Group to launch advocacy campaign on passage of gender bill cluster

A women’s group comprising of Women Advocates Research and Documentation Center (WARDC), Womanifesto, National Coalition on Affirmative Action (NCAA), Gender and Constitution Reform Network (GCRN), SAGE, and Gender Mobile is set to launch an ‘Advocacy Hashtag and Signature Campaign’, aimed at promoting the passage of the five gender bills in Nigeria.

It said the campaign addresses key gender gaps in the 1999 Constitution.

In a statement signed by Dr Abiola Akiyode-Afolabi Founder/Executive Director WARDC, the group said the advocacy is done to ensure adequate awareness of the deficiencies in the constitution and to draw the attention of lawmakers and the public to the need to have a representative constitution.

“Women’s representation in leadership roles is dishearteningly low, both in elective and appointive positions. Despite being half of the population and voters’ register, the numbers remain dismal.

“The constitution itself contains provisions that perpetuate gender bias, such as the silent stance on women’s rights to confer citizenship.

“There is an urgent need to address these disparities and ensure gender equality and inclusion of women in all spheres of life,” the statement reads.

The five gender bills are: Bill to provide special seats for women in national assembly, affirmative action for women in political party administration- 35 percent of executive positions, and bill seeking to grant citizenship to foreign-born husbands of a Nigerian woman.

Others are: bill on indigen-ship- married women should have a choice on a state of origin and have access and lastly inclusion of at least ten percent affirmative action in favour of women in Ministerial appointments.

“In 2022, the 9th National Assembly threw out these bills, Womanifesto, a feminist non-political, women-focused group with over 500 organisations across Nigeria, led the protest against the National Assembly after the bills were rejected.

“The gender cluster group was formed after this rejection and has also continued with advocacy visits and media awareness on the bills and their impact on Nigerian women,” the statement added.

To this end, the group stressed that the campaign will help ignite public discourse through the hashtags and signature campaign launch, targeting various stakeholders, including political leaders, legislators, women in politics, and the general public.

 

READ ALSO FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE