According to Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe who represents Abia South
Senatorial District in the senate, many senators turned down the Gender
Equal Opportunities Bill because they feared it will turn some women to
prostitutes and lesbians.
The bill which was turned down by the senate on March 15th, was designed
to address women’s freedom of movement, female economic activity,
girls’ access to education, equal rights for women in marriage,
divorce, property/land ownership and inheritance, appropriate measures
against gender discrimination in political and public life and
prohibitions of violence to women.
According to Premium Times,
Abaribe said this while speaking at a forum on political rights of
women in Nigeria organised by the Civil Resource Development and
Documentation Centre (CIRDDOC) in Abuja yesterday April 13th.
“The bill was defeated at the second reading when its details were
highlighted to the senators. Some lawmakers started expressing deep
worries about some parts of the bill that they think could give women
too much freedom and lead them to prostitution, lesbianism and other
social vices.
The reason why we’re here is that we think that we should be able to
restrategise, we should be able to look at the bill again and see those
contentious areas we may need to modify. We should be able to find those
critical constituencies within the senate that we must have to address.
We should be able to look at the narrative of the bill and how it is
being presented to the public and change that narrative and make it a
positive narrative. For example, the bill is not a north versus south
bill.
The bill is not a Christian versus Muslim bill. The bill is not a male
versus female bill. The bill simply seeks to extend to every Nigerian
all the rights that are they should enjoy. And if women by virtue of our
culture, by virtue of our historic antecedents are being behind, then
we need to also drag them into the economy by giving them every right
that they can use to be productive members of the society and that is
all that we’re trying to do.”he said