- Expresses hope Binani will be first female governor
- As CSOs demand punishment for cyber bullying of women
From Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Abuja
The Minister of Women Affairs, Pauline Tallen, has describing as heartbreaking and disappointing the performance of women candidates in just concluded 2023 general elections.
She said the elections was tough for women who participated and congratulated those who won their elections, urging them to lift the hands of other women up in the cause of their work.
While assuring that the women will not give up, she expressed hope that they will turn the tide in the upcoming rerun elections on April 15, 2023.
Tallen stated this at the 2023 National Women’s Conference, with the theme: “Inclusive Technology and Digital Education for Gender Equality and Women Empowerment”, as part of activities to end the International Women’s Month.
Tallen, though congratulating the 78 candidates that made women proud at the general elections, described the poor outing as a gory picture for a country called the giant of Africa.
She lamented that she received on daily basis reports of how women were robbed of their mandate, with the more painful one being Aisha Binani, the All Progressives Congress (APC), gubernatorial candidate in Adamawa State elections.
The Minister urged women to go on their knees and pray that all women participating in the rerun elections come April 15th, will emerge victorious.
“My heart bleeds for this year’s election. When I think of what happened this year, I feel like screaming and crying but we cannot give up,” she said.
“We will celebrate the few women that emerged at a later date after the April 15th re-run.
“From the present statistics gathered from the field; we have 6 female Deputy Governors out of 36, 3 Female Senators (all new) out of 109, 15 female Members House of Representatives (old and new) out of 360 and 54 females in the State Houses of Assembly in all.
“The picture is truly gory as we had expected better results due to our agitations and advocacy, but our dreams did not come true. Each day, I receive reports of women who were robbed of their victories. The most painful one is the case of our Sister Senator Binani, who from all indications would have emerged the winner, having emerged the most popular candidate in Adamawa State. But, all hope is not lost, as I believe that with the elections declared inconclusive and rerun scheduled for 15th of this month, we will rejoice in the end.
“I wish to therefore seize this occasion to appreciate and commend Nigerian women for coming out en-mass to cast their votes and for those who particularly supported the women on the ballot papers; I pray that you will also find support at your moments of needs. I know that a number of men who were tired of the statusquo also supported the women. I thank you on their behalf.
“We must take heart and pray for our country. We must find a way to put women on the table if not elected, by appointed,” she said.
Speaking on women in ICT, the Minister noted that since the beginning of the revolution in the digital world, so many gains and huge successes have been recorded in the space with women been left behind.
“Today, about 3 billion people are still unconnected to the digital space especially internet, with majority of them being women and girls in developing countries. Women make up less than one third of the work force across science and technology, engineering and mathematics and in cutting edge fields like artificial intelligence, just as one in five professionals is a woman.
“In Nigeria, the information and communication technology (ICT) sector has contributed 18.44% to Nigeria’s gross domestic product (GDP) in the second quarter of 2022 and the industry is projected to experience more leap in the future.
“This growth is significant when compared to the fact that ICT contributed less than 1% to Nigeria’s GDP in 2001. However, despite the rapid growth of the country’s tech sector, only very few women have the opportunity to participate at the ecosystem which is largely dominated by men. It is also disheartening that only about 30% of 93 surveyed technology companies in Nigeria are owned by women and more than third of these companies employed no woman at all (NBS).
Kemi Bolarinwa, was presented with an award for inventing the Smart Bra for early detection of cancer, using nano technology.
She also hailed Funke Opeke a Nigerian female electrical engineer; Founder of Main Street Technologies and Chief Executive Officer of Main One Cable Company, who is providing Internet services to over 15 African Countries;
Kofo Akinkugbe another Nigerian female Technology entrepreneur; Founder and CEO of SecureID, “Africa’s leading manufacturer of smart cards and other identity documents. Her group of companies owns Nigeria’s first SIM card production plant, which has been in operations since December 2016. Her company is certified by Visa, Verve and Mastercard, and exports SIM cards to 21 other African countries;
Hajiya Rakiya Mohammed, Director Information and Communication Technology (ICT) of the Central Business of Nigeria (CBN) who is currently championing the e-Naira project in Nigeria. She is the first female to graduate with a first class in ICT from the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi;
Dr Amina Sambo-Magaji, First female First class PHD holder in Artificial Intelligence. She is currently with NITDA,
And five young Nigerian girls; Promise Nnalue, Jessica Osita, Nwabuaku Ossai, Adaeze Onuigbo and Vivian Okoye from Regina Paces Secondary School, Onitsha, Anambra State, who represented Nigeria and Africa at the World Technovation Challenge in the Silicon Valley in San Francisco, USA in August 2018. Led by Uchenna Onwuamaegbu Ugwu, the team, defeated representatives of other technological giants including the USA, Spain, Turkey, Uzbekistan and China in the world’s greatest technological hub with a mobile application called the FD-Detector developed to help tackle the challenges of fake pharmaceutical products in Nigeria.
Meanwhile, the Civil Society Organisations has condemned in strong terms cyber bullying of women, advocating for strong punishment on those found wanting in this regard.
The Country Director, Plan International, Charles Usie, said ways need to be identified to punish men who engage in cyber bullying.
He advised that as technology advance women must make sure it doesn’t take away jobs for women through empowering them in ICT.