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President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is set to transmit executive bills to the National Assembly seeking special legislative seats for women and Persons with Disabilities (PWDs), Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abbas, has said.
Abbas disclosed this on Thursday in Abuja at a reception organised by the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR) in honour of the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Global Alliance for Public Relations and Communication Management, Prof. Justin Green.
According to the Speaker, the proposed bills would provide additional seats for women and PWDs beyond the existing elective seats at the federal and state levels.
He said the initiative was part of efforts by the 10th National Assembly to promote broader representation and inclusion in the country’s legislative institutions.
Abbas said the proposed Reserved Seats for Women Bill had been forwarded to the Ministry of Justice for fine-tuning before transmission to the National Assembly.
He added that a similar executive bill providing for representation of PWDs was expected from the President within the next few weeks.
“We have persuaded Mr President, and he has accepted, for the very first time, to sponsor executive bills through our effort to the National Assembly to provide special seats for women,” Abbas said.
He explained that the proposed seats would be additional to the regular legislative seats contested during elections.
Under the proposed women’s representation arrangement, 37 additional seats would be created in the Senate and another 37 in the House of Representatives, with one seat allocated to each state and the Federal Capital Territory.
Each of the 36 state Houses of Assembly would also have three additional seats reserved for women, representing the three senatorial districts in each state.
The proposed arrangement would operate for four general election cycles, or 16 years, after which it would be reviewed.
The proposal is aimed at addressing the historically low representation of women in Nigeria’s elective institutions.
According to legislative reform data cited in the report, the current National Assembly has four women in the Senate and 16 in the House of Representatives.
Abbas also disclosed that the National Assembly had facilitated a proposal for special representation of PWDs in the federal and subnational legislatures.
A separate bill before the House, HB 1931, proposes special seats for physically challenged persons in the National Assembly, state Houses of Assembly and local government legislative councils.
The proposal seeks one additional PWD representative from each of the six geopolitical zones in both the Senate and House of Representatives.
Meanwhile, Abbas said the Senate and House of Representatives had maintained a strong working relationship despite operating as separate chambers of the bicameral National Assembly.
He said both chambers collaborate on matters of national importance while retaining their constitutional independence.
On the forthcoming global public relations forum, Abbas described Nigeria’s hosting of the event as historic, saying delegates from 126 countries were expected in Abuja.
He commended Prof. Green and NIPR President, Dr Ike Neliaku, for their roles in bringing the event to Nigeria.
Green, in his remarks, praised Abbas and other National Assembly leaders for supporting greater representation for women and PWDs in parliament.
Neliaku said Nigeria underwent a rigorous process to secure the hosting rights for the global forum, including a defence of its readiness in Venice in June 2025 after winning the bid in March 2025.
The forum is expected to attract about 3,000 delegates from 126 member countries of the Global Alliance.
The Presidency had on August 20 assured the organisers of its support for the event, which is being organised in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Information and National Orientation and the NIPR.
