Sen. Ireti Kingibe, the Chairman, Senate Committee on Women Affairs, has called for an end to all forms of discriminatory practices against women in Nigeria.
She made the call during the 2024 International Women’s Day Conference organised by Female Journalists Network Nigeria (FJNN),
in collaboration with the Nigeria Association of Women Journalists (NAWOJ) in Abuja on Monday.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that IWD is annunally marked on March 8 to raise awareness about issues that affect women
and girls, as well as celebrate women who contributed to national delevepment and to humanity.
The global observance has “Invest in women: Accelerate progress” as the theme of the 2024 celebration.
According to her, Nigeria must end all forms of discriminatory practices against women and strive for gender equality across
all sectors of the nation.
She commended FJNN for organising the event to draw attention to issues affecting women.
Kingibe said “the overriding concern of every woman is to ensure the safety of their children, especially the girl-child.”
Mr Dakuku Peterside, former Director-General, Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA),
said “it is time to end marginalisation of women in governance.”
Peterside, a former governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers, also said “we need to work
harder to ensure inclusivity of women in governance.’’
He stressed the need for “an open and honest conversation that must transcend tribal and religious boundaries in listening to women.”
He added that it was imperative to identify collective solutions to issues inhibiting women in governance.
“One shocking development is that in each election circle, we have fewer women in governance; today, there are fewer women
in governance compared to what we had in the past two election circles,” he said.
He noted that instead of making progress, the country was rather closing the space for women,“and we have fewer women on the
boards of quotient companies; we have fewer women as vice chancellors. These are issues to be addressed.”
He, however, suggested education as the greatest tool to address the marginalisation of women.
On her part, Ms Grace Ike, an Abuja-based female journalist, said “in spite of efforts so far made, the journey toward achieving genuine
equality remains fraught with challenges.”
According to her, women’s voices must persistently be amplified to ensure every woman is afforded the opportunity to be seen, heard and valued.
She said this was a sacred duty ingrained in the sisterhood’s ethos, adding that it was imperative to lobby the National Assembly to
pass gender-sensitive laws that protect and promote the rights of women in the society.
