Rivers Assembly Backs Reserved Seats For Women Bill

The Rivers State House of Assembly (RSHA) says it is in support of the bill proposed more seats for women at the National Assembly and all the 36 States House of Assembly in Nigeria.

Speaker of the House Rt. Hon. Martin Amaewhule, gave the assurance recently when the “Women Educators Association of Nigeria”,  the coordinating organization for 100 women Lobby Group for the bill, paid him an advocacy visit in his office.

While responding to the request by the group for the State Assembly to support the bill, the Speaker stated that the support of the House is only natural, saying that the RSHA has already started it since the tenure or the immediate past Governor of the State, Nyesom Wike, who is currently the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

“Equitable representation of women in the political architecture stands without reasoning. It is inherent in Rivers State. Lobbying is not needed for us to support the bill because it’s something Rivers State has been doing.

“We started it under the tenure of Nyesom Wike as Governor, and it was extended to the Local Government Areas too”, he said.

He continued that “Rivers State will urge other  politically gender-biased  states to  support the bill.”

Earlier, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the group, Sylvia Briggs, intimated the Speaker on the bill for Reserved Seats for Women.

She said: “The Reserved Seats For Women initiative is not designed to take away anything from men, or reduce existing constituencies,  it is an additional seats to be congested for by women.

“The proposed constitutional amendment seeking to create special legislative sits exclusively for women is aimed at expanding political inclusion rather than displacing existing representation.”

Briggs explained that the Reserved Seats For Women simply means “additional seats, not redistribution of existing ones.

“This means the current 109 seats in the Senate will remain intact. What the bill proposes is the creation of 37 extra seats exclusively for women – 36 for the states and one for the Federal Capital Territory.”

In the same vein, the House of Representatives will have another 37 additional seats proposed, while at the State level, three seats would be reserved for women in each State House of Assembly – one person each per Senatorial District – amounting to 108 seats nationwide.