Kalu Advocates U.S. Support for Nigeria’s Gender, Electoral Reform Agendas

By Oluwakemi Kindness

The Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Benjamin Kalu on Wednesday advocated for partnership with the United States government to support Nigeria’s efforts in promoting gender equity and electoral reforms.

Kalu made the call at a meeting with a delegation from the U. S Embassy in Nigeria led by David Frost, a political counsellor and Cassandra Carrony at the National Assembly on Wednesday in Abuja.

According to a statement by Kalu’s chief Press Secretary Levinus Nwabughiogu, the Deputy Speaker who also chairs the House Committee on constitution review says the collaboration would be on 3 key areas of techinical expertise, advocacy and capacity building.

Specifically, he emphasises the need to share comparative insights on gender responsive electoral systems; amplify stakeholder engagement with civil society, media, political parties and co-create a women’s legislative leadership programme to train future female lawmakers.

He said: “How do we partner with the US? We seek the US Embassy support in various areas, technical expertise, share comparative insight on gender responsive, electoral system. Let’s know how you’ve done it and succeeded; advocacy, amplify stakeholders engagement with civil society, media and political party.

“You already have structures. We can adopt those structures and make them to reflect what we want to achieve with this particular mission. It’s not a fanciful outing. It’s impact oriented. We need to capacitate those that will drive the impact and it’s through this strategic partnership.

“For traditional rulers, we are thinking as a committee to integrate them into constitution and assigning roles to them, to help enhancing national cohesion and unity.”

Kalu also says the constitution review committee has prioritized women participation in governance, judicial, local government reforms, the youth, amongst others.

He cited the low representation of women in legislative seats nationwide, stressing that the constitution review committee has proposed adding special seats for women in the Senate, House of Representatives, and State Assemblies.

The Deputy Speaker also hints that the zonal public hearing on the thematic areas of the constitution review process will commence soon across the 6 geopolitical zones.

He urges a broad-based public participation and partnership with the U.S. Embassy to ensure that Nigeria’s constitution becomes a beacon of equity, security, and prosperity.

Earlier, the US delegation said their mission to the National Assembly is to explore areas of collaboration with the Deputy Speaker’s Office on the ongoing constitution review.

“We met with the Deputy Speaker very briefly when PLAC hosted event at the Hilton, about LG autonomy. It’s one of the things we are here to talk about. The focus here today is on the work of the Constitution Review Committee. The purpose of our visit is to further the collaboration we’ve had all these years. It’s important to maintain this connection and communication”, the delegation said.