National Assembly rejects special seats for women, inclusion of VAT on exclusive list

The National Assembly has voted against the provision of special seats for women and moving Value Added Tax (VAT) to exclusive legislative list.

The lawmakers rejected the two provisions during voting on 68 clause being considered in the ongoing constitutional amendment, on Tuesday.

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At the House of Representatives, 209 members voted against moving VAT while 208 members voted against the provision of special seats for women.

The proposed Bill on VAT reads: “A Bill for an Act to Alter Part I of the Second Schedule to the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 to include Value Added Tax on the Exclusive Legislative List; and for Related Matters”.

The Bill on Special seats for women reads: “A Bill for an Act to Alter the Provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 to Provide for Special Seat for Women in the National and State Houses of Assembly; and for Related Matters”.

41 senators voted in favour of the proposed amendment, while 44 voted against, failing to meet the required two-third (73) membership.

Like the green chamber, the red chamber also voted against creating a special legislative seats for women in the national and state assemblies.

The proposed amendment suffered set back after 30 senators voted in favour, while 58 voted against.

The bill seeks to create special seats for women in the Senate, House of Representatives and State Houses of Assembly by creating one special seat in each state of the Federation and the FCT reserved solely for women without prejudice to their eligibility to contest in the existing senatorial seats in each state and the FCT.

For the House of Representatives, it is two additional seat for each state and the FCT that is to be reserved for women without prejudice to their eligibility to contest for the other seats.

And finally for the Houses of Assembly of each state one additional seat from each of the three Senatorial District is reserved solely for women.

Also, a proposal to include at least 35 of women in political party administration also failed to scale through.

34 senators voted in favour of the provision while 53 voted against.

First Lady Aisha Buhari had visited parliament last week to make a special case for women.