.
Convened by the Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre (PLAC) with support from European Union, the meeting sought to x-ray the implications of the proposed election mechanism for achieving increased women’s political representation in Nigeria.
Addressing the participants, the Executive Secretary of PLAC, Mr Clement Nwankwo, said there has been different suggestions and proposals on what should be contained in the special seats bill as well the process actualising special seats for women in legislative houses, both at the National Assembly level, Senate and House, and State House of Assembly as well.
He said, “An additional proposal now is to have these women elected on the basis of an electoral college. This is a proposal coming from the National Assembly.
“So the stakeholders gathering here today is to look at this proposal and provide our own thoughts and suggestions on on this proposal and examine it so that we can know whether it’s something that civil society fully supports, or and how we can ensure that if that is adopted by the National Assembly, that it is implemented in a way that addresses the question of women representation in politics and legislative houses,” he said
Nwankwo said the roundtable was a precursor to broader civil society engagement during forthcoming “Open Week” session by the National Assembly with the theme, “Three Years of the 10th National Assembly: Advancing Transparency, Inclusion and Reform, including together creation of Special Seats for women.”
He said yesterday’s meeting provided opportunity for the civil society to align its positions ahead of the engagement with the legislators.
The PLAC boss also said the meeting explored ways to build consensus on key issues including questions of transparency, inclusiveness and the effective participation in elective politics.
While making presentation, the Project Officer, Gender and Youth programme at the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) Geneva, Graca Samches, said participation of women in political decision-making has been a long-standing priority for the IPU.
She added that the organisation has worked with parliaments around the world to promote gender equality, strengthen women’s political participation, and support more inclusive democratic institutions.
