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Nigeria: A Launch Fit for the Girl Child |
| Source: |
This Day |
| Source Date: |
Saturday, March 24, 2012 |
| Focus: |
ICT for MDGs
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| Country: |
Nigeria |
| Created: |
Mar 26, 2012 |
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The launch of Online Mentoring for African Women (AWMN) and African Girls Leadership Clubs (AGLC) on March 16, 2012 at the Protea hotel, Oakwood Park, Lekki, Lagos, brought again to the fore, the plight of the Nigerian girl child. Among the well-attended guests was wife of the Cross River State governor, Mrs. Obioma Liyel Imoke, whose giant stride for the development of the Cross River girl-child made her an ideal speaker at the distinguished event.
In developing societies, women are easily grouped under terms such as minority and marginalised. The value placed on the female-child against that of the male is such that some communities hold the tradition of sending off to school a male-child while his sister is restricted to the farm, kitchen and readily given out to marriage at an early age.
Even in modern times and developed societies, the benefits accruable to one being a female-child is still not comparable to the males. Measuring each groups level of achievements in business and politics, still finds the female group, even with the much recorded successes to address this, trailing behind her male counterpart.
Different countries and regions of the world have taken to addressing this disparity and other issues affecting the girl child. In Africa, one of the organizations at the forefront in championing the development of women is the African Women Leaders Think-Tank (AWLTT).
Nigeria during her tenure as the Chairperson of the African Union in 2005 spearheaded and hosted the African Women Leaders Forum in Otta, Ogun State, Nigeria. The outcome of the Otta Forum was the formation of the African Women Leaders Think-Tank (AWLTT), as an international non-governmental organization with a mission to promote the achievement of a sustainable balanced gender input into the socio-economic and political advancement of Africa.
The AWLTT has now become a capacity building network for reinforcing the ability of African women to sustainably empower themselves, train and mentor the younger women to aspire to the top posts in the political and socio economic sectors. It serves as a vehicle for equipping women with skills to help overcome all obstacles that hinder their access to political and economic power.
A call to more duty led recently to starting the African Girls Leadership Clubs (AGLC), a complementary school extracurricular activity, and regional and national celebrated leadership after school programme for girls between 6-19 years.
The club among other objectives aims at taking the lead in making the girl child learn to think and act as leader, to inculcate positive attitudes that will stay with them throughout their adult lives and to improve and gain important leadership skills required to be successful leaders of tomorrow.
In an interview after the club launch, Imoke as represented by Mrs. Patricia Enderley, Director, A State Fit for A Child (ASFAC), spoke about the governor's wife giant stride for the girl child in Cross River state, reason why the launch means a lot to her. "Her Excellency has lots of passion for children, especially the girl child. This is because when you look at it, they are the victims of societal ills. In a bid to stop this, NGOs and initiatives such as this (AWTT), is wholly welcomed."
It is on record what Imoke has been doing for the girl-child and women of Cross River state. In 2007, on Children's Day, in Cross River, an initiative was instituted. Called "A State Fit for A Child" (ASFAC), the idea is to ensure that Cross River State is fit to nurture a child from the time the child's a foetus until becoming an adult. To back this initiative, the state has a free medical scheme for women, pregnant women and children from 0-5 years. Two years later, Cross River was declared "A State Fit for A Child" during the commemoration of the children's day celebration in 2009.
In a bid to continue on this track, Imoke initiated the Destiny Child Centre. According to Enderley, "now at the centre are 115 children." These are erstwhile street children that Imoke literally picked from the slum and built a home for them. The centre is a resettlement home for the rehabilitation and reintegration of erstwhile street children. The rehabilitation program includes education, medical, skill acquisition, and a whole lot of stuffs both physical and social.
Another project of Imoke is called Mothers Against Child Abandonment (MACA), which caters for teenage pregnancies, who have been thrown out the street by their parents. Enderley said about the plight of such children "Being pregnant for a teenage girl doesn't mean her future should be blighted. That is why her Excellency, a firm believer that these children can still achieve in life." What the initiative basically achieves is take the kids from the street, shelters and provide food, accommodation and medical intervention, so as to help them nurture their pregnancies.
