Kogiflame
Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, the lawmaker representing Kogi Central Senatorial district, alongside the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio and other key members of the 10th Senate, on Monday, received female parliamentarians from the Republic of Somalia.
Somalia has a 54-member parliament with 14 parliamentary seats occupied by women, representing 25.93 per cent, more than eight times higher than Nigeria’s parliament with 3.67 per cent female Senators.
Similarly, in Somalia’s lower cabinet, there are 54 women out of 275 members, while the Nigerian House of Representatives has 16 out of 360 members.
The Nigerian Senate has only four female members: Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan (PDP), Ireti Kingibe (LP), Idiat Adebule (APC) and Ipalibo Banigo (PDP).
On the reason for the courtesy visit to NILDS headquarters in Abuja, Zamzam Ibrahim Ali, the leader of the delegation cum Chief Whip of the Upper House of Somalia, noted the visit was to exchange ideas with their Nigerian counterparts.
In his remarks, the Senate President lauded the visit while emphasising the need for a more united Africa where prosperity and peace reign.
“It is our belief, that though colonialism divided Africa in terms of territory and further divided us in terms of Language, we believe that we will encourage the future generation of Africans to learn more than one African language and bundle together as Africans.
“We are very convinced that no matter where the parliament is different, we will like to see good governance, we will like to see improvement in the living standard of Africans, we will like to see a thriving Africa where prosperity, peace, and unity will reign,” Akpabio remarked.
