August 23, (THEWILL) -Senate President, Godswill Akpabio and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abbas, have pledged commitment of the National Assembly toward inclusion of more women in governance in the country.
THEWILL reports that the two leaders of the Nigerian National Assembly made the pledge on Wednesday, in their speeches at the International Conference on Women in Governance, organised by the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS), in Abuja.
On his part, Senate President, Akpabio, said the outcome of the 2023 General Election, in terms of the number of women elected into various positions, showed that more work needed to be done and that past efforts had not yielded the desired results.
“In recognition of this strategic importance of women, the renewed hope agenda of President Bola Tinubu provides for women’s empowerment.
“The policy document recognises that if Nigeria is to reach its fullest potential, every segment of the population must be given a fair chance to make their best contribution to the well-being and advancement of the country.
“The agenda highlights the specific need for social inclusion and political empowerment. In this regard, the President will work with the National Assembly to pass a law that promotes greater employment for women in all government offices, ministries and agencies to increase women’s participation in government to at least 35 percent.
“The legislation, when prepared, will also mandate the Federal Executive to reserve a minimum number of senior positions for women and the private sector shall also be strongly encouraged to do likewise.
“It is gratifying to note that the president has already achieved some milestones, with women constituting about 20 percent of the newly inaugurated cabinet.
“Although this falls short of the 35 percent affirmative action, it is a significant improvement from the previous cabinet, which had 15 percent women representation.
“In the coming months and years, the National Assembly will work closely with Mr President to achieve the lofty goals outlined in his agenda”, he said.
Akpabio said the senate would ensure that commercial banks in Nigeria provided support to women-owned businesses through concessionary loans and incentive schemes.
He also assured that the Red Chamber would prioritise the fight against domestic violence and abuse through specialist police units, promoting educational parity for the girl-child and improving the conditions of disadvantaged women through intervention programmes.
In his remarks, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abbas, assured that the House would do everything possible within its powers to ensure that women’s proper representation was brought to light.
Abbas said he understood the frustration of women following the rejection of the agenda bill by the 9th House of Assembly.
“That bill failed to pass because of the challenges of finding working modalities but the house will be revisiting the bill as part of our legislative agenda.
“We believe that working together with the women on stakeholders, we should be able to have a law that will benefit the women and all Nigerians to improve governance in Nigeria”, he said
