The Speaker of Ecowas Parliament, Dr Sidie Tunis has called for the inclusion of more women to be part of the Nigerian delegation to ECOWAS Parliament.
He made the call at the end of a two-day symposium on Women Proportional Representation in Politics, organised by the Ecowas Female Parliamentarians Association (ECOFEPA), in Freetown, Sierra Leone.
Nigeria has the highest number of representatives at the ECOWAS Parliament, However, of the 35 members delegation from Nigeria, only two are women, a situation the Speaker described as “really bad”.
He expressed his determination to continue to engage the leadership of Nigeria to change the status quo.
“I am hoping to engage the next Speaker in the Nigeria National Assembly and the President of the Senate to encourage them to have more women in the Ecowas Parliament. We also want to have a special program just for Nigeria to encourage the stakeholders and the political leadership to ensure that they have more women on their tickets, not just for the National Assembly but for even Local Government”. He noted
The Speaker said the Community Parliament has a whole year Program, and the symposium in Sierra Leone was just the beginning of many to follow to popularise the idea of 30% affirmative action for women .
“We are also going to have another program (a TownHall Meeting) in Abuja before the next Ordinary Session, where we are even inviting MPs from Rwanda to come and share their experiences with us. We will also have workshops in Member States to ensure that we do not just pass laws, but to see action.”
He expressed optimism that the advocacy campaign in Freetown could be organized across the sub-region to have a minimum of 30% quota for women.
