JOLEDO Oyewole, Chief Volunteer of ServeLead Global, an NGO, on Wednesday underscored the need for investment in platforms for women empowerment to achieve meaningful growth in Nigeria.

Oyewole, a 2018 Mandela Washington Fellow, gave the advice in his address at the Scicom women conference 2019 event which held in Abuja.

The event on the theme: “Communicating SDGs in Sustainable Way”, was organised by ServeLead Global.

According to him, this is important because when women are saying they want this or that and there are lots of pocket holes it shows much needs to be done.

Oyewole said, “There is really no synergy to have loud resounding voice, so we ask ourselves how we can do this.

“Women need platforms to express themselves; education is one tool with capacity for them to express themselves.

“It has ability to move us toward more gender equality society and country; if over 5o per cent of 180 million people living in Nigeria are women, almost 100 million persons are women.

“Even the way the earth is divided in population between male and female tells us that we need gender equality and appeals for creation of enabling environment for women to thrive.”

He further said that there should be collaboration and networking to enable women to push for a more gender nation.

Mrs Eugenia Abu, a Multimedia Strategist/Broadcast Executive, said that gender balance and equality was basically all about hard work and where you told yourself you wanted to take yourself.

She said that although governments at all levels would play their part, women should pull themselves individually to achieve targets.

According to her, you must tell yourself this is where I want to go and how I want to get there; make every opportunity count that you have encountered in your lifetime.

“A gender balanced society is a sine qua non for society that grows is sustainable, and is at peace with itself.

“Women’s hope is to attain the sky but they are not given their full potential.
“We are missing in education, entrepreneurship, health and in peaceful living, due to gender-based violence.

“SDG-5 concerning gender equality serves as goal for achieving gender equality and empowers all women and girls,” Abu said.

She advised the participants to always make their marks no matter the environment that they found themselves.
Also speaking, the 2019 winner of Leadercom contest, Miss Rabiyat Usman, called for collaborative support for attainment of gender equality and diversity and for optimal productivity.

Usman said, “We need to go beyond primordial sentiments, cultural beliefs and tradition. We need parents who will raise boys as well as girls with equal opportunity and discipline.

“I want to see a generation where we will allow girls unlock their potential and dream big.

“Together we can create a world where men and women have equal rights, equal pay, respect and equal treatment.”

Mrs Aisha Salahudeen, a participant, commended the event as educative in terms of gender principles.

Salahudeen, a girl-child rights advocate, suggested that there should be awareness creation to encourage women participation in such conference.
News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Servelead Global is an organisation that is committed to the betterment of humanity through training of women on gender balance and gender equality.

-NAN

BE

– May 29, 2019 @ 18:05 GMT |