The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, has called for increased efforts by all stakeholders to ensure gender equality and youth inclusion in governance.

Gbajabiamilia made the call at a webinar titled: “Strengthening Women’s and Youth Participation’’ organised by the National Assembly in collaboration with the United Nations Human Rights and Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU).

Rep.

“Gender bias and youth inequality in any society leads to major losses in social cohesion, economic efficiency and human development.

“This is because they make a large percentage of national potential within a significant part of the total population, untapped.

“At the House of Representatives, we have taken innovative steps to bridge the gap for women and youth inclusion through programmes, appropriation and use of legal frameworks.

“We as stakeholders must task ourselves more collectively to make a deliberate effort in addressing the gaps that exist in implementing our legal frameworks to ensure we create greater inclusivity,’’ he said.

Galadima said that over the years, the National Assembly had enjoyed the support of the IPU and hoped to concretise the partnership; develop a work plan and set out clear objectives, which could be incorporated in the on-going policy frameworks.

In his remarks, the Deputy Senate President, Sen. Ovie Omo-Agege, commended the organisers for defending women’s rights and ensuring their representation at the National Assembly.

He said that the participation of women and youths in governance could not be overemphasised saying that they had the right to be heard and to contribute to nation building.

Omo-Agege stressed the need for inclusive governance saying that no nation could maximise its full potentials without involving women and youths.

According to him, this is a necessary step to achieving gender equality through democratic governance as women and youths represent more than half of the population.

He recalled that the parliament passed the Not-Too-Young-To-Run Bill which was assented to by President Muhammadu Buhari to create room for youth participation.

“However, we still need to effectively deal with women participation which presentably is still below 24.7 per cent average in sub-Sahara Africa.

“This is why the 9th National Assembly in Nigeria remains committed to ensuring women involvement in public governance through creative legislative intervention.

“We are considering allocating appointment quotas to women and youths which is fast becoming global best practice in terms of gender and youth participation in the affairs of nations,’’ he said.

Omo-Agege said that the Constitution Review Committee of the Senate which he heads had received suggestions on gender and youth inclusiveness.

He said parliament was considering Constitutional amendments that would give women and youths certain slots into appointive offices like those of ministers, commissioners and heads of agencies.

He said that the lawmakers were also championing the removal of clauses that limited women from achieving their potentials.

Ms Nicole Amelin, Vice-Chair, Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) commended Nigeria for setting the pace.

She noted that it is part of the will of President Buhari to make governance inclusive.

Amelin said that the progress so far made in enhancing women and youth inclusiveness was not for Nigeria alone but for the world at large.

The vice-chair said that CEDAW International Community recognised the work of parliament as only the law could change the status of women and eliminate discrimination against them.

Amelin said giving women equal access to legislative responsibilities remained a key vision at CEDAW.

She said that CEDAW placed high importance on women inclusiveness, expressing hope that the world would consider the issues of women participation in politics seriously.

The vice-chair said that equality was not just a fundamental right, but the solution to the many challenges facing the world today like climate change, poverty and post-crisis recovery.

Amelin said opening governance to the young generation was the best thing that could be done to maximum the advantages of ICT.

The Secretary-General of the IPU, Mr Martin Chungong, said in his remarks that Nigeria had contributed actively to the proceedings of the IPU since 1961.

Chungong said he was excited at Nigeria’s participation and commended the government for passing the Not-Too-Young-To-Run Act.

He said stressed the need for more efforts to improve women representation in governance saying that they make up 50 per cent of the population and were fundamental to achieving good governance at all levels.