ENUGU, Nigeria (VOICE OF NAIJA) – The President of the Senate, Senator Godswill Akpabio, has said that the 10th National Assembly is determined to promote gender equity.
He stated this during the International Conference on Women in Governance organized by the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS) in Abuja on Wednesday.
The Senate President said some of the factors that have caused low turnout of women in governance include gender stereotypes and biases as well as the absence of modeling.
He further stated that he desired to see more women in governance but that it was easier to promote more women in appointive positions than elective positions.
Akpabio urged women to engage more in campaigns of gender equity values.
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He also charged the Director General of NILDS and other critical stakeholders to develop women-friendly policies to drive gender equity in governance.
Also speaking during the conference, the NILDS DG, Abubakar Sulaiman, said since 1999, women’s representation in governance has not exceeded 10 percent and expressed displeasure over the declining rate.
He described the statistics of women in the national assembly as worrisome while stating that only three per cent of women are in the Senate and four percent in the House of Representatives.
However, Sulaiman, committed to deepening democratic culture and promoting gender-sensitive legislation in Nigeria.
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The Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Nkeiruka Onyejeocha, in her speech, charged the leadership of the National Assembly to set the tone for gender equality legislation.
Onyejeocha appealed that the affirmative and gender quota bills whose passage failed in the Ninth National Assembly should be reviewed and considered for passage.
Dignitaries present at the event were Deputy Senate President, Barau Jubrin; the wife of the former governor of Ekiti State, Bisi Fayemi; and women parliamentarians from Uganda, Kenya, and South Africa, among others.