Abbas: We’ll significantly increase number of women in parliament

Tajudeen Abbas, speaker of the house of representatives, says the lower legislative chamber will amend the constitution to “significantly” increase the number of women in the parliament.

Abbas spoke on Tuesday when Annett Günther, German ambassador to Nigeria, paid him a courtesy visit at his office in Abuja.

TheCable had reported how the ninth national assembly rejected all gender bills during the consideration of the constitutional amendment bills in March 2022.

A bill seeking to create extra 111 seats for women and legislation on 35 percent affirmative action was rejected by the national assembly.

Addressing issues raised by Günther on women’s representation in governance and politics, Abbas said more members of the house are now interested in seeing gender parity in the parliament.

“We are very hopeful that this time around, the constitution review we are going to embark on before the end of the year will significantly increase the number of women in the parliament,” Abbas said.

Abbas also called for more collaboration between the Nigerian national assembly and the German parliament.

The speaker said Nigeria and Germany stand to benefit from robust and engaging ties, especially in trade and culture.

“I want to appreciate the long-standing and historical relationship between Nigeria and Germany which spans more than 60 years,” he said.

“To the best of my knowledge, it has been a mutually beneficial relationship. Both the German and Nigerian governments have benefitted immensely from the relationship. I am proud to say that in Africa today, we are one of the major partners of Germany in diplomatic relationships.

“We believe this can be further exploited in the future and there are so many other areas that we can look into, to deepen our relationship with you. In due course, we will highlight some of those areas of economic advantage to both Germany and Nigeria.

“We want to see more and increased collaboration in the area of cultural ties between Germany and Nigeria. I know we are doing fairly well in that respect, but there are so many areas that we are yet to touch.”

The speaker further said Nigerian and the German parliaments can collaborate and strengthen legislative ties “in a similar way like the United Kingdom has been offering us by way of technical assistance”.

Günther said the visit was to “lay a new foundation” for the partnership between Germany and Nigeria, especially with the recent change of government in the African largest economy.