Women, children mostly affected by corruption, says WARDC

Okwe Obi and Charity Nwakaudu Abuja

The Women Advocates Research, Documentation Centre ( WARDC) has claimed that women and children are mostly affected by corruption in Nigeria.

It explained that corruption, over the years, has played a critical role in hindering the economic fortunes of women, and the right for them to be free from all forms of violence.

WARDC’s Executive Director, Abiola Akiyode-Afolabi made this disclosure at an interface meeting between women and service providers yesterday in Abuja.

She, insisted that corruption can be drastically reduced if women are brought into governance to contribute their quota and cater for the family.

“Corruption has played a great role in hindering women’s political participation, access to Justice, peace, security and economic empowerment. Its impact is more magnified amongst the vulnerable group in the society which women and children belong.

“Corruption can be successfully reduced if we put women and the night mechanisms at the centre of the equation. One of the aim of our intervention in the fight against corruption is to ensure a reduction in corruption by changing public attitudes that increasingly disapprove of corrupt activities.

“We believe that through this meeting with the Nigerian service providers, we will have a great opportunity to increase the influence of citizens participation on decision making and women will be able to negotiate in the development and implementations of strategies in areas
of development which has been hindered by corrupt practices.”

Deputy Director, Monitoring, National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Titilayo Samuel, stated that women easily get molested because they are ignorant of the law.

She admonished them to be more knowledgeable of the law and actively participate in political activities to achieve their goals.