By Jerry Olomolaye
The elected members of the National Assembly, Senator-elect, Ireti Kingibe (LP-FCT) and Rep. Chinwe Nnabuife (YPP-Anambra) have pledged to sponsor gender-related bills in the 10th National Assembly.
The lawmakers made the call in separate interviews in Abuja.
The duo decried the abysmal number of female parliamentarians elected into the 10th Assembly.
Kingibe, said that she has interacted with other female colleagues in the incoming National Assembly and have all agreed that the five gender bills rejected by the 9th Assembly would be revisited in the 10th assembly.
The rejected bills which seek to alter the Constitution include: bills 35, 36, 37, 38 and 68.
The aims of the bills were to provide: Special seats for women at national assembly; Affirmative action for women in political party administration.
Another bill also sought to allocate 35% of political positions based on appointment to women and creation of additional 111 seats in National Assembly.
According to Kingibe, most male senators have seen that those bills are necessary and should be revisited.
“Even they are embarrassed by the number of women in the Senate. So, I think that the bills were not well and adequately pursued to a logical conclusion, but as things are now, they are more likely to scale through.
“I’m very gender conscious and I intend to ensure that even in my zonal intervention programmes, there is a lot of empowerment for women.
“I believe women are the backbone of the family; the heart and soul of the society and if they are not fine, society can never be fine.
“I know if there were more women in governance, more women in policy making, this country will improve in terms of development and progress.”
Rep. Chinwe Nnabuife (YPP) Anambra said that the 10th assembly “doesn’t boast much of women and it is so appalling.”
Nnabuife who represents Orumba North/Orumba South Federal Constituency of Anambra, promised to make her impact felt in the House of Representatives.
“My impact will be felt. I’m going there to represent the teeming women of Nigeria. I’m going to introduce a lot of bills that will better the lives of women, youths, and indeed the general populace.”
On the only female contestant for Speakership position, Nnabuife said that “in as much as I would like to throw my weight behind women, but we are really disadvantaged because if in the other way round, we have more women there, we can gather our votes, it’s all about numbers.
“So, even if I want to contest, I don’t have the numbers. If I throw my weight behind a woman, at this point, I don’t think the time is right for us.
“We have a lot of chauvinists in the national assembly. If it’s a woman contesting for Deputy Speaker, then we can give it a shot, we are ready, but outnumbered,” she said.
The lawmaker further said that she would come up with bills that could boast Nigeria’s security.
“I will make laws that will boost the efficiency of our security agencies to perform optimally.
“I will also empower our youth through ICT, digital marketing, robotics, improve on agriculture to tackle youth unemployment and ensure that the youths are self-sustained.
