Marking International Women’s Day
On Tuesday, March 8,2016, the world marked the International Women’s Day. It is a day when women are recognised for their achievements without regard to divisions, whether national, ethnic, linguistic, cultural, economic or political.
The Day is a time to reflect on progress made, to call for change and to celebrate acts of courage and determination by ordinary women who have played extraordinary roles in the history of their countries and communities.
The day also calls for action to help women and girls achieve their ambitions, even as it places emphasis on gender-balanced leadership, respect and value difference, while developing more inclusive and flexible cultures to root out workplace bias. The theme for this year’s celebration is “Pledge for Parity”, which admonishes men and women to take concrete steps to achieve gender parity more quickly.
The Charter of the United Nations, signed in 1945, was the first international agreement to affirm the principle of equality between women and men. Since then, the UN has helped create a historic legacy of internationally agreed strategies, standards, programmes and goals to advance the status of women worldwide.
Although Nigerian women will join millions of their counter parts worldwide to mark the day, they cannot hide their fears, pains and sorrows. There is no denying that in Nigeria today, millions of women and girls are still being maltreated and dehumanised in the name of marriage tradition and customs.
Unfortunately, the culture of silence, lack of institutional support, preference to male child, sex stereotype, religious beliefs, poor economic base, low participation in politics and decision making have not helped in changing or improving the lives of Nigerian women. Even when there has been substantial progress among women in various fields of endeavour, the vast majority of them are still finding it difficult to excel in the erroneous belief that this is a man’s world and women should be relegated to the background. To continue living in self-resignation is not the best for our women. That is why we are advocating that they be given their pride of place in our society and their outstanding accomplishments acknowledged, even as we continue to tap their potential for the advancement of the country. It bears repeating that Nigeria must do away with practices that generally debase women and the girl child. Instances abound where many parents in rural communities still believe that the girl child does not have to go to school because it would amount to a waste of time and resources since she will be married off. Moreover, it is worrisome that the rate of violence against women and the persistent deaths of women due to complications of pregnancies and childbirth remain a major debacle for many of them.
Sadly, Nigeria is ranked amongst the countries where pregnancy is unsafe to carry. According to World Bank data, Nigeria ranks ninth worst in the world with 630 deaths per 100,000 from 10 years data collected from 1990-2010.
It is therefore time the authorities and other relevant agencies engage in massive sensitisation campaigns to abolish obnoxious practices that militate against women, even as efforts are geared towards education of the women folk. We are saying this because when a woman is educated, the positive multiplier effect is usually immeasurable.
