EMPOWERING WOMEN FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA.

Email:. talk2tijanihassan@gmail.com

Zaria, Nigeria.

Women empowerment as a vague term is the process of strengthening the existing capacities and capabilities of the women folks as part of the disadvantaged groups in the society so as to enable them perform towards improving themselves, their families and the country as a whole.

Women generally all over the world and in Nigeria to be specific are generally endowed with immense potentials which have been neglected over the years due to the kind of society they found themselves.

The emotional and physical configuration of women by God gives them the ability to perform their traditional duties at home while also performing wonderfully well when called upon to hold any position of responsibility in the Society.

With Nigeria’s female population estimated at 83 million; about 49% of the country’s over 170 million people, the need for financial inclusion of women to boost development and employment opportunities is becoming increasingly urgent especially at this point of economic hardship despite exiting recession.

There is no doubt that the trend of boosting women’s empowerment in the fast changing and globalizing world is as important as it is indispensable. This is because women constitute the most viable resources of a Nation and remain important economic power-blocks waiting to be tapped in the quest for sustainable development.

Research has shown that women are endowed with limitless acumen and vast entrepreneurial skills that should be deployed to diversify and catalyze economic growth; but the revise is the case as Nigeria’s current economic landscape reveals that women own less capital and productive resources than men.

“It is imperative to note that education is a potential tool in the emancipation and empowerment of Women to contribute their own quota to National development”

According to Aisha Jummai Alhassan, Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development,“if we are to accelerate transition towards more sustainable and equitable growth in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) agenda 2030 of leaving no one behind, it is critical to integrate women into national development and decision making process, especially in the core economic sectors and finance industry”.

In Nigeria, despite previous interventions, women still constitute a huge proportion of the population living in poverty. Women and girls face different forms of legal, social and cultural challenges across different parts of the country.

Nigeria having gotten some level of awareness on the changing role of women as the drivers of the economy has witnessed the emergence of Technocrats to pilot the affairs of the economy, for example, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iwela served as the Minister of Finance and coordinating Minister of the Economy duringGoodluck Jonathan’s administration and presently, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun is stirring the affairs of the Ministry of Finance under the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.

Women across the world are point of reference to Nigerian women due to the un-conservative role they are playing in their own capacity. such women as Christine Laggard, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) chairperson, Mrs. Hillary Clinton; a former Secretary of State and Presidential aspirant in the United States of America, Theresa May; the Prime Minister of the Great Britain, Angela Merkel, the Chancellor of Germany and also in Africa where Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has succeed in calming the tension and pilot the affairs of leadership in Liberia for 12 solid years before handing over last month of January.

The un-denying status of the role of Nigerian Women even in the International sphere is visible in the appointment of Mrs. Amina Muhammed a former Minister of Environment as the Deputy Secretary General (DSG) of the United Nations (UN) in a view to contribute her own quota towards achieving global peace and development.

Furthermore, looking at the Nigeria scenario, it is imperative to note that education is a potential tool in the emancipation and empowerment of Women to contribute their own quota to National development. The greatest single factor which can incredibly improve the status of women in any Society is the level of their educational background. Educating the Women is like educating a Society as there is a popular adage which says, “If you educate a Woman you educate a Nation”. As handicapped as women have been in Nigeria, they have tried to input their quota towards National development. Imagine that there are given all the enabling factors including education, I bet you that Nigeria would have gone to an enviable height; soaring high among the comity of Nations.

To rest my ink, Women may be looked down upon, they may have their bad sides and bad ones among them but that does not take away the motherly role in which they play in any Society. To be optimistic, Nigeria stands a lot of chances to benefit from the Natural trait which are endowed in our women as they can be relied upon to midwife Nigeria’s economic recovery and developmental efforts so as to achieve our goals of achieving the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Goals (SDGs) as well as making the country a place where equality reigns and triggering the standard of living of the Masses.

For for info, you can visit our facebook page by clicking here.