The House of Representatives on Tuesday, July 9, passed for Second Reading, a Constitution Alteration Bill to provide Special Seats for women in the National and State Houses of Assembly (HB 1349). The bill is sponsored by the Deputy Speaker, Rt. Hon. Benjamin Kalu and 12 other members of the House. It proposes the creation of one additional legislative seat to be contested by women only for each State and the the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) in the Senate and House of Representatives, which would total 74 seats. It further proposes three special seats for women each at the 36 State Houses of Assembly totalling 108 women only seats. The bill has been referred to the Committee on Constitution Review for further legislative action.
This bill was first introduced in the 9th National Assembly and sponsored by Hon. Nkeiruka Onyejeocha and 85 other members, including the former Speaker of the House, Rt. Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila. It was one of what was known as the five “gender bills” on constitution alteration that had sought to address women issues in the fifth constitution alteration exercise of the 9th Assembly. However, it failed to pass when it came up for voting in March 2022.
The bill at the time had proposed 111 seats at the federal legislature, i.e., three special seats for women in each State and one in the FCT in the Senate and House of Representatives. The current bill (HB 1349) however reduces this to 74 in response to concerns raised about having a bloated legislature. It has a provision mandating its review and possible termination after 16 years.
This bill is a response to the low numbers of women in the legislature in Nigeria. Currently, there are only 4 women Senators and 16 women Representatives in the 469-member National Assembly. At the States, only about 55 women occupy elective positions in the State Houses of Assembly out of a total of 990 legislative seats. This appalling statistic is further highlighted in the Interparliamentary Union’s (IPU) ranking for women in national parliaments where Nigeria occupies a very unimpressive position of 178 out of 182.
A closer look at this index shows that Nigeria sits above only two African countries – Niger Republic and Eritrea. Niger is currently led by a military government after a coup in July 2023 while Eritrea has not held elections since 1994. This leads to the question of why Nigeria, the West African hegemon, is occupying the lowest positions in Africa along with these countries? What is our reason for failing to ensure that women are part of decision making and that governance is inclusive of a group that makes up nearly half of the Nigerian population. The reasons are many – cultural, religious, economic and institutional. This bill addresses the fourth reason.
Very few women have been elected to political positions since the 1999 general elections and in subsequent general elections. There has been a steady decline since 2007 when there were about 36 women in the National Assembly (9 in the Senate and 27 in the House of Reps). This is the best record so far, and even then, women were less than 10% of the National Assembly.
The gender imbalance in elective positions does not appear problematic to many because it has become a permanent feature of Nigeria’s political system. For those who understand that it is a problem, there is the question of what to do and how. Women groups have canvassed for 35% affirmative action in elective and political positions, which the National Gender Policy recognises. However, there has been resistance to the implementation of a policy that would require political parties to set aside 35% of slots for female candidates because it would involve male candidates giving up their seats or existing constituencies fielding only women in elections in order to meet up with the target. Such arrangements are best suited for countries operating a proportional representation system of government where parties win parliamentary seats in accordance with the votes won in elections.
To address this, the bill was proposed as a way of ensuring that women actually contest and win seats to the legislature without threatening seats already held by men. This proposal is not novel. It is a Temporary Special Measure (TSM) that is used to remedy the low representation of women in elective positions. Also known as seat reservations or women-only constituencies, they are commonly adopted in countries using a First-Past-the-Post electoral system e.g., Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda. The idea is to not only help women develop political experience, structures and networks to be able to compete but also to ensure that women’s voices are part of decision making, which is ultimately beneficial to citizens.
Currently more than 130 countries worldwide have adopted some type of special measure (or electoral quota system) to address women’s under-representation. Strikingly, the majority of Nations that have adopted special measures/quota systems are low or middle-income countries – many of them in Africa.
At the second reading of the bill, opponents such as Ghali Tijani (NNPP: Kano), Olamijuwonlo Alao-Akala (APC: Oyo), Billy Osawaru (APC:Edo) and Patrick Umoh (APC:Akwa Ibom) argued that the bill was undemocratic and discriminatory to men. They also expressed the view that candidates should be chosen solely on their merits rather than their gender, and that women should mobilise to vote for women. These objections would be valid if there was a level playing field in politics and women actually succeeded in primaries. Political parties shape candidate recruitment and ultimately election results, so if a woman is not on the ballot, the question of her mobilising other women to vote for her cannot arise.
The reality is that the electoral environment is often biased against female candidates. Reports document widespread stereotypes and general skepticism about the appropriateness or ability of a woman to wield political power. The language around campaigns and elections reinforces cultural expectations that politics is a masculine space, and this is reinforced by the high levels of aggression and violence seen during elections.
A vox pop carried out by PLAC revealed that men were more open to supporting their wives or female relatives for appointive positions because it is not accompanied by the violence and vitriol seen in elections, which basically shows that they are in agreement that it is not a safe space for women. Even then, the number of women in appointive positions is less than 35%.
Also, women are still responsible for the majority of childcare and household tasks therefore for some, seeing a woman contest for elections is a challenge to cultural norms and an abdication of her responsibility. There is also the issue of women lacking access to resources and money which are needed to win elections.
As long as these issues persist and women fail to make it to the ballot, then the view that women can compete with men on equal footing in the current electoral environment as we know it, remains wishful thinking. Worse still, these are issues that cannot be addressed in the short term.
To advance women’s representation and leadership in Nigeria, there is need to complement existing efforts to build women’s capacities and level the playing ground with innovative strategies such as the one being proposed by the Special Seats Bill.
It is noteworthy that the debate at the second reading revealed a poor understanding of the contents of the bill by lawmakers. A lot of awareness is needed around the bill if it is to succeed. PLAC will be closely following the progress of the bill and advocating for its passage.