Kwara Assembly passes Political Office Gender Composition Bill

Kwara House of Assembly, on Tuesday, passed the Political Offices Gender Composition Bill, 2021

The bill was passed after considering the report of the Joint House Committee on Commerce, Industry, Social Development, and Ethics, Privileges and Judiciary at the committee of the whole.

The joint committee was chaired by the lawmaker representing Malete-Ipaye-Oloru constituency, Abdulkareem Babatunde-Paku.

Babatunde-Paku stressed the need for the state government to be gender-balanced in appointments, as submitted by some stakeholders at the public hearing on the bill.

The bill was read for the third time by the Clerk of the House, Hajia Haleemah Kperogi, prior to its eventual passage.

The Speaker, Mr. Yakubu Danladi, directed the clerk to forward a clean copy of the bill for governor’s assent.

Also, during Tuesday’s plenary, the assembly approved the state government’s request to access the Federal Government’s bridging facility of N18.2 billion against the N18.7 billion earlier requested.

The facility was approved following a message from the governor and addressed to the speaker, which was read to members at the plenary.

Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq said that accessing the N18.7 billion federal government’s bridging facility initially forwarded to the assembly was no longer feasible, as N18.2 billion would now be accessed.

He said that the facility, when accessed, would be channelled toward financing the infrastructural gap of the state.