BEVERLY HILLS, March 08, (THEWILL) – Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon Yakubu Dogara and the Director of the International Press Centre (IPC), Lagos, Lanre Arogundade declared support for women participation in politics and national development.
Dogara made the call on Wednesday in Abuja to mark the 2017 International Women’s Day as he also pledged to be bold for change, stressing the importance of women inclusion in all fields of endeavour in the country, saying that anything short of that was unhealthy for nation building.
According to him, Nigeria as a country must invest heavily on the girl-child education as a means of bridging the gap in school enrolment statistics between boys and girls and disparity in literacy levels adding that a status quo that relegates women to the background is unhealthy for national development.
“Women make up approximately half of the Nigerian population, and it is extremely important that an environment that brings out the best in them and enables them to reach their full potential is provided,” he said.
“Gender should not restrict the dreams and aspirations of millions of our daughters, so we all must be bold for change and support the women around us to achieve their goals and maximise their potentials and talents.
“Recent studies show that Nigerian women are some of the best entrepreneurs in the world. As a nation, we must enact and implement laws and policies to further nurture this entrepreneurial spirit and empower our women.”
Similarly, Arogundade enjoined the Nigerian media to give more voice to the women folks declaring that with adequate support, women could be bolder in contributing to national development.
Arogundade, a former Chairman of the Nigerian Union of Journalists, Lagos Chapter, also called on the media to exercise professional and ethical discretion in reporting issues of violence against women, particularly the girl child, in order to prevent stigmatisation and other negative social consequences.
“On this day, we at IPC are calling on the Nigeria media to address the imbalance in the coverage of women so that their true voices could be heard in politics, elections, governance and development,” he said.
Also to commemorate the anniversary, scores of women from various civil society organisations participated in a road walk in Ikeja, the Lagos State capital with placards bearing different messages in support of Nigerian women.
