Group Tasks Community Leader On Leadership

A  two-day leadership training  workshop for men on gender-related issues has ended in Enugu, the capital city of Enugu State with a call on participants as leaders of their  various communities  to go home and provide platforms to discuss and implement ideas for stronger communities where men and women are equally respected  and valued.

Making the  call in an address at the workshop which was organised by a civil  society Group, Women for Women International Nigeria in colaboration with Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (Nigeria), held at Bridge Water Hotel, Enugu, the country Director of the group, Chief Ngozi U. Eze, also urged the participants to help create awareness on  how leaders could be more responsive to  issues of concern to gender in relation to the development sectors of their communities.

Participants, she said, were 30 men leaders drawn from six local government areas of Enugu State, including Enugu East, Nkanu East,  Uzo-Uwani, Mbanabo, Aninri, and Awgu where the group is currently carrying out some pilot  projects.

According to the groups country  Director, Women for Women International has already worked in over 28 communities in Enugu and Plateau States with over 27,00 socially excluded women.

Speaking at the occasion, a former Commissioner for Gender Affairs and  Social Development, Enugu State, Mrs. Vivienne A. Eze, equally thanked the organisers of the workshop for recognising  the need, for men to be equal participants in ensuring that women take their rightful place in development of the country.

Mrs. Eze observed that it was a proven fact that addressing women’s problems without making men key stakeholders would end up in absolute fiasco.

This, she went on, thus makes the workshop pertinent for effective gender mainstreaming in Enugu State.

Also in her own speech, the representative of Friedrick Ebert stiftung Lagos, Mrs Remi Ifejika, described the body as a non-profit making institution working in more than 100 countries of the world.

Mrs Ifejika explained that the organisation was founded by the first democratically elected president of Germany who was a “humble craftsman and social democrats.”

Continuing, Mrs Ifejika further said: “the organisation is committed to the ideas and basic values of social democracy”, urging all the participants to uplift their various communities in the over all interest of the people.

During the workshop, useful remarks were also made by the special assistant to the Enugu State Governor on good governance and civil society relatives, Mrs Tochi eze, and the executive Secretary, Economic planning commission, Mr. Dan Onyishi. In her two  papers entitled  “Gender based violence, over view of the widow and widower’s fundamental Rights Law 2001, of Enugu State, as well as gender mainstreaming in programmes, Iruka Nwokedi identified gender-related violence as rape, sexual abuse, sexual harassment, forced prostitution, child marriage, female genital mutilation, women and girls’ trafficking, domestic violence and obnoxious widowhood practices, among others.

Focusing on gender mainstreaming, Nwokedi pointed out that it involves positive actions, commitment and situation a  nalysis using a participatory and consultative approach in an equitable way that ensures integration of men and women in all aspects of development programmes.