Nigeria’s lower house of parliament has rescinded its decision on three bills that it discarded at a constitutional amendment session.
The decision, announced by the House of Representatives on Tuesday, was a volte-face on parliament’s March 1 decision to reject the proposed bills. It will now reconsider the bills in a month when it reconvenes for another parliamentary session.
One of the amendments was to grant citizenship to foreign-born husbands of Nigerian women; the Nigerian constitution already confers automatic citizenship on foreign-born wives of Nigerian men. Another would have given a woman the right to become indigenes of their husband’s state after five years of marriage. The third provision was to assign 35 percent of legislative seats to women, as well as reserve 35 percent of political party leadership, for women.
The parliamentary decision came hours after women protested across three states and the commercial capital of Lagos on International Women’s Day. It was the second such protest within a week.In Lagos, women had gathered at the government secretariat at Ikeja, the city’s seat of power, singing loudly and chanting multiple grievances against society and government.
Stephanie Etiaka, a Lagos-based tech operations manager, said it was a march organised to create awareness that women are no longer sitting on the sidelines to demand to be included in government. She also said that the recent bills that have been turned down by the legislative arm of government are a slap to the face of Nigerian women, saying they know that the system is rigged against them and they are not doing anything to create inclusivity.
Experts and activists have pointed to a lack of women’s participation in government as a factor responsible for the downscaling of women’s rights, as well as a high rate of gender-based violence and economic inequality in Nigeria.
0
0
