Affirmative Action Act is a progressive law – Fatimatu Abubakar

The Minister of Information, Fatimatu Abubakar, has praised the passage of the Affirmative Action, Gender Equity Bill 2024, calling it a progressive measure to ensure balance in various sectors.

Passed in parliament on Tuesday, July 30, 2024, the bill aims to address social, cultural, economic, and political gender imbalances in the country.

These imbalances have stemmed from historical discrimination against women and persistent patriarchal sociocultural systems and norms.

Speaking on The Forum on Saturday,  August 3, Madam Abubakar explained that the bill would result in more women in leadership roles.

“If you look at Article 94 of the 1992 Constitution, which speaks about the qualifications for a Member of Parliament (MP), you realise that it is entrenched and being an MP is by election; you will be elected by the people so everything that you need to do to get to Parliament, there is no positive discrimination or bias in favour of women because we don’t have the numbers in there,” she said.

“But when you enter Parliament, you go to Article 78 of the 1992 Constitution and they are saying that the president must appoint a majority of his ministers from Parliament. Meanwhile, when you go to Parliament, the women are not there.”

She highlighted the disparity in representation: “So look at an equation of about 275 now going to 276 and you have 40 women and the Constitution is saying that the president shall appoint a majority of his ministers from Parliament. It means automatically, even our basic law has made it difficult for the president to appoint more women than men looking at the ratios that we have in Parliament.”

Abubakar described the Affirmative Action (Gender Equity) Act as a living law designed to address discrimination in various areas, ensuring balance. “So the Affirmative Action (Gender Equity) Act, is a progressive law that is like a living act that is supposed to look at areas whether political, social, [or] other aspects of our life as a country where there is discrimination, they are able to make that decision to ensure that there is balance.”

She also emphasised the shift from gender equality to gender equity, adding, “So, in the past, when they were talking about gender equality, the context of this law and even the context of it has completely moved from gender equality to equity. Because if we are talking about equality and 50/50, we are unable to deliver that under our current 1992 constitution.”