RESERVED SEATS BILL: TOOL TO REPAIR DECADES OF EXCLUSION -NILOWV
The Nigerian League of Women Voters (NILOWV) Abia State, made a positive impact at today’s Public Hearing by House of Representative Committee on Review of Constitution for South East Centre B at Eze Imo Palace, in Owerri, Imo State.
Justifying the need to pass HB 1349 Bill for Reserved Seats for Women, the Chairperson, Hon. Mrs. Blessing Nwagba, PhD said “I don’t just stand here before you as the Chairperson of NILOWV, Abia State. I stand here as a mother, a sister and a leader …a patriot burdened with the hope of millions of Nigerian women whose voices remain locked outside the gates of decisions making.”
Noting that NILOWV Abia State came to Imo State not with complaints, but with conviction, not with entitlement, but with evidence, not with emotion alone, but with message, she opined that the time to reflect the full face of democracy” is now.
The Chairperson who commended the magnanimity of Rt. Hon. Ben Kalu for sponsoring the bill said this gesture is highly commendable.
Insisting that the bill is not just the women’s bill but the people’s bill posited that the proposed reserved seats bill is not token seats but “tool to repair decades of exclusion”.
Hon. Nwagba, PhD who recalled the series of town hall meetings and advocacies engaged by NILOWV in the last two months, thanked the UN Women for sponsorship of the advocacies on the reserved seats bill.
Also present to lend voices to the need to pass the bill were the National Council of Women Societies, the International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA) and the ElectHer among others.