With the ASFAC initiative in place, as time went by, according to Obioma Liyel Imoke, wife of the state governor, in an earlier interview there were things she noticed as stumbling blocks to the initiatives success. "For example a young girl would go missing and many years later we would find out she had a baby and felt that was the end of her life."
Not accepting what some others saw as a reality for these young girls, the governor's wife initiated another programme called Mother's Against Child Abandonment (MACA). MACA accommodates these young mothers in what is called The Refuge Girls. "Usually during their third trimester and kept until delivery." Primarily the goal of MACA is to curb the spate of abandoned babies as well as provide succor to their mothers who are usually teenagers.
MACA just like ASFAC is a programme under the POWER project. An acronym for Partnership Opportunities for Women Empowerment Realization, launched on November 7, 2007 by wife to late president Yar'Adua, Turai, POWER aims at empowering the woman of Cross River state intellectually, economically, socially, spiritually and politically.
An umbrella of sort, the POWER project seeks on one hand to enable the Cross River woman achieve economic growth through micro credit agricultural reforms. For the child development, there's the Refuges Babies, Destiny Child Centre and the ASFAC initiative. Lastly as regards public health are initiatives such as Pink POWER Cancer project, Refuge Girls and MACA.
Also speaking in an interview after the club launch, Chairman, Federal Inland Revenue Services and AWMN Mentorship Chair, Ifueko Omoigui Okauru fielding questions about the time constraint for mothers in raising their child said "Whatever time you have, even if it's limited, use it wisely. It may be for five minutes that as a mother or guardian you have with your child or ward use it well."
Omoigui emphasised that there are the early signs that a child is beginning to act under external influences. For an attentive parent she says, "The signs of influence are always there. You may not be able to track things but you could track the effect. This you can do from observing the new haircut, dress, the new way he wears his trousers, or for the lady the new neckline."
In a situation where parents have failed and the government wants to come in through social welfare, Omoigui says "There is a fine balance between how far government can go and the role of parents." Although acknowledging that government clearly has a role, "particularly the State government", she said that as someone in government, the truth is that "There are too many challenges and things for government to address."
"So government cannot do it all alone; it's not possible. Even if it is government's responsibility, she doesn't have that ability because of the sheer amount of work that needs to be done. This is why we must encourage civic groups, societies, families, the streets and individuals to get involved. The reality is that we all have to work together to build a better Nigeria."
Launch Initiator, Oluremi Aribisala She was the former Deputy Executive Secretary in charge of integration programmes for ECOWAS from 2001 -2005, being the first woman in West Africa to occupy one of the executive positions that hitherto were all occupied by men. She is the Chairperson (Africa) of African women Leaders Think Tank (AWLTT). She nurtured the Organization into existence as the pioneer Chairperson (Africa).
She as a Regional Integration Adviser fast tracked the establishment of integration programmes such as: West African Gas Pipeline, West African Power Pool. She also coordinated the harmonization of national policies and the development of sector policies in Agriculture (ECOWAP); ECOWAS Common Regional Telecommunication Policy & Regulation; ECOWAS Air Liberalisation Policy; ICT Policy for Development in West Africa; ECOWAS Protocol on Education. She facilitated Sub-Regional Integration of Education in West Africa within the NEPAD framework and coordinated the production of the West African Report on Human Development Index.
As a woman empowerment expert she coordinated the development of the West African Gender Policy. She also initiated and coordinated the establishment of ECOWAS Gender Development Center, Dakar in order to leave a legacy behind on institutionalizing an agency for coordinating women empowerment in West African Region. She is the Chief Supervising Consultant of Project Solutions Consulting Ltd (PSL consulting). She has over 35 years of experience in consulting. Aribisala was former Permanent Secretary of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
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