The Kogi Government is to empower 30,000 women across the 239 wards of the State in political participation and leadership.
Malam Nasir Ohiani, Special Adviser to Gov. Yahaya Bello on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), made this known in Lokoja at a two-day training workshop for women in elective and appointive positions in the 21 Local Government Councils in the state.
For this, Ohiani, who was represented by by Mr Henry Chinweuba, his Technical Assistant, said the women will be coached to become stronger and more successful in political participation.
The programme, he said, to be executed under the System Resilience Building Approach to Women Leadership of the state SDGs to increase the number of women in elective and appointive political offices.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the training workshop organised by the state SDG in collaboration with Centre for Women Studies and Intervention (CWSI) had 21 Vice Chairpersons and 21 Council Leaders from the 21 Local Government Councils.
Ohiani said the training was part of the SDGs’ office initiative to build women leadership in the state and foster it under the “System Resilience-Building Approach to Women Leadership.
“We have divided the state structure into 1,000 communities and we are planning to empower 30 women in each of the communities.
“If we have 30,000 women active in Kogi politics, that is a huge number. That is our plan and we sratrt the journey today”, he said.
Also speaking, Rev. Sister Ngozi Uti, Executive Director, CWSI, urged the 42 local councils duty bearers to ensure that they use their positions to place women in their rightful places.
“In Nigeria, the people of Kogi have demonstrated their zeal to promote women participation in political leadership by electing 21 women as vice chairpersons and 21 Council leaders of the local councils in the 21 local government areas of the state.
“Gov. Bello, during his swearing-in, emphasised his desire to uphold the 35 per cent Affirmative Action for women in elective and appointive positions as envisioned by the National Gender Policy”, she said.
Also speaking, Dr Ifeyinwa Okolo of the Department of English, Federal University, Lokoja called for not just awareness but sensitization on gender equality and uniformity in decision making space.
Okolo, who spoke on “Gender Equality in Leadership”, said it was expected that at the end of the capacity training:”women will be able to function effectively in their new positions, understand the imbalance better and take steps to bridge the gaps.
