N’Assembly and Mounting Pressure to Reserve Legislative Seats for Women

As Nigeria’s National Assembly nears a decisive vote, a controversial constitutional amendment reserving legislative seats for women has become a defining test of political courage. Beyond gender justice, advocates say failure to pass the bill risks shutting Nigeria out of a projected $269 billion economic gain and deepening a democratic deficit. Sunday Aborisade reports.

In the hushed corridors of the National Assembly, where deals are whispered and history is often decided by delay, Nigeria stands on the edge of yet another defining moment. The Reserved Seats for Women Bill, now at the critical third reading stage, has transformed from a gender advocacy proposal into a high-stakes referendum on Nigeria’s democratic maturity, economic foresight, and political sincerity.

For years, debates around women’s political inclusion were dismissed as sentimental or culturally inconvenient. This time, however, the argument has acquired numbers, timelines, and an unmistakable urgency.

According to research cited by advocates of the bill, Nigeria could unlock more than $269 billion in additional GDP over the next decade by improving women’s participation in education, governance, and the formal economy.

The question before lawmakers is no longer whether women deserve inclusion, but whether Nigeria can afford continued exclusion.

The push has once again been spearheaded by Chief Osasu Igbinedion-Ogwuche, Chief Executive Officer of TOS Group and convener of the coalition behind the bill.

Addressing newsmen in Abuja, last week, she framed the moment bluntly: “If this bill does not scale through in February 2026, it cannot be operationalised for the 2027 general elections. And if that happens, we effectively sideline 50 per cent of Nigeria’s population for another four years.”

Nigeria’s numbers are stark and increasingly indefensible. Women constitute nearly half of the population, yet occupy just four per cent of seats in the National Assembly comprising 16 out of 360 members in the House of Representatives and four out of 109 senators.

At the subnational level, the picture is bleaker: 51 women among 993 lawmakers across 36 State Houses of Assembly, with 16 states recording zero female representation. In one state, the committee on women affairs is chaired by a man, a detail campaigners often cite with grim irony.

Placed against continental benchmarks, Nigeria ranks last in Africa on women’s parliamentary representation. The continental average stands between 23 and 27 per cent, while Rwanda’s quota-based system has pushed female representation above 60 per cent.

For a country that brands itself the “Giant of Africa,” the contradiction is glaring.

What has shifted the tone of the debate is the deliberate repositioning of the bill as an economic and governance reform rather than a social concession. Drawing from studies by the World Bank, the United Nations and McKinsey, Igbinedion-Ogwuche argues that inclusive governance is directly linked to stronger development outcomes.

According to her, a 2024 report by the Mastercard Foundation and McKinsey further estimates that increasing young women’s participation in Africa’s formal workforce could add $287 billion to the continent’s GDP by 2030.

She said, “This is about productivity, human capital and national competitiveness. There is a clear socio-economic benefit. We cannot continue to talk about growth while structurally excluding women from decision-making.”

Providing legal and policy framing, Advocacy Lead at TOS Group, Andikah Umoh, described the bill as a democratic correction rather than an empowerment programme.

Her words, “Women’s representation is linked to stronger social policy outcomes, higher investments in health, education and social protection. It also correlates with lower corruption and more collaborative policy-making. A legislature that excludes half the population lacks legitimacy.”

The Reserved Seats for Women Bill proposes the creation of 74 additional seats in the National Assembly and 108 seats in State Houses of Assembly, to be filled through competitive elections among female candidates nominated by political parties. Supporters are emphatic that the bill does not guarantee office to anyone.

“This is not tokenism. It is not an appointment. It is not a handout,” Igbinedion-Ogwuche stressed repeatedly.

“These are elective positions. APC will bring candidates, PDP will bring candidates, other parties will bring candidates, and women will compete among themselves,” she explained.

The bill is designed to counter entrenched barriers that have made Nigerian politics one of the most hostile terrains for women: political violence, high nomination fees, informal gatekeeping by male power brokers, cultural expectations, and the weaponisation of religion.

Many women with resources, education and political ambition, advocates argue, have been systematically shut out long before the ballot.

This is not Nigeria’s first attempt at legislating inclusion. The Gender and Equal Opportunities Bill collapsed in the 8th Assembly amid claims that it contradicted religious and cultural norms.

