From July 7 to 10, 2025, the House of Representatives in collaboration with the Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre (PLAC) and support from partners such as the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development office (FCDO)\u00a0 held the second edition of the NASS Open Week \u2013 a three-day event aimed at demystifying the legislature and strengthening public trust. Held at the National Assembly complex in Abuja, the event brought together lawmakers, citizens, civil society groups, development partners, students, and media in a rare space for direct engagement with the people\u2019s representatives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With exhibitions, policy dialogues,\nand panel sessions, the Open Week spotlighted the work of the House while\noffering citizens a front-row seat to legislative priorities. One session in\nparticular that witnessed a huge attendance was the panel on the Special Seats\nBill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That session brought together NASS\nlegislators, women legislators from the State Assemblies and other prominent\nwomen leaders to discuss proposed constitutional amendments aimed at improving\nthe political representation of women. PLAC\u2019s Executive Director, Clement\nNwankwo, underscored the urgency of inclusion as a pillar of democratic\ncredibility. Other speakers echoed this call, framing the bill as a\nlong-overdue correction to Nigeria\u2019s deep representation gap and signaling\nbroad support for moving the reforms forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While the event earned praise for\nits coordination, some civil society actors offered a note of caution. They\nwarned that the value of Open Week risks being symbolic if it doesn\u2019t lead to\nmeaningful legislative outcomes. Calls were made for follow-through such\nas turning recommendations from panel discussions and public feedback into\naction, and ensuring that civic engagement is not limited to a once-a-year\naffair.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Still, the 2025 NASS Open Week\nstands out as a welcome effort to bridge the distance between the legislature\nand the people. Whether it becomes more than a photo op will depend on what\ncomes next. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
From July 7 to 10, 2025, the House of Representatives in collaboration with the Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre (PLAC) and support from partners such as the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development office (FCDO)\u00a0 held the second edition of the NASS Open Week \u2013 a three-day event aimed at demystifying the legislature and strengthening public trust. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3903,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3899","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3899","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3899"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3899\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3904,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3899\/revisions\/3904"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3903"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}