Groups task Obi on 35% affirmative action for women

BY VINCENT UJUMADU

AWKA— SOME women groups in Anambra State have called on the state governor, Mr. Peter Obi, to sign into law  the Gender and Equal Opportunity Bill that would guarantee 35% affirmative action for women in the state.

The bill was passed by the immediate past State House of Assembly last year, but the governor is yet to sign it into law.
The state coordinator of the National Coalition on Affirmative Action, NCAA, Professor Mercy Anagbogu, had been leading some Non-Governmental Organizations, NGO, in the state to relevant stakeholders to solicit their assistance in prevailing on the governor to see the need to sign the bill into law.

One of those visited was the state Commissioner for Women Affairs, Dr. Ego Uzoezie, during which they pleaded with her to use her office to persuade the governor to sign the bill without further delay in the interest of women in the state.

The Gender and Equal Opportunity Bill was first passed in 2007, but due to what was described as the existence of some grey areas in the document, it was returned to the House, which again passed it on December 9, 2010, after some amendments.

Since the passage, the various women groups had been lobbying for it to be signed by the governor.

According to Anagbogu, it is only the governor’s assent to the bill that will give it the legal backing and pave the way for its full implementation.

She said: “We know the governor is favourably disposed to working with women and he can only complete the exercise by signing this bill into law.

“We are also aware that he is gender sensitive and what he requires is for the Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice to advise him properly on the need to sign it into law.”

“It is the governor’s support for women that made it possible for four women belonging to his political party, APGA, to be elected into the state House of Assembly with one of them emerging the speaker of the state legislature,” she said.

She explained that giving due rights to women was for the good of everybody, noting that many women, especially those in the rural areas, still suffered in the midst of plenty because there was no law guiding how they should be treated.

Anagbogu observed that under such a situation, meaningful and sustainable development could not be achieved and insisted that the Gender and Equal Opportunity Law would help to correct the anomalies.