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From Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja
The Founder of the TOS Foundation Chief Osasu Igbinedion-Ogwuche, has implored members of the National Assembly to support the Reserved Seat bill, to engender inclusive governance in the country.
Igbinedion-Ogwuche stated this, while speaking at a sensitization training with journalists, in Abuja, on the Reserved Seat bill, which is one of the proposal for the alteration of the 1999 Constitution ( as amended).
The proposed legislation is seeking the creation of six Senate seats, to be drawn from the six geo-political zones, 37 House of Representatives seats, from the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory ( FCT), as well as three state assembly seats per senatorial zone to be reserved exclusively for women.
Igbinedion-Ogwuche, who decried the low number of women in legislative houses, at both the national and subnational levels, said the Reserved Seat bill, if passed into law, will benefit the entire country immensely.
She noted that the inclusion of women in the parliament is more about the country, stating that “This is about Nigeria. It is not about women. You can not legislate for a people without the people with the lived experiences on the table.”
According to her, “only 54 women out of 993 state assembly members. Over 10 state assemblies do not have women at all. Something must change. As journalist you wield the power to change this. We need this to scale through.”
Igbinedion-Ogwuche, while recounting the challenges women go through to contest elections, said “we have seen women who have been beaten up and their dresses torn, just because they want to represent their people, because they believe that they are in strategic position to tell the stories of their communities.
“It is not because women don’t want to come out; but that when they do, the cost of doing is unnecessarily high. That is why this piece of legislation is very important.”
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