Sunday Aborisade in Abuja
The Sponsor of the Gender and Equal Opportunities Bill in the Senate, Senator Biodun Olujimi yesterday alleged that the wives of her male colleagues were first to reject the proposed legislation before their husbands threw it away on the floor of the Red Chamber.
The Senator disclosed this at a one-day Policy Dialogue on the Gender and Equal Opportunities Bill in Nigeria, organised by the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies in conjunction with UN Women and Government of Canada.
Olujimi explained that she, in company with other female senators, decided to engage wives of the male lawmakers in the Senate so that they could influence their spouses to support the bill.
She lamented that the engagement with the wives of the senators was a disaster as majority of them rejected the bill, based on their religious sentiments and beliefs.
Olujimi said, “The issue of the GEO Bill is important to me not only because I am a woman but because it is just and proper to do the right thing. About 51.2 per cent of the Nigeria’s population are women.
“That portion of the society must be taken care of. The bill has suffered in three different assemblies and the reason is very simple. It is because it is based on gender. If it were to be on general issue, it would have passed.
“I brought it up in the last Senate because I discovered that there was no law governing the affairs of women generally and I felt that it was not good enough.
“The rejection of the bill in the 9th Assembly was not the fault of men. It was based on the nuances of the women.
“What happened was that we, female senators gathered all the wives of our male colleagues for a meeting where we pleaded with them to help us talk to their husbands to support the bill.
“We were very surprised when majority of the senators’ spouses responded that they would not do such things because their religious conviction has taken care of such issues already.
“We tried everything possible to convince them but they did not change their minds. For instance, they were not in support of making 18 years, as the age of marriage. They also said Islam had taken care of the issue of women regarding inheritance.
“So, the first issue we had against the bill was with women. That of the men came later. It was because the men said they were not conversant with the word ‘equality’ because the husband is not supposed to have equal rights at home with the wife.”
The Senator, however said she had met with religious organisations, civil society groups and international agencies to discuss the frustrations the bill had encountered.
She said the outcome of the series of meetings so far had led to the reintroduction of another bill now christened, “Gender and Equitable Opportunities Bill, 2022.”
Olujimi expressed the hope that the new bill, which has passed first reading in the Senate, would be passed before the end of the 9th Assembly because the contentious issues that bordered on religion had been expunged.
Participants at the NILDS Policy Dialogue, including representatives of the UN Women, Canadian Embassy in Nigeria, Ministry of Women Affairs and Religious leaders, were unanimous in their submissions that the contentious religious issues should be expunged from the bill.
They however said the bill should focus on the rights of women in the society and workplace and the need to ensure adherence to the 35 per cent affirmative action among others.
