President Buhari puts smiles on women faces as he reveals next line of action
– President Muhammadu Buhari makes mouth watery promise to women
– President Buhari reveals that women and girls are at the centre of his administration
– Dr. Grace Ongile, a representative to Nigeria and ECOWAS charged the federal government to put in place strong institutions
President Muhammadu Buhari has obviously put a smile on the faces of some Nigerian women following his recently disclosed plan.
President Muhammadu Buhari promised women 40% appointments
The Guardian reports that the president, who spoke on March 8, at the National Stakeholders Consultative Forum to mark the 2016 International Women’s Day celebration in Abuja, promised women 40%% appointments into the recently dissolved federal boards and parastatals.
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President Buhari, who was represented by the Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development, Senator Jummai Aisha Alhassan, disclosed that “women and girls are at the centre of my administration.”
Buhari reiterated the need to overhaul the National Gender Policy to make it more responsive to the priorities of Nigerian women as well as men in order for it to serve as an instrument towards accomplishing internationally agreed standards.
The president may have given this assurance apparently to right the breach of the 35% affirmative action in his first sets of appointments that got many Nigerians talking.
In a related development, the united nations entity for gender equality and the empowerment of women (UN WOMEN), Dr. Grace Ongile, a representative to Nigeria and ECOWAS, has called on the federal government to set up strong institutions to implement enabling laws that protect young girls from early marriage. Ongile, who made the call in Abuja, also charged Nigeria to end stigmatisation from HIV/AIDS.
Also, the programme director of partnership initiatives in the Niger Delta (PIND), Sylvester Okoh, who spoke on March 8, in Asaba, Delta state capital, said the world economic forum (WEF) in its global gender gap report 2015 projected that it would take 227 years to achieve gender equality at the workplace and 117 years for companies and government to be equally led by women.
On their part, ActionAid Nigeria, Centre for Black and African Art and Civilisation (CBAAC), Wole Soyinka Centre of Investigative Journalism and UNILAG Women’s Society stressed the need for gender equality for national development.
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Ojobo Atuluku, country director of ActionAid while delivering his speech in Abuja on this year’s theme: “Planet 50-50 by 2030: Step It Up for Gender Equality,” pleaded with government never to underrate gender equality in its determination towards the nation’s development.
Meanwhile, the acting managing director of NDDC, Mrs Ibim Sementari, who spoke at the International Conference Centre, Abuja during a stage play named “Little Drops” sponsored by the NDDC on March 6, in commemoration of the International Women’s Day, called on all stakeholders no to neglect the Niger Delta.
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