Bamidele Describes Women’s Seat Plan With Senate Total in Dispute

Senate Leader Opeyemi Bamidele said lawmakers are considering constitutional changes that would add reserved seats for women in Nigeria’s federal and state legislatures, but the Senate allocation differs between his account and a June draft. Speaking on November 2 at a law week event organized by the Ekiti State chapter of the International Federation of Women Lawyers, Bamidele described a plan for 37 additional seats in the Senate and 37 in the House of Representatives. Under his account, each state and the Federal Capital Territory would receive one new seat in each chamber. He also said the proposal would add three seats for women in each of the 36 state assemblies, without displacing existing seats. Bamidele said the arrangement would last 16 years, or four election cycles, before a review. He presented the measure as part of the ongoing review of Nigeria’s 1999 Constitution and said lawmakers were engaging state assemblies, whose approval is required for constitutional amendments. A June 10 National Assembly consultation draft described in the reporting sets out a different Senate figure: 12 reserved seats, with two for each of the country’s six geopolitical zones. It...