14th October, 2010
The 3rd Intergenerational Dialogue on Women in Nigeria started in Lagos yesterday. The three-day parley, which is expected to end tomorrow, Friday 15 October is being organised by the Centre for Human Development, CHD, with the support of the Ford Foundation.
In her welcome address, Prof. Simi Afonja, the Executive Director of CHD, said the Intergenerational Dialogue, which is currently holding at the Airport Hotel in Ikeja, Lagos, was necessitated by the need to bring women of different generations together to rub minds and address critical issues about the women’s movement in Nigeria and its contributions to women’s empowerment and gender equality in the last 50 years. The theme of this year’s dialogue is: Policy Evolution And Development.
“In the past few years, we focused on intergenerational dialogue because we have carried out an assessment of the women’s movement in Nigeria and found out that there is a big divide. The old ones, like me are retiring. We had danced and we want to leave the stage for the younger generation. And the best way we can do this is to dialogue with the younger generation, provide skills, different knowledge and prepare them for the dance,†she remarked.
In her keynote address, Mrs Bisi Adeleye-Fayemi, the Executive Director of African Women Development Fund, AWDF went down memory lane, recounting the various ways by which Nigerian women have impacted the society. She also frowned at the way and manner in which some Nigerians who had paid some price in the past are not remembered and recognised. Rather, according to her some group of 15 miscellaneous women came together in in Abuja two weeks ago to award themselves the same title of distinguished Nigerian women.
In an impassioned speech, Hafsat Abiola-Costello, the founder of the Kudirat Initiative for Democracy, KIND, bemoaned the wide gulf between elite and urban women who set agendas and the iliterate rural women.
She then stressed the need for Nigerian women not just to be united but also form a common front.
“It’s dangerous for privileged women to set the agenda for all women without broad consultations,” she said.
Distinguished Nigerian women in attendance at the event included, Prof. Omolara Ogundipe, Olori Bisi Olateru Olagbegi, Mrs Betty Ubeku, Ms Yemisi Ransome-Kuti and Dr Keziah Awosika.
—Nehru Odeh