The Director-General of the Nigerian Meteorological Agency, (NiMet) Prof. Mansur Bako Matazu, has highlighted the essential role of women in the weather dissemination value-chain.
The NiMet General Manager/ Public Relations Officer, Muntari Yusuf Ibrahim disclosed this in a statement.
This is as he noted, that the Director-General who was represented by the Director, Weather Forecasting Services of NiMet, Dr. Clinton Ezekwe, stressed during a courtesy visit of the National Youth for Women Empowerment and Education in Nigeria, that, the organisation needs to drive the process of ensuring that the weather alerts issued by NiMet trickles down to the women folk who are most vulnerable to weather-induced disasters since most of them in the rural areas are farmers.
”By arming the women with these weather information, you would reduce cases of crop losses from members of this particular constituency” he enthused.
With the Nigerian women population amounting to over 59.9 percent, the Director-General also expressed belief that there is a need to partner with women to disseminate NiMet weather forecasts and early warning messages, adding that as the saying goes, “if you educate a woman, you are educating an entire nation”.
In the same vein, the National Coordinator of the National Youth for Women Empowerment and Education in Nigeria, Mrs. Lami Kayode stated that women throughout history have played pivotal roles in the development of society and Nigeria is not an exception.
“The National Youth for Women Empowerment and Education in Nigeria is devoid of religion, ethnicity and tribe. Our organisation’s main objective is to see the emancipation and entrenchment of women’s rights and values in Nigeria and the world”, she concluded.
The highlight of the event was the presentation of Award of Excellence to a staff of the agency, Mr. Suleiman Gurin, a Chief Meteorologist, an expert in Aeronautical Meteorology, a Veteran Weather Forecaster and Officer in charge of Public Weather Media at the Central Forecast Office in NiMet, who has contributed immensely to the Meteorological Community.
Ibrahim further noted that the Nigerian Meteorological Agency remains open to purpose-driven partnerships geared towards saving not just the women but Nigerians generally, from suffering crop losses, flooding and wastage due to weather vagaries.
