From Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Abuja
Nigeria women under the auspices of WOMENIFESTO are planning to occupy the National Assembly (NASS) again to force its leadership, the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives to convene a meeting to discuss and reverse the wrong done to women at the National Assembly (NASS), on 1st of March 2022 by rejecting five gender bills.
Country Director of ActionAid Nigeria, Ene Obi, made the disclosure at the weekend as the Nigeria joined the global community to flag off activities of the 16-Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence to commemorate 2022 with the theme: “Unite! Activism to end Violence Against Women and Girls.”
According to her, although “we occupied National Assembly we have not conquered but we can occupy again.”
The five rejected gender bills are: The indigeneship to allow women who are married to an indigene of a state, different from her state of origin to stand for elections in a husband state. The citizenship bill to allow women in Nigeria to confer citizenship rights to their foreign spouses in the same way that men are able to do. The additional seats for women bill to create 111 additional seats for women in the House and Senate, the affirmative action for women in political party administration bill to allow a minimum of 35% representation of women in party administrative positions and the affirmative action in the appointment of ministers and commissioners bill to allow for a minimum of 10% representation of women ministerial appointments and as commissioners.
Obi, who thanked Nigerian women, international organizations for their support in making the first occupy NASS led by the Co-convener, Womenifesto, Dr Abiola Akiyode-Afolabi,
Recall on the 8th of March 2022, the House of Representatives took a historic step to rescind three of the gender bills which were voted down on the 1st of March 2022 when 68 bills were considered for constitutional alteration.
On the 22nd of March 2022, a delegation from the House of Representatives led by the Majority Leader, Hon. Alhassan Ado Doguwa, had met with over 2,000 women and made the commitment that the House of Representatives will re-present the three gender bills popularly known as “women and vulnerable person bills’ for votes within seven (7) legislative days. The seven (7) legislative days elapsed on the 11th of April 2022 but the decision of the House of Representatives yet to be known.
The ActionAid Country Rep while thanking the different women groups, international organizations as well as the European Union and the Canadian Embassy for providing support to the women during the occupy NASS, said this time around it will be better planned to yield the expected result.
She said: “Congratulation to the Nigerian women. We occupied National Assembly and we have not conquered but we can occupy again.”
Obi added: “We did the occupy of NASS, it was not something we planned for, it was a spontaneous thing. We have time now to plan and go and occupy again. We need to occupy again.
“We are calling on the development partners for support but when we call on Nigerian women…some people brought only two cartons of water, some people couldn’t stay but contributed what they could.
“I’m calling on you again, this particular assembly still has a couple of months to go, we need to occupy again and organise better.
“I salute the women of this country and the local women that despite the sun remained. We will go again because we are all standing on behalf of our sisters. We are losing women to maternal mortality like no other country in the world and the country has not declare war.”
The ActionAid Country Rep also called on President Muhammadu Buhari to fulfilled his 28th of August 2018 promise that if he wins a second term in 2019, he would give 40 percent representation to Nigerian women.
She said: “We call on the President of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari who made a promise to Nigerian women on the 28th of August 2018, that if he wins a second term in 2019, he was going to give 40 percent representation to Nigerian women. It is still a promise, he has not made it (fulfilled it), we are not seeing it because we need to see the action. He still has about eight months to go, we are waiting on him and calling on him because we know he can do better.”
She also spoke on National Bureau of Statistics latest data that 133 million Nigerians are multidimensionally poor.
Obi said: “They have just rolled out statistics, that 133 million Nigerians are leaving below the poverty line, that is the statistics as at February 2022. You remember that the World Bank pulled out a data that says 95.1 million Nigerians would be poor in 2022 but with this data of 133 million, you can now see that between February to now before the flood went out, we had 31 states under the water, you can only imagine what is happening to women. When you are in the flood, women are still living their lives.
“You say no woman no naija even when you say global population has reached an estimated 8 billion, it means that women pushed out 8 billion children, is either they pushed them out or they went under the knife just for humanity.“