Reserved Seats For Women Bill

Nigeria cannot claim to be a functioning democracy when half its population holds less than five percent of legislative seats. This is the sad reality that confronts the 10th National Assembly as it considers the Reserved Seats for Women Bill. And for once, there is reason to be hopeful.

First Lady Senator Remi Tinubu has taken the unusual step of convening National Assembly members to rally support for this legislation at a moment when the nation needs it most. The question is whether our lawmakers will rise to the occasion or allow this historic opportunity to slip away.

The numbers tell a damning story. Women constitute nearly 50 percent of Nigeria’s population yet occupy a pitiful 54 seats across 990 positions in State Houses of Assembly. Fifteen states have no female legislators at all. In the current National Assembly, only 15 women serve in a chamber of 469 members.

In our view, this is not just embarrassing on the global stage where Nigeria ranks among the worst countries for women’s political representation. It is a governance failure that affects every Nigerian because laws made without women’s perspectives inevitably overlook critical issues affecting families, healthcare, education and social welfare.

The Reserved Seats Bill proposes a straightforward solution: create 37 additional Senate seats, 37 House of Representatives seats, and three seats per state in State Assemblies to be contested exclusively by women. These are not handouts or favours. They are separate constituencies designed to level a playing field that has been tilted against women for decades through political gatekeeping, funding gaps, cultural stereotypes, unfair nomination processes and outright electoral violence.

The measure would be temporary, subject to review after 16 years or four election cycles, by which time one hopes the political culture would have shifted enough to make such provisions unnecessary.

It is instructive to note that the bill does not take away existing seats from men. It adds new ones specifically for women to contest among themselves. This is no different from the federal character principle that guides appointments and admissions across Nigeria, recognising that left to pure “merit” or “competition,” structural advantages would perpetuate historical imbalances indefinitely.

What makes this moment different from previous failed attempts at reform is the active involvement of the First Lady . At her recent dinner with National Assembly members, she made it clear this was not a social gathering but a strategic intervention.

“The 10th assembly will go down in the history of our legislature as the set that stood for women, when it counted the most,” she told lawmakers. Her timing is deliberate. Coming on the heels of renewed concerns about girl-child education and the Almajiri system, Senator Tinubu connected women’s representation to broader questions of national security and child welfare.

Her argument deserves attention.

Women who have lived through the trauma of insecurity, who have lost children to kidnapping, who manage households in conflict zones, bring perspectives that cannot be replicated by well-meaning men. Vice President Kashim Shettima, himself a former legislator, acknowledged this at the dinner when he noted that women’s empathy is essential for legislating appropriately on security issues. “The heart of a mother cannot be wrong,” he said.

This is not abstract theory. Countries that have implemented similar provisions have seen measurable improvements in legislation addressing maternal health, child welfare, education and family law. Rwanda, which leads Africa with 61 percent female parliamentary representation, uses reserved seats as part of its approach. So do Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Lesoto and Burundi.

These are not radical feminist experiments but pragmatic governance reforms that have worked. Nigeria would not be pioneering untested waters but joining a proven model adapted to our federal structure.

The objection that women should “compete like men” ignores how Nigerian politics actually works. Political parties are controlled by godfathers who demand enormous financial commitments that few women can meet. Campaign costs have spiralled beyond the reach of most citizens, male or female, but women face additional barriers. They must navigate cultural expectations that politics is a male domain, religious interpretations that women should not lead, and the ever-present threat of violence during campaigns and elections.

These are not excuses but documented realities that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and civil society organisations have chronicled for years.

Senate President Godswill Akpabio, in his remarks at the First Lady’s dinner, insisted the gathering should not be misconstrued. But misconstrued as what? An attempt to influence legislation? That is precisely what it should be. The executive engaging the legislature on matters of national importance is how democracy functions. What would be scandalous is if the First Lady remained silent on an issue this consequential while possessing both the moral authority and political capital to make a difference.

The 2008 Justice Mohammed Uwais Electoral Reform Committee recommended additional legislative seats for marginalised groups including women. That was 17 years ago. How many more reform committees, how many more studies, how many more international rankings showing Nigeria at the bottom must we endure before acting? The data is clear, the model is proven, the political will exists at the highest levels of government, and the National Assembly has the power to make it happen.

Some will argue this is not the most urgent issue facing Nigeria given security challenges and economic hardship. But that argument assumes governance is zero-sum, that we can only solve one problem at a time. The truth is that better representation leads to better legislation which leads to better governance outcomes across all sectors. When legislators better reflect the population, laws better serve the population. It is that simple.

The 10th National Assembly has a choice. It can be the assembly that finally corrected Nigeria’s shameful record on women’s representation, or it can be yet another in a long line of assemblies that talked about reform without delivering it.

The ball is now squarely in the court of the National Assembly. This bill must pass. Not someday, but in this legislative session. Not as a favour to women, but as an overdue correction to a democracy that has functioned with half its brain tied behind its back. If not now, when? If not this assembly, which one?