Economic empowerment is the bedrock of women’s development in Nigeria, the Director General, National Centre for Women Development (NCWD), Barr. Mary Ekpere-Eta has said.
She was speaking Monday at a press conference in commemoration of the 2021 International Women’s Day with the theme, Women in Leadership: Achieving an Equal Future in a COVID-19 World with the campaign, #ChooseToChallenge.
Barr. Ekpere-Eta said, the theme for this year celebration provides a good opportunity to call out gender bias and inequality, seek out and accelerate women’s achievement and advocate for women’s increased participation in development and decision making.
“The theme resonates the leading and leadership roles women played in the face of the pandemic. Despite the challenges they faced inclusive of how women’s representation was affected negatively all over the world, other prevailing situation of women, that represent the face of poverty in addition to Gender Based Violence, all the challenges can be changed, as they are manmade.
“This year’s theme also serves as a reminder of the need for us to highlight the burden of COVID-19 on women’s livelinood and how women led countries showed great leadership in tackling the pandemic that became best practices across the world for others to follow
She said in responding to the issues of achieving equal future in a COVID-19 world and reducing the plight of pandemic on Nigerian women, we recognise that economic empowerment of women is a necessity for development.”
“We choose to #challenge the existing statuesquo in the construction industry to ensure that barriers are broken and women take their own portion in the sector.”
The DG used the opportunity of the celebration to call on Nigerian women to take their place in elective position adding that regrettably in Nigeria representation of Women at both elective and appointive positions has continued to deteriorate due to patriarchy, political violence, insurgency, inequality, others.
She said it is on this premise that the NCWD through the Federal Government of Nigeria Post COVID-19 programme has empowered over 7000 women and youths with various skills and equipment and also trained over 2000 women and girls in skills hitherto regarded as male preserves such as masonry, tiling, Plaster of Paris, Refrigerator and air condition repairs, generator repairs, handset and computer repairs and so on.
“The continuous violence before and after election has plummeted the number of women casting their votes. In the past, it is believed that more women turn out to vote than men but available statistics have shown that in 2019 the total number of registered voters by Gender was 84,004,084, out of which 53% (44.4m) were male and 47%(39.6m) were female of the total number, only 26,348,429 were accredited for voting that is about 32% of the total registered voters and of this number only 11,897,180 women voted. Negating the claim that more women voted than men in the 2019 general election.”
Barr. Ekpere-Eta who said the IWD celebration is yet another opportunity to take time out to reflect on the situation of women and girls, assess progress made and take appropriate steps to advance their cause and provide relevant remedies wished to use this occasion to congratulate all women and frontline respondents across the world, and most especially in Nigeria for their immense tenacity and contributions towards raising their voices and making a choice to challenge existing discriminatory structures, policies, programmes and fight against Gender Based Violence that increased at an alarming rate during the heat of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown.
She also said one important area of focus for them is the documentation of unpaid care workers in Nigeria, which they are currently carrying out in collaboration with the National Bureau of Statistics to reduce the burden of unpaid care workers on women.
“As we celebrate this day, I would like us to spare a thought for the many women and girls in our country who have endured inequalities, suffered hardships and in some cases have paid the supreme sacrifice to ensure that our communities move on.
“Today we salute the courage and resilience of the Nigerian woman who has stood firm in her resolve to produce a great nation and choose to challenge all existing gaps and discrimination.”
