Baba-Ahmed Knocks Lawmakers Who Rejected Gender Bills

The spokesman of the Northern Elders Forum (NEF) has tackled federal lawmakers who voted against the gender bills during the constitutional review process on Tuesday.

Speaking in an interview on Channels Television on Wednesday, Baba-Ahmed said the rejection of the bills indicates that the legislature was waging war against women.

Baba-Ahmed pointed out that the National Assembly missed a golden chance to widen the scope of selection to accommodate women and youths.

The NEF spokesman asserted that the action of the lawmakers clearly shows that they don’t want to improve the quality of the constitution and leadership selection.

Naija News reports Baba-Ahmed spoke against the backdrop of the rejection of gender bills seeking to reserve some political offices exclusively for women during elections.

Speaking further, Baba-Ahmed said it is tragic that the parliament rejected the bills seeking to give women more opportunities in leadership and governance.

He said: “There were some key clauses that would have added substantially in terms of improving the quality of the constitution and the leadership selection.

“One of them, tragically, was the rejection of setting aside 35 percent of the elective positions for women. This is not for a country like Nigeria. The level of underrepresentation of women in key positions and decision making is tragic.

“It is really tragic. We have reduced women only to the role of the voters, basically. The political system has reduced everybody else, except the people that we elect, as spectators who are only relevant for the purposes of election. After that, the people we elect run away with power and do what they want with it.

“I was particularly saddened by the rejection. Every gender-based amendment was rejected. It was as if we had a legislature that was waging war against women.

“You have an extremely self-centered set of legislators. There are people who think any concession made to a critical group like women is power they lose. They read themselves into all these amendments rather than the interest of the public.

“If you don’t widen the scope for leadership selection, if you don’t allow a greater number of young people and women to emerge through the process, how else do you change the quality of leadership that we have?”