The European Union (EU) on Friday declared support for the Reserved Seats for Women Bill, joining rights advocates and political stakeholders in pushing for its swift passage.
The bill seeks to create 37 additional seats in the Senate, 37 in the House of Representatives, and three reserved seats per state in all 36 state assemblies, strictly for female candidates.
Currently billed for a third reading in October, the proposed law will then move to state houses of assembly before heading to the President for assent.
Women’s representation in Nigeria’s legislature remains low, with only 3.7 per cent of seats in the Senate and 3.9 per cent in the House of Representatives currently held by women.
Speaking at the 2025 GOTNI National Leadership Conference in Abuja, Head of the EU Delegation to Nigeria and ECOWAS, Gautier Mignot, praised the initiative and urged broad national backing.
‘One of the secrets for a nation that will be more successful in their development is to empower women and girls. The most prosperous countries in the world are those where inequalities between women and men are the least, and which grant women full space to participate in collective decisions and socio-economic life.
‘Nowadays, there’s a very important debate ongoing in Nigeria, especially in the National Assembly, about the special seats bill, to make sure that women have more representation. I think this is a very important bill for the country, and it deserves support from everybody’, Mignot said.
Addressing journalists after the event, President of the GOTNI Leadership Centre, Linus Okorie, described the conference as a platform designed to build leadership competencies for individuals, businesses, and government institutions.
He noted that Nigeria’s leadership gaps could only be fixed by raising the right leaders.
‘There is a huge demand for leadership development in Nigeria and the only way we can make progress is for Nigeria to take the responsibility of doing everything necessary to encourage citizens to grow their leadership competencies.
‘What this means is that the world is not going to fix our problem. Our problem is going to be fixed by Nigerians. And to do that, you need selfless leaders in the private and public sector who are creative, visionary and committed to making a big difference’, Okorie said.
He stressed that nations making progress are those investing heavily in leadership capacity, adding that such investment would drive productivity and innovation in Nigeria’s economy.
