The House of Representatives has proposed a constitutional amendment that would reserve seats for women and Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) in the National Assembly.
If the plan sails through, 83 new seats will be added: 55 in the House of Representatives and 28 in the Senate, exclusively for women. This would raise the number of seats in the House from 360 to 415, and the total number of seats in the National Assembly from 469 to 552.
Speaker of the House, Hon. Tajudeen Abbas, unveiled the proposal on Monday during the opening of the 2025 House of Representatives Open Week and the launch of the 10th House Midterm Legislative Scorecard in Abuja.
He explained that the goal is to permanently enshrine gender and disability representation in the Constitution. “These reserved seats will be filled through direct elections on separate ballots and spread across the states to ensure regional balance,” he said.
Additionally, five per cent of current seats would be set aside for persons with disabilities, with candidates nominated by certified disability advocacy groups.
Looking back at history, Abbas said women have been consistently underrepresented in the legislature.
“At Independence in 1960, women occupied less than one per cent of parliamentary seats. By 1990, it had only risen to two per cent. In 1999, women held just 3.9 per cent in the House and four per cent in the Senate. Today, despite constituting half the population, women’s representation remains stagnant,” he lamented.
While highlighting the performance of the 10th House at midterm, the Speaker noted that 2,263 bills had been introduced in the past two years. Out of those, 1,478 had passed second reading, 237 were sent for Presidential assent, and 55 were signed into law by President Bola Tinubu.
The House also held over 1,000 committee meetings, visited more than 300 project sites, and monitored over 200 Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs), leading to fund recoveries and policy corrections. So far, it has received 621 public petitions: 24 resolved, 30 dismissed, and 567 still under review.
The Speaker reaffirmed the House’s commitment to tackling key national issues like state policing, natural resource control, transparency in public finance, and human rights.
He also promised to work with the state Houses of Assembly and other stakeholders to ensure the gender and disability seats become law.
Meanwhile, the House is also digging into another long-standing issue, which is how money meant for road maintenance has been handled.
According to Section 14(1)(h) of the FERMA Act, five per cent of the pump price of petrol and diesel is supposed to be allocated to the Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (FERMA) and State Road Maintenance Agencies, split 40:60. But that provision has reportedly never been implemented.
Francis Waive, who chairs the ad-hoc committee investigating the matter, said two panels had been set up to review how the levy was supposed to work before and after the introduction of the Tax Act.
“The five per cent user charge had not been operationalised over the years,” Waive said.
The committees have been tasked with outlining proper processes for collection and disbursement, creating clear guidelines, and recommending legislative changes to close gaps in existing laws.
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