A proposal to create additional legislative seats for women has divided political stakeholders in Kogi State, exposing a broader debate over how far authorities should go to correct the underrepresentation of women in elected office.
The National Assembly is considering a constitutional amendment that would reserve 74 additional seats for women in the Senate and House of Representatives, while creating three women-only seats in each of Nigeria’s 36 state assemblies.
The proposal has continued to spark debate in Kogi State.
Some stakeholders say the three seats per state are too few, given the large number of women and their active role in politics.
Others, however, describe the plan as a good start toward correcting the imbalance in political representation.
Supporters view the measure as a long-overdue corrective; critics in Kogi say the proposed state-level allocation is too modest to alter a political system in which women remain marginal.
Kogi’s 25-member House of Assembly currently has two female lawmakers: Omotayo Adeleye-Ishaya of Ijumu and Deputy Speaker Comfort Egwaba Nwuchola of Ibaji.
For a legislature inaugurated in 1992, that is a historic high: the chamber has previously had only three women in total and has never had two serving at the same time.
Nwuchola welcomed the proposal, saying that an increase from two to three female members would represent progress.
“Having three female members in the House will certainly be an improvement,” she said, adding that one seat per senatorial district would be preferable.
Adeleye-Ishaya also endorsed the measure, arguing that it would widen women’s access to lawmaking and governance.
Not everyone considers three seats sufficient.
Lokoja-based lawyer Lilian Okolo is pressing for 12 reserved seats, roughly one-third of the Assembly, arguing that the current proposal falls short of women’s share of the population and their level of political participation.
“Even though it is small, we can start from there,” Okolo said, acknowledging that the three-seat plan could serve as an entry point even as she seeks a more ambitious quota.
The dispute reflects a familiar tension in affirmative-action policy: whether incremental guarantees can build momentum toward broader representation, or whether they risk institutionalizing a level of participation that remains far below parity.
The Kogi debate comes as the federal proposal remains in the constitutional-review process.
The plan would add 37 Senate seats and 37 House seats for women, as well as three additional seats in each state assembly.
Officials say the arrangement would run for 16 years, or four electoral cycles, before review.
Nationally, women hold just 20 of the 469 federal legislative seats—four in the Senate and 16 in the House—despite comprising nearly half the population.
The proposed seats would be additional to existing constituencies rather than replace them, and would be filled through competitive elections among female candidates nominated by political parties.
For Kogi’s women lawmakers and advocates, the question is no longer simply whether reserved seats should exist.
It is whether three additional positions would be enough to change a legislature where two women serving simultaneously still counts as unprecedented.
