IWD: Early Empowerment, Panacea To Economic Emancipation For Women, Olori Atuwatse III
As World Wednesday marked the International Women’s Day, the Olori Atuwatse III of Warri Kingdom, has stressed the imperativeness of early empowerment for women noting that such hold key towards achieving and sustaining economic empowerment for women.
The Warri Queen at International women’s day interactive dinner and networking hosted by Dotmount communication therefore, advocated for an institutional framework that will fast-track policies aimed at expanding the social economic potentials of women in Nigeria and World over.
Olori who was recently appointed by President Muhammadu Buhari to serve as a member of the High Level Advisory Committee, (HLAC) on Women Economic Empowerment and Gender in Nigeria spoke at an interactive dinner and networking held at the prestigious Wells Carlton Hotels & Apartments in Abuja to mark IWD.
The women and child advocate also decry low women representation in political positions for women in Nigeria and appealed to the incoming administration to take a cue from other climes with fair share for women representation on political positions.
She disclosed that addressing some of the challenges against women’s development, the Olu of Warri and herself established the Royal Iwere Foundation with the aim of upscaling and advancing positively women and child empowerment in Warri Kingdom.
“Often, when we talk about economic and social empowerment, we concentrate on women who are already in the labour force. While this is good, early empowerment is better. I am an advocate in the power of early empowerment, we must start from girlhood. We must start with education, sensitisation, and breaking the barriers that hold young girls back from knowing their potential early on.
“For decades, access to education has changed women’s lives globally, empowering many to realize their career potential, and saving many from oppressive socio-economic situations.
“The more we invest in girl-child education, the likelier it is that all Nigerian girls will grow into economically empowered women. Besides achieving early empowerment by creating access to Montessori and STEM education for children, RIF is sustaining empowerment through its skills institute.
“Currently, in Nigeria, women makeup less than 10% of our political representatives. This means we are not reflected nearly enough in the process that makes political and economic decisions that shape our lives.
“Some governments across the world have instituted policies and laws to improve representation, and I hope with the forthcoming administration, Nigeria will follow suit and have stricter laws that do the same. Greater female representation in government will go a long way in creating an enabling and sustaining environment for women’s social and economic empowerment.
The 2023 International Women’s Day, has its theme: ‘Digit all: Innovation and Technology for Gender Equality’
Also speaking at the event, Ahmed Dahiru Modibbo, who has over 30 years of professional experience as a corporate lawyer, administrator and governance practitioner confessed that his experiences caused him to see what women need to do to scale up their abilities to have them in the right places with the right skills, talents and opportunities to make a change for our continent.
Mr Modibbo further emphasized that, “Networking is fundamental to ensuring visibility in the industry because there only so much women’s competence and expertise can achieve. Nominations to Boards are usually facilitated by networks and participation in informal forums like clubs, social events and so on. Women are typically absent when conversations about Board appointments are discussed.”
On her part, Aisha Salisu stated that in the quest for a gender-balanced society, women need to remove self-limitations and rise above those placed by society, you can be anything you choose to be, set your goals and chart a course to achieving them”.
This she said can be achieved by promoting equity while supporting women in STEM fields since doing so benefits all individuals, groups, and nations.
In the keynote speech presented by the CEO of Urban Shelter, Hajia Saadiya Aminu, on Equal Rights to Economic Resources and Property Ownership, noted that women “need to move at the skill and speed that is required to play to win and this can be achieved by improving access to education, capital, legal rights, patriarch systems, regulisation and enforcement of land rights and property ownership.
“For decades, access to education has changed women’s lives globally, empowering many to realize their career potential, and saving many from oppressive socio-economic situations.
The discussion came to an end with an insightful speech from the Special Guest, Dr Yemisi Suswam, who encouraged the women present to grow their network and master the art of collaboration to achieve multiplied results.
Speaking on the topic, “Innovation and Technology for Gender Equality”. She said” Evaluating the gains in the world today, I think there’s a notable achievement but looking inward Africa, we are generally moving up but in Nigeria specifically, we aren’t there yet in the area of gender equality. And as the theme of this year suggests, I am trusting that every woman, every girl in the digital world will be able to seize this as a wake-up call to deploy all the digital machineries to promote equality.
I therefore call on the youth of our nation not to rest on their oars because they are equally marginalized and if the women are in, they are rest assured that they are also in. We need each other We need the youth We need the media- just like the organizers, publishers of pleasure magazine All hands must be on deck
Every woman presents at the event made individual promises on the ‘Commitment Wall’ to lift other women up and bring them to the table, by impactfully leveraging their sphere of influence. Progress made with the promises written on the Commitment Wall will be monitored and evaluated throughout the course of the year.
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