Borno women demand reserved positions in politics

Women in Borno state have called on the state government to mandate the reservation of special portfolios both at the state and federal levels.

The women, under the aegis of Women Political Participation Working Group, made the demand in the late hours of Thursday during a Consultative meeting of Women Advocacy Groups in preparation for the Zonal Public Hearing on Review of the 1999 Constitution in Maiduguri, Borno state

The Chairperson of the Women Political Participation Working Group, Aisha Abubakar, while speaking, said the bill for seat reservation, which has been prepared, is set to be presented at the Zonal public hearing on constitutional review

She said, “The bill is all about having a reserved seat for women so that women can contest favourably and confidently for seats.

Initially, contesting with men is not easy because of reasons like political, social, economic and other factors. Now, if we have this reserve seat, it means they will be basically reserved for us to contest”

While citing an instance, she said, “We have 27 LGAs in Borno state, and 28 members House of Assembly, so going forward there will be additional members.

“Those additions will be reserved for women. This will also include senatorial district, where we have three, so it is now going to be four, which means the additional one is for women.”

Also speaking, the Senior Programme Manager, Elections for Kimpact Development Initiative, Umar Dan’Assabe said the bill is timely and will encourage inclusive governance in Borno state and Nigeria at large.

“The reason we are here is to have a conversation with the proponents of the special seat bills, which is currently at the public hearing stage

“This bill is particularly important for Nigeria because since the coming of the Nigeria fourth republic in 1999, we have seen women representation especially in the parliament doing good, but the situation we are right now is very terrible, for instance in the Nigerian senate, out of 109 senate, we have just four senators that are elected and that are women. This is unacceptable.”

He added, “if the bill is passed, we now have women who constitute 47.5 of the voting population in Nigeria have a space in the decision-making table.”

While giving the breakdown of the provision in the bill for Borno state, he said, *In the Senate, women will have one reserved seat, House of Representatives, they will have another one, in the state House of Assembly, they will have three.”

Reacting to the bill, the Director, Women Affairs and Gender in the state Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development, Falmata Lawan, commended the initiative while stating the state government’s support for gender inclusivity.