 Women and various women groups today stormed the National Assembly to protest the rejection of three main bills that seek to support women's representation in government, either appointive or elective. This placard carrying women protesters who blocked the main gate leading to the National Assembly complex said they are expressing their anger against the rejection of gender and equality bills, faulting the voting procedure used by the leadership of both Senate and House of Representatives leading to the killing of the bills. Leader of the group, Abiola Cuyodi, described the rejection of the reserve's special seats of 111 for women as wicked and inhumane and called on the federal lawmakers to revisit and vote in favour of the bills as a matter of urgency and necessity. It's a matter of power. When you are dealing with vulnerable groups, you feel that you have power over. So I can do anything to that person. What we saw in the National Assembly yesterday, the disdain, the impunity with which the gender bills were thrown out and voted out, the noise we heard, when you didn't show any form of remorse whatsoever. It was a noise that is telling us what can we do, who are we, who are the women, what can they do, which power do they have. So it's a noise that reduces us as human being. It's a noise that affected our dignity as a person. And that's why we think it's important for us to say that this country belongs to all of us. We are co-owners in Nigeria. We are not minority group. We are a majority group. The census population can say 49.7 but we all know that we have more women than men in this country. So in terms of number, we cannot be pushed back. So we are here to demand, if it is pain, that they use in writing what they wrote yesterday. If it is electronic voting, it allows for people to vote over and over, they need to reopen that election. I think the system was down yesterday. Yes. The system has to be up again. Recall that both the Senate and House of Representatives during the consideration of the Constitution amendment voted against the special seats for women in parliament. If passed, the bill would have come down to creating 111 extra seats for women at the National Assembly. Well, Bosse Ironsi, the Executive Director, Women's Rights and Health Project Managers of Ireti Resource Center, is joining us live now on the news. Good evening, Mrs. Ironsi. Good evening. Thank you for having me. You're welcome. Now, let's lay the foundation to all of this, apart from the fact that the United Nations has set aside the month of March to celebrate activities that concern women. Why are these bills particularly important to the Nigerian women at this point in time? Thank you very much for taking us back to what is so important to Nigeria women. First, Nigeria women are human beings. They have the same brain with the men. They can do what other women, if you go to other countries, women are occupying positions. They are bringing in their best, and we are feeling it. We are seeing it. During the COVID, we saw what happened in those countries where women were in leadership positions, and they were able to mitigate the impact of COVID-19. I'm just using that as an example. And so for how long are Nigerian women going to be relegated to the background? How long is Nigeria going to be different from other countries that, for example, the affirmative action that is saying that women should be represented, should be given that position, at least 35 percent, and the national House of Assembly and the people that seemly to represent us are saying no, and we cannot longer wait. We cannot continue like that. And then if we don't act now, it means we will have to wait for another 10 years, several years to come before our voices will be heard. So how long are we going to continue? The federal executive... I think it is very important now that the women are out there to say no and not to say no. Okay, so FEC, the Federal Executive Council, today approved a revised national gender policy to promote gender equality among other things. That's a day after the lawmakers rejected this women's bill. How do you process this, coming back to back? Well, I think that, for me, I would say it's probably a way of telling us, please come down. You know, you don't have to go to the length you are planning to go because I think that in as much as we believe to some extent what the Federal Executive Council have tried to put in place, but at the same time, we need that law that is guiding us. We need that law that we can hold on to so that in the process of governance, we'll be holding those in positions accountable. All right. You have earlier stated that Beijing Affirmation Statement, the 1995, I believe, 1995, the Beijing Declaration that stipulated that women should have a certain percentage of representation in governance. Now that's 25 years after. Today, you still have just 19 women out of the 469 legislators in the country. That's 4%. Do you see any way that this gap can be bridged? Do you see how this can be bridged? It can be bridged, and these are ways that we have put in all these various fields that we think that it can be bridged. For example, what you are trying to say that, for example, my husband is from a Boeing state. You are saying that after five years and 27 years, I cannot have a representation from my husband's state, I cannot be recognized as somebody who has a role to play in my state just because I am from another state. And that's a way of telling me that my services, whatever I can contribute to the development of the country, is irrelevant, it's not important, except if I have to go to my state. And I think that is wrong. It's a way of telling me that I'm not needed. I'm not important and I'm not relevant in every circle of things. And don't forget too, you are also telling me that if my husband is from maybe from Britain or wherever you were, maybe Ghana, that they cannot be cities. But if my marriage from that same country, they can see that that's why it automatically becomes citizens of this country. And I think that's a way of getting us to say that we are irrelevant and we cannot continue like this. We cannot make women who are just about 50% or more than 50% of the population to really get them to a level. But look at what our economy is saying. Look at the government we are seeing. Look at the hopelessness of the country. Our children are dying, our hospitals are not working. Women are paying price for bad governments. And we are saying, OK, let's put our own God giving strength and energy and capacity to make the country better. We are saying that no, you can regulate us. You cannot give us that opportunity. And I think that if we don't visit these fields, this nation is too. Were you were you able to make it to the purchase ground in Abuja yesterday? I am planning my legals. OK. I cannot be able to go. Yes. OK. I've never seen. I've never seen. I'm planning my team and local government and we cannot continue because what happens to one woman happens to every woman. So it is not just in Abuja alone. It is not just anywhere. It is all the cities. We are going to mobilize women so that we let them know that this cannot continue. We cannot be at the receiving end of all the bad decisions. And we cannot be threatening my hair when I'm not there. I have to be able to take decisions about what happens to me. OK. Well, I was just going to say that I've never seen the Nigerian women well in a long time come out so organized in such a large number against the Ninth Assembly as they did yesterday. And you're saying that there is more. There will be more protests. Are you saying there will be more? Across the country or Lagos? Let us know what you are going to see. You are going to see men coming out to say no and not because we are their mothers. We are their sisters. We are their daughters. And they cannot afford to renegade us. Mrs. Bossa Eironsi, thank you so much for your time. She is the executive director, women's rights and health project managers of the Recti Resource Center. Thanks for your time and good luck with your quest. Thank you very much.