- As women leaders call on National Assembly to reconsider 5 Gender Bills
By Lillian Okenwa
Along with other women leaders, the Executive Director of WARDC, Dr Abiola Akiyode-Afolabi and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Law professor and former UN Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially women and children, Prof Joy Ezeilo have called on President Muhammadu Buhari to sign the sexual harassment bill before his exit on 29 May, while urging the 9th National Assembly to reconsider the 5 Gender Bills before their exit in the coming month.
On Tuesday 7 July 2020, Nigeria’s Senate passed the bill on sexual harassment in tertiary institutions after reading it for the third time. The bill titled: ‘A Bill for an Act to prevent, prohibit and redress sexual harassment of students in tertiary educational institutions and for matters concerned therewith, 2019’, was sponsored by the Deputy Senate President, Ovie Omo-Agege, and 106 other senators.
Sadly, the bill has been lying idle on the president’s desk even after the House of Representatives gave it a nod.
Likewise, on Tuesday, March 1, 2022, the beginning of International Women’s Month, the National Assembly rejected 5 bills seeking to promote more opportunities for women in political parties, governance and society.
But during a one-day knowledge-building roundtable for Nigerian media chiefs on the said bills and the 1999 constitution on Wednesday, the women leaders noted that NASS’ rejection of the Gender Bills is a rejection of Nigerian women and further amplified the oppression that our patriarchal society imposes on women.
The meeting was hosted by Women Research and Documentation (WARDC) in collaboration with Women Radio 91.7FM and the International Press Centre (IPC) with the support of United States Agency for International Development (USAID) through Palladium SCALE Project.
While Dr Akiyode-Afolabi presented a paper titled, ‘Beyond the five gender bills: The Unfinished Gender Business of the Buhari Administration’, Keynote Speaker, Prof Ezeilo in her presentation — Gender Bills: One Step Forward Ten Steps Back- Where Do We Go From Here?, remarked that: “The principle of equality and nondiscrimination is a normative framework protected under international law… [It] has assumed the status of jus cogens – that is part of customary international law for which no derogation is permitted.”
The law professor further disclosed that: “Municipal or domestic enforcement of international and regional treaties protecting the principles of equality and non-discrimination, including affirmative action to redress systemic discrimination is done through constitutional and other legal measures.”
Expressing concern that the Sexual harassment bill has been on President Buhari’s table for too long Akiyode-Afolabi, also counselled that the 9th National Assembly which has been strongly berated for deliberately missing an opportunity to etch its tenure in gold reconsiders its position on the bills.
Other speakers include Toun Okewale-Sonaiya, founder of Women Radio, who charged media practitioners to deliver social justice and be deliberate about reporting news on women; President of Women in Politics Chairperson, Ebere Ifendu, and Executive Director of International Press Centre (IPC), Lanre Arogundade who spoke on: ‘Strategy for Amplifying Women’s Agenda and Increasing Women’s Voices.
The five bills are:
- Bill to provide special seats for women at the national assembly.
- Affirmative action for women in political party administration.
- A bill to grant citizenship to foreign-born husbands of Nigerian women. Already, a Nigerian man’s foreign-born wife is automatically a Nigerian citizen.
- Bill to allocate 35 percent of political positions based on appointment to women and creation of additional 111 seats in the National Assembly and at the state houses of assembly.
- Inclusion of at least ten percent affirmative action in favour of women in ministerial appointments.
