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From Noah Ebije, Kaduna
A Non-governmental organisation, Lizzy Foundation has sought partnership with Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Kaduna State Council to address violence attack and abuse against women, particularly during general elections in the country.
In the same vein, Anglican Compassion and Development Initiative (ACADI), a faith-based organisation of the Church of Nigeria called on the NUJ for collaboration to tackle Gender Based Violence (GBV) in the country.
The two groups respectively visited the leadership of the Kaduna NUJ on courtesy call on Tuesday.
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Lizzy Foundation, Mrs Elizabeth Ache said she and her team decided to visit the NUJ for collaboration to ensure that violence that are targeted at women during elections are reduced to the bearest minimum, adding that women should be encouraged to participate fully in politics for a better society.
According to her, “,There were concerns at a point during election violence and conflicts, women were more tortured. We are now out to advocate to different agencies and organisations to ensure that those issues are taken care of. We know and record has shown that women are more into voting during election and they need to be taken care of. In this regard the role of journalists is very important in terms of partnership for information dissemination.
“Part of things we do is empowerment; it is not just to give women money to go into business, but we empower them to raise thier voices so that thier voices can be heard in the political scene. Our organisation has been chosen to represent women institutions in Kaduna State. Now the NUJ which is an embodiment of journalists from different organisations, we find a very critical stakeholders in them and the role that the media play, sending out messages and playing the role of a watchdog in the society, the role of intermediary between the people and the government, your role as a Union is very critical. How do we give women the voice to speak out in the political scene to show that they too have something to give back to the society, not necessarily to the position of men.
“We are hopeful that NUJ will adopt a strategy to give more voices to the women to open spaces for more women to come out without fear of political intimidation. We believe that when NUJ collaborate with us, more women will be enlightened in this regard to get results”. Mrs Ache said.
On his part, the leader of ACADI, Rev. Victor Eboh explained that, “We are representing Church of Nigeria, Anglican Communion and the Kaduna Diocese at the State level. We have been in operation since 2005, and our emphasis is on health, girl child education, empowerment and what have you. But in the rural community we work with the government, my partners and donors to be able to give health delivery to augment what government is doing.
“Then the issue of gender based violence, there was an increase in 2020 given the pandemic that actually revealed the gender based violence that we are seeing in our society and around us today. And that is why we dived into the issue of gender and what can we do to ensure that gender issues are sorted out within our community.
“And so to that fact, we have to seek the hands of network with the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) knowing fully well that you people are gateway through which individuals and society can actually get information. We know that the sensitisation, mobilisation and education on this issue can easily be carried out by journalists.
“It is three years programme and within these three years as a church, we will tell women not to abuse their husbands, men not to abuse their wives, we will tell children not to abuse privileges and other things. But primarily our emphasis is on the woman and the girl child because statistics showed that the woman and the girl child are practically abused in their day to day dealings.
“All we are doing is to see that we are able to educate the people to live in harmony and we are doing this for a period of three years. But we say we cannot do this successfully if we don’t engage the media organisations in order for the public to actually know what we are doing. That is why we here on a courtesy call to NUJ secretariat”
Responding, the Chairman, NUJ, Kaduna State Council, Hajiya Asmau Yawo Halilu assured the respective visiting teams of NUJ’s support to fight violence against women and girl child through media reports.
“We are happy to receive you and we appreciate the fact that you found us worthy to partner with us, and like you have said, we also know that no sector of the country can survive without information. Everybody wants to work with journalists for the sake of information, sensitisation and enlightenment.
“We know that women are vulnerable and they are also the weaker sex. They are vulnerable to attack. So your initiative is a good one. We want to assure you that we will collaborate with you and work with you whenever you need our services. It is said that when you educate a woman, you educate the whole nation. So female gender is very important in everybody’s life”. Asmau Halilu said.
