From Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Abuja
President Bola Tinubu has been called upon by stakeholders and civil society organisations to do more for women.
The request was made during a media dialogue on Saturday, April 6, 2024, which was hosted by Women Radio 91.7 FM in honour of the historic ruling on 35% affirmative action that was made two years prior.
The consensus of the media dialogue is that the government must implement in full its own National Gender Policy that has been further made mandatory through the 6 April 2022 landmark judgement in favour of Nigerian women.
In a statement issued by Blessing Agbeetan of Women Radio 91.7, the National President of FIDA, Amina Agbaje, expressed regret over the Tinubu-led administration’s decision to appoint fewer women as ministers. She further stated that women ought to be appointed to political positions if they were deemed competent enough to cast ballots and campaign in elections.
She added that there is a need to sustain and continue the demand for more women’s representation.
Rasheedat Medupin of Sustainable Gender Action Initiative (SGAI) stated that the government needs to partner with civil society organisations to intensify efforts to implement the 35% affirmative action and also make Nigeria a nation where women’s voices are heard.
Medupin, who appealed to the Tinubu-led government to uphold the judgement of 6 April 2022 by appointing more women into positions, added that Nigeria needs to accept women as accomplished leaders and ensure that gender policies are implemented.
According to Marshal Abubakar of Falana & Falana Chambers, the government must be reminded to obey the rule of law of judgement of 6 April 2022.
He urged Nigerian women to go back to court to get the judgement enforced should the Tinubu administration fail to uphold the judgement, while also calling for the need to engage with stakeholders at the national assembly to canvass for constitutional amendment to allow women occupy more seats.
Ngozi Nwosu-Juba of Vision Spring Initiatives emphasised the need to involve more women at grassroots and return back to court to get the judgement enforced.
Nwosu-Juba recommended that the ongoing constitutional review should be taken advantage of to revisit the 5 gender bills to make up for the lack of women in governance.
Zainab Yahaya Tanko of Nigerian Women Trust Fund stated that women have the numbers and must be adequately represented, while also calling for the need to intensify efforts until the judgement is implemented.
In 2020, a group of Nigerian civil society organisations led by Nigerian Women Trust Fund took the government of Nigeria to court seeking an injunction to compel the government to implement the 35 percent affirmative action as contained in the National Gender Policy which was adopted by the government in 2006.
On 6 April 2022, the case was won by Nigerian women with pro bono support from Falana and Falana Chambers.