Rep member calls for women, girls inclusion in restructuring

The Chairperson, House of Committee on Women Affairs, House of Representatives, Mrs Stella Ngwu, has called for the inclusion of women and girls in the ongoing restructuring debate in the country.

Ngwu said this during the Round Table Dialogue on Promoting Women Agenda in Ongoing Debate on Restructuring Nigeria organised by the National Centre for Women Development (NCWD) in Abuja.

“The issues of women and girls must take centre stage in the restructuring of the country, women are the platform to development.

“When you train a woman, you train a nation,we must work together as women to add our voices in the restructuring in the country.

“We should take our place in agriculture, health, education and politics,” she said.

The Senior Special Assistant to President on Foreign Affairs and Diaspora, Mrs Abike Dabiri, said women played an important role in the overall development of a nation.

“Women must not allow anyone to look down on them but rather they should support one another.

“Although, government would play their role, women have a duty to their children’s moral values, if the society succeeds, the women succeed,” she said.

Dabiri said women should be ready to lobby parliamentarians on issues that concerns them through the amendment of the relevant constitution, saying women needs equity, fairness and justice in the country.

The Administrative and Programme Head of Women’s Rights Advancement and Protection Alternative ( WRAPA) Hajiya Saudatu Mahdi, said there was deliberate misrepresentation of the call for equality.

“Women want equality of opportunities in education, governance and spaces that allow women to achieve their full potentials.

“The agitation is not new, there are structural imbalances in Nigeria and these issues must be addressed with women carried along,” she said.

She also called for funds to be released from the legislative structure and put into good governance.

The Former Deputy Governor of Plateau State, Mrs Pauline Tallen, said women should not be ignored as they constituted 50 per cent of the country’s population.

She said if women were not involved in the restructuring process, it would be an imbalanced effort towards national development.

The Director General of NCWD, Mrs Mary Ekpere-Eta, said the purpose of the conference was to address issues where women were marginalised and proffer ways to include them in the process of development.