How To Sustain Women, By Jonathan, Azikiwe, Others

Two former First Ladies of Nigeria, Dame Patience Jonathan and Prof Uche Azikiwe have enjoined the menfolk to join forces with the women to move the country and Rivers State forward.
Dame Jonathan, who delivered a keynote address at the Rivers State Golden Jubilee anniversary for Women’s Day at the Dr. Obi Wali Conference Centre, yesterday, in Port Harcourt, stressed that the importance of women in the political and economic life cannot be ignored.
While listing the milestones of some Rivers women in various spheres of governance, Dame Jonathan observed that Rivers State has produced the first female Deputy Governor, a Chief Judge, Customary Court of Appeal and Supreme Court Justices.
She lauded the state Governor, Chief Nyesom Wike, for pursuing the nation’s gender policy which recommends 35 per cent of positions to women, and emphasized that a mix of both men and woman brings balance in governance.
She called on women to stop playing the second fiddle and ensure they assert themselves in politics, saying, “we need to prepare, we need to struggle, we need to pray, we need to fast and we need to follow peace.”
On her part, Prof Uche Azikiwe, in her paper titled, “Status of Women and Politics in Nigeria,” noted that one feat done by the Wike administration was to select a woman as deputy.
The wife of late Owelle of Onitsha and Nigeria’s first President, argued that women are not the weak vessels, but that society has labelled them so as to put them behind.
She urged women to break from such label and submitted that research has shown that women and men have the same intelligent quotient.
Azikiwe believed that when men collaborate with women, the society will be better, recalling that, “before colonial rule, women played serious role in the communities and such role can still be revived today.”
On her part, a woman leader in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Hajia Aisha Aliyu, said the state has a lot to celebrate as the governor for the first time chose a female as deputy.
She was of the belief that after exhausting his tenure, Wike may handover to a female governor, as she urged the governor to continue with the good works he is doing in the state.
Also, Senator Grace Folashade Bent from Adamawa South Constituency, stated that every woman was free and superior, and advised women not see themselves as inferior.
Bent appealed to Wike to always give women support to grow in politics and economically.
Commenting on the paper, Mrs Eunice Igwe, a top woman leader in Rivers State, emphasized the importance of government in women development.
She called on women to be focused and work hard in their professions in order to make impact.
The same view was held by former chairperson of Federation of International Women Lawyers in the state, Mrs. Florence Amiesimaka, who held that women should use their various social clubs in communities as launch pad to display their leadership skills.
Similarly, former chairperson of National Council of Women Societies, Mrs. Hannah Agumah, harped on the need for advocacy.
Through advocacy, she said we can engage community leaders and other players at the local level to fully involve women by jettisoning some harmful practices that bar them in contributing to development.