OrderPaperToday – The House of Representatives ad-hoc Committee on Constitution Review has adopted a proposal seeking for the creation of 111 additional legislative seats in the National Assembly to be occupied solely by women beginning from the next general election.
The House Committee also recommended the creation of two additional seats per senatorial zone reserve for women in state Houses of Assembly and the FCT.
Meanwhile, a proposition to create state police suffered another setback after 14 members voted against it while 11 members voted in support.
The adhoc committee, which chaired by Deputy Speaker, Ahmed Wase, however hinted that the provision adopted also sailed through in the Senate.
It however stepped down consideration of a proposal which tends to take away the powers of the National Assembly to ratify or domesticate international human rights treaties.
The committee amended Section 34 of the constitution to read “for the purpose of subsection 1(a) of this section, torture, inhuman or degrading treatment include parading arrested persons by the police or any other law enforcement agency.”
The following recommendations were reached at a meeting which was attended by consultants to the committee. It adopted changes to section 48, 49, 71, and 91 which deals with composition of the Senate, the House of Representatives and state Houses of Assembly to create additional seats for women.
However, the recommended law will create an additional Senate seat for women in each state of the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory and two additional seats for women in the 36 states and the FCT reserved for women.
The proposed piece of legislation further stipulates that these additional seats will be in addition to the existing seats in both the Senate, House of Representatives and state Houses of Assembly which women shall still be entitled to contest.
Again, the bill also proposes three additional seats for women in state Houses of Assembly to be produced on senatorial basis and will take effect from the next general election, after the life span of the current assembly.
The lawmakers also recommended that no Nigerian shall be discriminated against on the basis of sex, age, disability or health status.
The ad-hoc committee however stepped down consideration of the clause which deals with immunity for presiding officers of the National Assembly and state Houses of Assembly as well as judicial officers.
Wase, in his remarks, stated that the following recommendations are to be submitted to the entire House for adoption before the end of February and then it can be transmitted to the State Houses of Assembly for further consideration and adoption.
Recall that the bill seeking for additional seats for women was conceived by the deputy chief whip of House, Mrs. Nkeiruka Onyejeiocha (APC, Abia). It was however opposed by a cross section of Nigerians who participated in a poll by OrderPaper Nigeria.
