IWD: Tinubu, UN, others celebrate women

To mark 2024 Women’s Day, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the Minister of Women Affairs, Barrister Uju Kennedy Ohaneye, unveiled the Nigeria for Women programmes, which consist of the E-Market portal, the National Women Helpline, the Naija for Nigerian Women Brigade, and the Be Informed National Broadcast, yesterday, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

Representing the President, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, George Akume, said the roll-out of the programmes was a reflection of his commitment to improving the lives of Nigerian women.

In their farewell speeches, both the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar and the Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi, commended the women’s affairs minister for her initiative and advised that she puts in place a structure of accountability to ensure that women’s lives, especially those in rural areas, were improved on as intended.

The UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, in an opinion piece on 2024 IWD stressed the need to have public and private investment in programmes to end violence against women, ensure decent work, and drive women’s inclusion and leadership in digital technologies, peacebuilding, climate action across all sectors of the economy.

Leader of the Senate, Opeyemi Bamidele (APC Ekiti Central), in a statement on Thursday, by his directorate of media and public affairs, in commemoration of the 2024 International Women’s Day, expressed concern over what he called weak investment in women in Nigeria.

A group of northern women at a roundtable on ‘Prospects of Women Political Participation in Nigeria’ organised by CARE International-Nigeria, United Kingdom Foreign Commonwealth and Development (FCDO) and other partners, with the theme #InspireInclusion, as part of activities marking this year’s International Women’s Day 2024, called for greater roles for them to contribute to the region and national developments.

Similarly, during a livelihood project exhibition in commemoration of the 2024 IWD organised in Kano by the Centre for Community Development & Research Network in partnership with the UN Women, the programme analyst of the United Nations Women, Dr Olaniyi Aderigbe, urged women to deploy the skills they have benefitted from the United Nations Women projects to employ others so that the womenfolk would be self-reliant in society.