From Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Abuja
Deputy Chief Whip in the House of Representatives, Hon Nkiruka Onyejeocha, has appealed to women groups that have continued to occupy National Assembly to protest the March 1st rejection of the five gender bills in the ongoing amendments to the 1999 Constitution lawmakers, to rescind their decision, restrategise and allow the business of legislature to go on.
But in a swift reaction the women, led by Co-founder Womanifesto, Dr. Abiola Akiyode-Afolabi, who has been nicknamed, the general, has told her to parish the thought, declaring “no retreat no surrender.”
Both women spoke Thursday night at the launch of a new project “Advance: Women’s Political participation in Nigeria” by United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) and funded by the government of Canada for the upcoming four years.
Canadian Government is contributing 8 million Canadian dollars over four years for the advance women’s political participation in Nigeria project, which is aimed at increasing the participation, election and appointment of women in Nigeria.
The beneficiary states are Kaduna, Kwara, Borno, Ekiti, Ebonyi, Cross River and Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
The women during the protests have said the action of the lawmakers will draw them back by 20 years, urging them to rescind their decision and reconsider all five bills and pass them by March 31st, to end the women’s month on a good note.
Onyejeocha, while thanking women for their spontaneous reaction which has forced the house of reps to rescind its resolution and ready to reconsider three of the five gender bills (Indigeneship Bill, Citizenship Bill and the 35 per cent affirmative action on Political Parties’ bill), it earlier threw out during voting on 68 clauses of the Electoral Act Amendment Bill, said it’s time to engage saying the business of lawmaking has continued to suffer since the protest started.
She said: “So having said this, this is my own thought. I believe that women, there is no retreat, there is no surrender. But we still plead that our gates have been locked for weeks, that you should temper justice with mercy, while you still go on to negotiate, give the parliament ease of passage. I started the public hearing this week. The people could not have access because they did not know any other gate apart from the main gate of the National Assembly. And I believe that we are together in this that you should please revisit your decision. At least, let us now go back to the boardroom and discuss further. I believe that we can still get something out of it. Because the traditional rulers have spoken, the religious leaders have spoken, Nigerians have spoken, that we did not do well as parliament. And I believe that the Parliament will revisit this. But in revisiting, you should also shift your ground a bit. So that at least by Tuesday, let us have ease of passage. So that’s my thoughts on what has happened and what’s going on.”
Akiode-Afolabi, who spoke earlier, noted that for the first time, women have a movement comprised of civil society, women in business, market women, women in politics, altogether demanding for the Constitution that women want.
She said: “For the first time, we have a movement that is not only civil society, we have the women in business, we have market women, we have women in politics altogether, demanding for the Constitution that women want.
“Since 1999, when we started the issue of this constitution, women have been pushing back asking for the constitution to recognize the rights of women, and for the five different times that the Constitution has gone through one form of reforms, or the other, unanimously we have been demanding this five gender bills and more.
“So the five gender bills actually represent the minimum, there are still other issues in the Constitution that we were not able to get. So we thought, for goodness sake, why should citizenship be a big issue? Why should indegeneship be a big issue? It’s all about our identity as women. And that’s why we all decided to continue to occupy the National Assembly, until we get results.
“What we are demanding, it’s something that they can do and we want to congratulate the women in the House of Reps for supporting the cause and also pushing for a step back.
“So we have heard that they’re relisting the three bills, but what it also means is that when they relist they will need to vote for those three. So we are mobilizing, trying to get across to honorables at their different constituencies, and we hope that they will be able to vote and vote well this time around.
“I want to say and I want to reaffirm, we will continue to occupy the National Assembly until when we get the right answer. No retreat, no surrender.”