As Nigerians set to mark the International Women’s Day on Sunday, various groups including International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA) are postulating the way out to close the gender disparity in the country.
FIDA said on Saturday that in spite of efforts to promote the same opportunities in all areas for the sexes, gender inequality has not been attained.
The Chairperson of the Lagos Chapter of FIDA, Mrs. Philomena Nneji, noted that the celebration is very significant because year 2020 also marks the 25th anniversary of the 1995 World Conference on Women, which had established the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action.
According to her, in spite of the Beijing Declaration, there is still a lot of disparity in the opportunities availed to women in various areas such as education, health, security and as a result, no country has been able to achieve gender equality.
“It is very unfortunate that no country in the whole world can claim to have achieved gender equality, progress has been agonisingly very slow,” she said.
Additional plus Sports and Education Initiative (APSE), a forum organised to mark the International Women’s Day, called for fight against the rising number of depression among women, saying that the ugly trend was alarming.
A guest speaker, Dr. Kehinde Adeyemo, with the presentation on, “Depression and Sport’’. urged women to engage in sporting activities to relax and get out of depression.
“We need our women more because they are the stabilisers of the society, but when depression sets in among them, that is a dangerous trend. Today, we now have more women depressed.
“Women are the ones who are supposed to manage the home front, while the men are at work, but now, things are changing fast, as we now have more women faced with heavy burdens.
“Women now hardly have time to rest, they don’t get enough sleep to rejuvenate their bodies and also get into same process with men, and thus depression sets in.
On the topic, “Role of Women in Moral Value’’, Mrs. Pandora Umechukwu, said that the deteriorating level of moral values in the society was due to overbearing workload on the women.
Empowering Women for Excellence Initiative (EWEI) another NGO, on Saturday engaged in sensitizing female and male secondary school students on some of the gender based issues in Kaduna.
It urged stakeholders, such as the police to redouble efforts in fighting against gender based violence.
The Programme Officer, Monitoring, Evaluation and Accountability of EWEI, Mrs. Aisha Lawal, said that the choice of sensitizing female students together with males was to braise their knowledge on the need for equality and equity amongst both genders.
“There can’t be equality without also engaging the males in such kinds of sensitization, they would learn about the women in their lives and respect them,” she said.
“We have shown them pictures of 199 women who have become great in their respective fields, environment and had contributed to the nations development, this would broaden their minds towards knowing the value of women in their lives,” Lawal said.
Also speaking to the students, the Chief Executive Officer of Legal Awareness for Nigerian Woman, Mrs. Rebecca Sakojohn, expressed her organisation’s commitment to building the capacity of women to dismantle structures and processes that encourage discrimination, injustice and violence against women and the girl-child.
Sakojohn added that the NGO had been in the forefront of bringing gender issues to attention, promoting legal and policy reforms and supporting projects that empower women to bridge the issues of gender inequality.
MM/GIK/APA