BREAKING NEWS, Women
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At a symposium held hosted by the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism and Centre for Black and African Art and Culture, Lagos, women advocates make a case for gender parity even as the Senate kicks against it
| By Anayo Ezugwu | Mar 28, 2016 @ 01:00 GMT |
WITH the rejection of the Gender Parity Bill by the National Assembly, Owanari Bobmanuel Duke, chairman, Child Survival and Development Organisation of Nigeria, has called for advocacy and action on gender parity. Duke made the call on Tuesday, March 15, at a symposium hosted by the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism, WSCIJ, and the Centre for Black and African Art and Culture, CBAAC, in Lagos focused on gender parity at all levels of society.
The event was to lend a voice to the need for Nigeria as a country to harness the potential of its female population for its development. The wife of the former governor of Cross Rivers State argued that the government should provide and enforce laws that would ensure a level playing ground for girls and women to reduce discrimination against the group.
Besides, Duke urged girls and women to be in order to salvage the country from the culture of patriarchy. “No one will give you power, you must take it within the ambit of decency,” she said.
On her part, Gloria Chuma-Ibe, director, exhibition and museum, CBAAC, asked women and men to take personal decision to be better individuals to further gender synergy in the country. She said that individuals needed to move out of the primitive mode to better understand the difference between right and wrong in their environments, which would lead to effective gender parity.
In his contribution, Ropo Sekoni, board chairman, WSCIJ, highlighted the importance of cultural development to further gender equality. “Culture and tradition is never static, it is always dynamic”, Sekoni said. He also stated the need for accurate data on gender gap in Nigeria and the need for a policy on gender character, which he advised should be implemented better than the federal character provision of the country. He encouraged men to also take up the baton to improve gender parity adding that: “the future of our children depends on both men and women.”
Another discussant, Nike Davies-Okundaye, managing director, Nike Art Gallery, urged women to continue to do well and focus on improving their skills in their various fields sharing the story of how she rose beyond the oppression of poverty and polygamy by concentrating on her art of cloth dyeing. According to her, she refused to be stopped from reaching her full potential by her inability to study beyond primary six by honing her skills.
Meanwhile, on the same day, the Senate rejected the Bill on Gender Parity and Prohibition of Violence Against Women presented by Abiodun Olujimi, a senator from Ekiti State, during the Senate’s plenary on the grounds that it ran contrary to the culture, religion and the Nigerian constitution. Ali Ndume, Senate Majority Leader and Sani Yerima, among others, spoke against the bill.
It could be called that on March 8, Ndume in his contribution to the motion to mark the International Women’s Day, IWD, by Remi Tinubu, chairman, Senate committee on Women Affairs, advised that men take more wives in order to take care of women. He advised Bukola Saraki, Senate president, to take the lead in this regard. “As a sign of respect for women, let’s urge men to marry more than one wife,” Ndume said.
The symposium which was to commemorate the IWD was the third activity in a series of initiatives to support the Pledge for Parity theme of the 2016 edition of the programme in celebration of the prowess of women and in support of their continuous struggle to stop being treated as less human than their male counterparts. The first two activities were a walkathon creating awareness on gender parity and a Twitter chat on gender parity in the newsroom held on March 8 and 11 respectively.
The meeting commenced with the viewing of the Report Women: The untold stories of girls and women, a documentary produced by the WSCIJ to tell stories of lack of access to opportunities and continuous abuse as they affect girls and women in Nigeria. Another highlight of the event was the exhibition of works of art and pictures depicting the strength of women by the CBAAC.
The WSCIJ under its Report Women project, commenced in 2014, has trained eighty reporters across the country and commissioned thirty-one stories to improve the quantum and quality of reportage of girls and women issues in Nigeria. It has also published a documentary available on You Tube, as well as engaged with the National Human Rights Commission to further the cause of this marginalised group. The centre alongside the media and other stakeholders will continue to work towards a country where the rights of the female are upheld as human rights.
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