By Gift Olivia Samuel, The Sight News
ABUJA: The Minister of Women Affairs, Dame Pauline Tallen, has urged women to unite and challenge all the voices and vices that do not view their participation in public life as important.
The Minister said this in Abuja on Monday, at Nigeria’s National event as part of the on-going 65th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW65).
The National event had the theme, “Women in Leadership: Achieving an Equal Future in a Covid-19 World focusing on Institutionalizing Women’s Equal and Increased Participation in Leadership, Governance and Decision-Making – Case Studies and Reflections from Nigeria and West Africa”.
Recall that due to the threatening COVID-19 pandemic, Member Nations of the United Nations were encouraged to locally organize the CSW65 as a way of flattening the curve of the pandemic.
Dame Tallen in her remarks, noted that despite the current threat in the gains recorded in education, her Ministry will not relent in pushing for the education of the girl-child as the first step towards empowerment, adding that empowerment of women and girls are essential ingredients in achieving the Ministry’s vision.
Furthermore, she called on all women interested in vying for positions in all the political parties to ensure that they are properly registered, stating that the Ministry will begin the process of compiling the list of women who have political ambition to identify strategies to assist them.
According to her, “The Nigerian Women Trust Fund, the 100 Women Lobby and the Zonal Women Political Training Centres, which are all the creation of the Ministry will play major roles in this regard.
“The time for us to document our experiences has come! If we do not tell our stories, nobody will tell them for us.
“This is why I am calling on all women groups in the country to send to the Ministry, a complete list of their members to enable us to build a Resource Base of Nigerian women that could be used collectively or selectively in planning intervention programmes”, she said.
She further remarked that, “The availability of such a register will reduce the constant excuse of ‘we cannot find women anywhere who merit appointments’.
“Nigerian women have come of age and need to be supported to unleash their potential”.
While noting that the ‘The Nigeria for Women Project’ funded by the World Bank has started yielding positive results in the States where it is being piloted, she expressed optimism that it will shore up the needed resources at that micro level to support women’s participation in politics at that level.
