Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has stressed the need for Nigeria take affirmative action on women empowerment more seriously.
Atiku in his message, for the International Women’s Day 2022, titled, ‘Women Are Game Changers In Our Quest For Development’ advised that more power should be conceded to women.
Atiku who was the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in 2019 asked that targeted investments be made for improving the lot of women.
The statement read in part: “The significance of International Women’s Day should not be reduced to merely celebrating the woman. It is much more than that. It is an opportunity for us as a human race to take the advocacy for an empowerment of the half of us to the front burner.
” I owe a lot of what I have become in life to God and to my late mother, Hajiya Aisha Kande. I lost my father at an early age. So, essentially, I am a product of single parentage by my mother. But there are many Aisha Kande, whose daily stories of toil and labour to raise promising children have remained unsung.
“Both as supporting partners to their husbands or widows like my late mother, those successful women who endured all odds to educate their children in character and in learning are the real heroes that we celebrate today.
” By their successes, they have shown to the world that given an opportunity, the woman can prove her mettle in a position of leadership, either in politics or business. And that is where the theme for the year’s International Women’s Day, “Gender Equality Today, for A Sustainable Tomorrow”, becomes relevant.
“The theme leads us to an important pointer that the synopsis for a sustainable future of our humanity must concede some power and responsibilities to women”.
“Whether we talk about the problem of climate change or the problem of mass illiteracy that continues to manifest as existential problem of out-of-school children in Nigeria; or be it the problem of primary healthcare accessibility and, even, terrorism – finding a sustainable solution to these problems will compulsorily start by giving education to the girl-child and impulsively require that we take the issue of Affirmative Action more seriously.
” It is only when we educate the girl-child that we can begin to have a hope that the next generation will be better equipped to confront many, if not all of the problems that beset our world today. So, granting gender equality is not a want for our world. It is a need”, the statement further read.
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