By Moses Okorie
Participants at WOMEN OF WORDS (WOW) 2025 – ALL CREATIVE HUB have reiterated calls for policies to give Nigerian women reserved seats at the National Assembly, ending all forms of gender-based violence against women as well as increased women representation in governance.
They bared their minds, Thursday, in Abuja at a programme orgaised by the Gender Strategy Advancement International (GSAI) with support from Peering Advocacy and Advancement Centre in Africa (PAACA) under the theme: ‘Unreserved for Reserved Seats: The Role of Women in Policymaking Towards Ending GBV’.
The organisers said this year’s edition is positioned at a nationally significant moment, as the Nigerian Parliament prepares to deliberate on the Reserved Seats for Women Bill (HB1349)—a milestone legislative proposal aimed at increasing women’s representation in governance and strengthening accountability in policy responses to Gender-Based Violence (GBV).
In her address, the Executive Director of GSAI, Mrs. Adaora Sydney-Jack said the story of a nation cannot be complete if half of its people are missing from the room where decisions are made.
“This gathering, Women of Words 2025, is not merely an event, it is a declaration arising, a collective heartbeat of women who refuse to be silent, unseen or seen any longer. A young Nigerian woman, but as a witness.
“One who has walked into the stormy waters of politics, stood on the balance and felt firsthand the weight of a system that was never designed for women. When I ran for office, I ran with fire in my belly and service in my soul, but what I found was a terrain where women are told to dream small, speak softly and wait patiently for a seat that may never be offered. So, I saw structures so rigid they felt like they were carved in stone.
“Women are not lacking in competence. We have millions of women with courage, with capacity. We are lacking in space. While 2025 is another step in the long journey, a journey rooted in resilience and unshakable hope. Every day, 96 per cent of Nigerian women aged between the 15 to 49 have experienced physical or sexual violence”.
Adaora said 36 per cent of married women are survivors of intimate partner violence. And for every woman who speaks, thousands swallow their pain in silence, adding that gender-based violence is not random, not accidental, but systemic.
“It thrives where women’s voices are weak, where representation is thin, where policies are blind to the realities women live every day. And so, this is why for all of us working the journey, advocating for the special seats, the reserve seats for women’s bill is not a political proposal, it is a lifeline.
“It is a bridge. It’s a restructuring of power, a possibility that proclaims that women’s voices are not to be added as afterthoughts but positioned as architects of governance. Reserve seats are not favours. They are correcting measures to centuries of exclusion. They offer what every society must give its daughters, a chance not to be seen as beneficiaries, but as leaders. So, with reserve seats, we’re not asking for space”, he stated.
Also speaking, the chairman of Gender Strategy Advancement International (GSAI), Ezenwa Nwagwu said there are cultural and structural barriers that keep women away from participating and that is why Nigerian politics has become generally exclusionary in the sense that there is no accommodation for women.
Other speakers include Executive Secretary National Assembly Library Fund, Henry Nwanwuba, representatives of Deputy Speaker House of Representatives, Benjamin Kalu, British High Commission, Chief of Naval Staff and many others.
The event also featured storytelling, drama, and cultural expressions as tools for advancing gender equality and influencing policy conversations.