- Assures on FG’s commitment to women, youth development
From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
Ms Rinsola Abiola, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Leadership and Citizenship, has called for legislative measures to protect women’s rights and promote their empowerment.
Abiola, who spoke at the Young Women’s Leadership Conference held in Abuja on Wednesday, noted that the important components of women’s empowerment include rights and legal protection, and laws that will deliver on their equity and protection to ultimately boost their overall development and performance.
She also revealed that President Bola Tinubu is actively working to strengthen programmes and policies that will promote the growth and development of women and youths in Nigeria.
The SSA said: “I believe that there are very important components of women’s empowerment, namely: rights and legal protection, and this is about enacting laws that deliver on equity and protection for our girls and women; economic empowerment. This can be linked to key indicators like education and labour force participation; and political representation, as opposed to just participation.
“Today, we will talk about laws and the effort to safeguard your rights, we will talk about youth initiatives, we will talk about political representation and how we can work together to close the gender gap across all facets of our national life.
“Please, rest assured that we are not just here to talk, the recommendations we make and the resolutions we reach at this conference will form the basis of further engagements and detailed advisory to Mr President, through the Ministry for Youth Development,” she stated.
Ms Abiola also disclosed that President Tinubu, among other things, has been actively providing support for women to achieve their dreams through programmes, policies and inclusion in government.
“Therefore, it is imperative that the youths and women are trained and empowered to take full advantage of the opportunities the government is providing for them. One of the ways of doing so is the conference for women on leadership.
“There are also many initiatives in store that both genders can benefit from and I pledge my commitment to running an inclusive office that is dedicated to promoting civic education and developing the leadership potentials of our young people, male and female,” she noted.
While commending the President for a remarkable appointment in his government, the presidential aide said: “We have a president who is committed to gender mainstreaming, as evidenced by the appointment of an unprecedented number of women into key positions. I am one of them, and as I serve as his SSA on Citizenship and Leadership, I make bold to say that a significant proportion of my colleagues are female. Going into the Federal Executive Council, President Tinubu also made history by appointing a capable young woman in the person of Dr. Jamila Bio Ibrahim as Minister for Youth Development. That is in addition to other capable women manning key ministries.
“An administration of many firsts, the President has also appointed women to head agencies like NIPOST, FAAN and NEMA for the first time ever. I have the confidence to convene this conference because I know that my principal, President Tinubu, is a true He-for-She champion in every sense of the word. And he has not only appointed women for the sake of tokenism; no, he has placed highly qualified and competent on women in important positions.
“Someday, God willing, we will have ministers, Directors-General, Executive Secretaries, presidential aides, lawmakers, presiding officers, deputy governors, governors, vice presidents, presidents, captains of industry and highly successful business owners and homemakers from among the young women seated here.
“All your dreams are valid – whatever they are – and our dream is to build a nation that works for us all, men and women, side by side, living fulfilling lives and contributing to nation-building as partners in progress,” he stressed.
She expressed gratitude to the Minister for Youth Development, Jamila Bio Ibrahim, Minister of State for Youth Development, Ayodele Olawande, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Youth, Dunoma Ahmed, leadership of the Citizenship and Leadership Training Centre (CLTC) and National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), for their support.