The House of Representatives has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the United Nations Women on increasing the number of women in governance.

Speaker Tajudeen Abbas said on Thursday in Abuja that the partnership is to amplify the Gender and Equal Opportunities Bill and the Bill on Women’s Parliamentary Seats.

Mr Abbas said the advocacy partnership will serve as a tool to lobby other stakeholders, especially the constituents, for women’s inclusivity.

“So the advocacy should not only be within the people’s parliament alone, it should go beyond here to the rural areas for the constituents to know why we want to go this way. Let them see the comparative analysis between our country and other countries, let them see what we are missing by not going this route all this while and let them see what we are going to gain if we go this route,” he said.

Mr Abbas stressed the need to build women’s capacity and sensitise them to support female aspirants. He also said that women should be encouraged to contribute their best to national development and not compete with men or be seen as antagonistic to men.

Earlier, the UN Women’s country representative to Nigeria and ECOWAS, Beatrice Eyong, said that Nigerians are looking up to the National Assembly to address the problem of women’s underrepresentation.

Ms Eyong said about four per cent of women are elected to the National Assembly and that only seven women serve in the 45-member federal cabinet. She said Nigeria was not doing well on the continent regarding women’s representation in governance.

“This is the challenge we must all work together to surmount. You have demonstrated leadership, dedication and passion in this journey. UN Women is committed to walk this journey and to build a strong and sustainable partnership with your office and with the membership of the National Assembly,” she said.

Ms Eyong said that UN Women, with financial contributions from Canada and Norway, had supported strategic partnerships focusing on enhancing women’s political participation since 2019.

She said equal attention had also been given to economic empowerment, advancing the rights of women and girls, and strengthening women’s voice and leadership in the development, peace, security, and humanitarian response nexus, among other things.

(NAN)