The House of Representatives has reversed itself on three gender-based bills that failed to sail through in the ongoing amendments to the 1999 Constitution.
The first is on citizenship which seeks to amend section 26 of the 1999 constitution to provide for citizenship by registration for foreign spouses of Nigerian women.
The second is on affirmative action which proposes an amendment to section 223 of the constitution to provide 35 per cent affirmative action to ensure women occupy at least per cent in political party administration.
The third is on indigeneship which seeks to amend the constitution to allow a woman to become an indigene of her husband’s state after at least five years of marriage.
The Speaker, Mr. Femi Gbajabiamila, called for a reversal of the votes on the affected bills after the lawmakers held an executive closed-door session on Tuesday.
The lawmakers rescinded its decision on the bills after Hassan Fulata, chairman house committee on business and rules, moved a motion.
“Honourable members recall that on the first of March we voted for constitution amendment on 68 bills.
“However, three (gender) bills could not scale through because we could not obtain the two-third majority to pass the bills.
“Accordingly, in line with our extant rules, I move that we suspend our extant rules to rescind our decision in respect of these three bills and recommit to them committee of the whole for reconsideration,” Fulata said.
The speaker said the three bills would be included in the second batch of amendment bills to be considered in about four weeks’ time.
After the lawmakers unanimously approved the reversal via voice vote, The Punch reported that female members of the house as well as some male counterparts gave the speaker a standing ovation.
Recall that lawmakers in the two chambers had, on Tuesday, March 1, 2022, voted on the 68 recommendations by the Joint Senate and House Special Ad Hoc Committee on the Review of the 1999 Constitution.
The gender bills failed to pass despite that Aisha Buhari, wife of President Muhammadu Buhari, on Wednesday, March 2, led female ministers to lobby the lawmakers as the committee laid its report.
