The House of Representatives has proposed a Constitution amendment to reserve 10 per cent of seats in the National Assembly for women and five per cent for Persons with Disabilities (PWDs).

Under the proposed framework, 83 additional seats would be created exclusively for women. That is 55 in the House of Representatives, increasing its membership from 360 to 415, and 28 in the Senate, raising the total number of seats in the National Assembly from 469 to 552.

The Speaker, Tajudeen Abbas, who announced the proposal yesterday at the official opening of the 2025 House of Representatives Open Week and launch of the 10th House Midterm Legislative Scorecard in Abuja, said the draft amendment seeks to embed the quotas in the Constitution to ensure long-term gender and disability inclusion.

Meanwhile, its ad hoc committee investigating the implementation and remittance of the five per cent user charge on the pump price of petroleum products for road maintenance has inaugurated two committees to investigate issues surrounding the collection and disbursement of the levy.

Abbas said the reserved seats would be filled through direct elections on separate ballots and distributed by states to ensure regional balance.

Five per cent of existing seats, he added, would be reserved for PWDs, with candidates nominated by accredited disability advocacy organisations.

He pointed out: “At Independence in 1960, women occupied less than one per cent of parliamentary seats. By 1990, it had only risen to two per cent. In 1999, women held just 3.9 per cent in the House and four per cent in the Senate. Today, despite constituting half the population, women’s representation remains stagnant.”

While launching the Midterm Scorecard of the 10th House, the Speaker said the House introduced 2,263 bills within two years, with 1,478 already through the second reading.

Of those bills, the Speaker said 237 had been forwarded for Presidential assent, with 55 already signed into law by President Bola Tinubu.

He said the House held over 1,000 committee meetings, visited 300 project sites and monitored over 200 Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), resulting in the recovery of misappropriated funds and the correction of governance gaps.

Also, the House reportedly received 621 public petitions, resolved 24 and dismissed 30 for lack of merit, with 567 at various stages of legislative consideration.

Abbas assured that the House would intensify its work on state policing, devolution of natural resource management, fiscal accountability and human rights protections.

He also pledged continued collaboration with the Houses of Assembly and other stakeholders to ensure that the gender and disability seat proposal becomes part of the Constitution.

As stipulated in the Act establishing the Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (FERMA), Section 14(1)(h) mandates that per cent of the pump price of petrol and diesel be allocated to FERMA and State Road Maintenance Agencies in the ratio of 40:60.

Chairman of the House ad-hoc committee, Francis Waive, said the panels would review both the pre-and post-Tax Act regimes and identify areas of conflict with the FERMA Act. He noted that the five per cent user charge had “not been operationalised” over the years, despite its legal backing.

Waive outlined the committee’s terms of reference, which include developing clear modalities and procedures for the collection and disbursement of the levy, recommending guidelines for personnel deployment, opening of dedicated beneficiary accounts, and defining the roles of relevant MDAs.

The committees are also expected to identify policy gaps and recommend legislative amendments where necessary.