The Federal House of Representatives, have disclosed that the reason why the bill seeking special seats for women in the legislature and other women-related bills failed.
Speaking during his weekly press briefing, Spokesperson of the Federal House of Representatives, Hon. Benjamin Kalu said differences in societal beliefs contributed to the failure of the bill.
Hon. Kalu said as a people, the nation cannot play down on issues of religious beliefs and cultural dispositions.
While appreciating the wives of the President and Vice president for visiting the National Assembly to lobby for the bill to be paased, he said the lobbying was not done early enough.
In his words; “I want to tell you that the lobbying that was done was not done in vain. That is why I commend these people who visited the National Assembly. That is the beauty of democracy. If it was not, the wives of the President and the Vice- President had no business coming here.
“They knew that it was only through the lobby and not as they have described us before as a rubber stamp. So, they participated in that lobbying process.
“But I must say that this lobbying was done a bit late. The advocacy for this was supposed to have started longer than now. You don’t lobby two days to voting on a very important issue like this. It goes beyond lobbying at the last minute. It takes a lot of orientation and advocacy as well as sensitisation to enable people to buy into this all-important agenda.
“You cannot play down on our current issues as an emerging democracy, one of which is our religious belief and cultural disposition because these things play roles. We are part of the society.
“Our religion and culture are part of the society and there is the need for serious advocacy. We need civil society organisations and women groups to push this forward because it is a wonderful agenda. But you need people to buy-in from the constituents and not just the representatives.
“Nigerians are shifting the focus to the representatives and the senators. It was not the Senators and the Representatives that did the job. It was the instruction from their various constituents. That is the truth that must be told.
“If the House as an institution was not interested in this agenda, It would not have passed the first and second reading and be allowed to go to the committee level. It means that the institution gave it all it needed to succeed. But there is the job of selling it as a way of changing our long-standing cultural and religious disposition which you cannot wave away.
“It takes time. It has started well and we will keep pushing. Most of the nations we are using to compare Nigeria started somewhere. Now that this agenda has been stimulated in the mind of Nigerians, let us not stop there.
“Let the CSOs not give up, let the women not give up, but leverage on the miles they have achieved so far in pushing for this agenda. It is not yet over.
“Like I always say, the amendment of the constitution, there will always be a time for another review. America has reviewed its constitution about 28 times. What failed now may succeed next time because the sensitization has started and I commend all the role players. Do not see the work you have done as a waste, but as a seed that has been planted in the mind of Nigerians.
“You are right that women need to participate more. But in doing that, the structuring of this participation must be done in a way that will be democratic and not sexist. It is important that you know that our laws must be structured.
“Democracy does not know a man and a woman, but blind to sex and gender. Whether you are a man or woman contesting, democracy does not see you, but the people.
“While we want our people to participate more, the structuring must be done in a way that it will be democratic so that somebody will not go to court and contest it does not reflect the full definition of democracy. Our laws say it should not be discriminatory in any way.
“I commend the women and I assure you that we are on your side.”
