Rejected Gender Bills: NASS Missed A Chance To Redesign Nigeria’s Political Landscape – Obaseki

The Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki, has said that the National Assembly has missed a golden opportunity to redesign Nigeria’s political landscape by rejecting the gender bills.

The National Assembly on Tuesday rejected all women-related bills including the one seeking to give at least ten slots to women as ministers and commissioners in the federal and state governments.

Obaseki in his reaction on Thursday said the rejection of the bills is heartbreaking and regrettable.

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“It is heartbreaking that the National Assembly members missed a golden opportunity to redesign Nigeria’s political landscape by enshrining landmark legislation that promotes inclusion and provides women with the legal backing to gain equitable representation at the apex level of lawmaking and political participation.

“This is because the legislature is the bastion of democracy and a critical platform for fair representation and inclusion in government,” the governor said.

He added that it is painful and unconscionable that these bills which provide a fillip for accommodating women who make up more than 50% of the voting population, are subjected to such sorry fate.

He said: “In Edo State, we have a healthy mix of women in our cabinet, as they occupy more than 30 percent of positions of commissioners and Special Advisers in government.

“Edo people hope that their own representatives at the National Assembly did not vote along the lines of disenfranchising their women population because to do so will mean that they do not care about those who sent them to represent them at the Assembly.

“Our administration has continued to provide women with the opportunity to take up important roles in governance