A revised effort in the 9th Assembly also failed, despite backing from legislative leadership at the time. Those defeats became case studies in what not to do.

Determined not to repeat history, proponents of the current bill embarked on an unprecedented consultation process.

Over the past year, the coalition established geo-political, state, local government and ward-level coordinators to engage communities directly. Closed-door caucus meetings were held with lawmakers across all six geo-political zones, where opposition was confronted rather than avoided.

Some lawmakers were candid. “Some told us openly that they did not believe there should be any women in parliament at all,” Igbinedion-Ogwuche recalled. “So we asked them what it would take to change their minds.”

Religion, according to Igbinedion-Ogwuche,  long cited as a barrier, became a focal point.

She said, “In October last year, on the International Day of the Girl Child, TOS Foundation Africa partnered with the Sultan of Sokoto, Nigeria’s highest Islamic authority, to convene a symposium that brought together lawmakers, clerics and political stakeholders.”

She explained that the Sultan’s endorsement of the bill proved pivotal. He argued that women had historically held leadership roles in Islamic societies and that using religion to justify exclusion was a distortion of faith.

Clips of his remarks, she added, were subsequently aired across major television and radio stations, deliberately targeting constituencies where religious objections had been strongest.

She noted that high-level political endorsements soon followed.

Igbinedion-Ogwuche said, “The President publicly declared his support in December 2025. The First Lady convened a strategic meeting at the Presidential Villa attended by the Senate President, Speaker of the House, Deputy Speaker, Vice President and Chief of Staff to the President.

“More than 50 senators pledged backing, while the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives emerged as the bill’s sponsor.

“The coalition also secured a formal partnership with the Governors’ Spouses Forum, alongside assurances of support from governors ahead of the state-level ratification process.

“Yet beneath the momentum lies unease. Advocates are acutely aware that Nigeria’s legislative history is littered with bills that enjoyed elite endorsements but died quietly during voting.

“With electronic voting shielding individual choices from immediate public scrutiny, assurances alone are not enough.

“To counter this, the coalition launched the 469 Tracker, a monitoring tool that records and publishes the stated positions of all members of the National Assembly. The aim is simple: make backtracking politically costly.”

The media, according to her, has been identified as the final pressure point. At a high-level briefing with editors and bureau chiefs, Managing Director of TOS Group, Kingsley Sintim appealed for sustained coverage.

He said, “Mindsets don’t shift overnight. It takes repetition. It takes visibility. It takes human-centred storytelling. The media shapes what lawmakers fear and what they prioritise.

“Radio outreach, television debates and social media amplification have intensified, particularly in regions where resistance remains entrenched.

“Constituents are being encouraged to call their representatives directly, reinforcing the message that support for the bill reflects voter sentiment, not elite lobbying.

Time, however, is unforgiving.

“Constitutional amendments must clear the National Assembly early enough to allow ratification by two-thirds of State Houses of Assembly before the 2027 election cycle. Any delay beyond February risks pushing implementation to 2031, effectively nullifying years of advocacy.

“Delay can be as lethal as rejection. For the 10th National Assembly, the implications are profound. Passage would mark a historic break from decades of exclusion and position Nigeria as a late but serious reformer.

“Failure would cement its reputation as a legislature unable, or unwilling,  to confront structural inequality, even when the economic costs are clear.

“We cannot legislate for a people without them on the table. This is about democracy, development and dignity. The choice before lawmakers is simple: do we move Nigeria forward, or do we repeat the same mistake for another generation?”

As the vote approaches, Nigeria waits, not just for a bill to pass, but for proof that its politics can finally align with its potential.

Scores of various women advocacy groups have been besieging the National Assembly complex since the federal lawmakers resumed plenary on January 27 either to mobilise the parliament leadership to support the bill or to protest the perceived delay in the passage of the critical legislation.

Whether the engagement of the legislators with the various ministries, departments and agencies of the federal government which will begin this week on the 2026 national budget, billed for passage in the second week in March would allow them to have time for the bill is already giving advocacy groups serious concerns.

This is because the House of Representatives had already suspended plenary to allow the green chamber attended to the money bill while the Senate is expected to follow suit after voting on the contentious sections of the 2022 Electoral Act amendments bill this week.