.
By Derrick Bangura

Aisha Buhari, Nigeria’s First Lady, has advocated for concerted efforts to promote women’s equality and empowerment in the country in order to foster sustainable development.
Buhari made the call on Thursday during a Women in Culture event hosted by the Chinese Embassy in Abuja in honor of International Women’s Day in 2022.

The First Lady, who was represented by the Special Assistant to the President on Women Affairs and Administration, Dr Rukayatu Gurin, lamented the National Assembly’s rejection of a bill promoting women’s interests.

She did, however, praise women’s fortitude while encouraging them to do more.
He said more needed to be done to ensure provision of health, education, employment to women and the vulnerable, adding that the Aisha Buhari Foundation and Future Assured have in partnership and collaborations contributed to a lot of development of women, youths and children.

She noted that the theme of this year’s celebration; Gender Equality for Sustainable Development did not only identify the vital role of women in sustainable development, “But also signifies the role of women as mothers, sisters and daughters in engineering sustainable development.”

She added that: “The role cannot be effectively executed without promoting partnerships and collaborations in the provision of education, health and empowerment to women and youth.

“My Foundation, the Aisha Buhari and Future Assured have in partnership and collaborations contributed a lot to the development of women, youth and children.

“On this special day, I thank the Ambassador and our development partners for working hard to promote women development. To our women, I salute your resilience and encourage you to do more.

“To our stakeholders, I urge you to network more and intensify efforts to do more for women and children to reduce the effects of climate change.”

The First Lady said/ “We need everybody’s support in providing education, health, employment, empowerment for women and the vulnerable.

“I therefore call upon all to join hands in promoting women equality, and empowerment for sustainable development.”

On her part, the wife of the Chinese Ambassador to Nigeria, Mrs. Huili Liang, said women are founders of human civilization and promoters of social progress, hence special indicators to measure the progress of social civilization.

Liang said that China realizing the importance of women implements the basic national policy of equality between men and women, therefore incorporates women’s development into national-economic and social-development plans.

“With joint efforts of the whole society, Chinese women have made great progress in all fields, their status in economics, decision making management, health, education have been continuously improved.

“The gender gap narrowed from 4.1 percentage points higher for females than males in 2010 to 2.8 percentage points higher.

“The proportion of female employees in the whole society remains above 40 per cent, the poverty alleviation of rural poor women has achieved an overall victory.

“By the end of 2020, women accounted for about half of the nearly 100 million people who had been lifted out of poverty.

“The proportion of deputies to the National Women’s Congress and members of the Chinese People’s Consultative Congress is the highest in history,” Liang said.

Liang however noted that despite these achievements, the protection of women’s equal rights in employment, personal property, marriage and family still faces practical difficulties.
She also emphasized the importance of a global coordinated effort to end all forms of discrimination and inequality against women and the vulnerable.

Mrs Sulola Onyeama, wife of Nigeria’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, praised Nigerian women for their efforts, resilience, and participation in all sectors.

Onyeama encouraged the women to keep doing more and to never give up.