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Tag: Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development

  • Buhari’s re-election proves Nigerians support his policies – Minister

    The Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development, Hajia Aisha Abubakar, says the re-election of President Muhammadu Buhari was a proof of support for his administration’s policies by Nigerians.

    Abubakar made the remark at a high-level interactive dialogue on ‘Building Alliances for Social Protection Systems, Access to Public Services and Sustainable Infrastructure and the Empowerment of Women and Girls’ in New York.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Abubakar is leading the Nigerian delegation to the 63rd Session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) at the UN headquarters in New York.

    The minister said the session’s theme was in tandem with the social protection and development strategies being currently implemented in Nigeria by Buhari’s administration.

    Abubakar said: “President Buhari’s recent re-election for a second term has demonstrated the support of Nigerians for his administration and their unwavering interest in the social protection systems and economic development strategies being implemented in the country.

    “These social protection strategies, founded on sound, sustainable and predictable development framework and economic structures, are designed to meet the overall objectives of eradicating poverty in all its ramifications as encapsulated in the Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development.

    According to her, these strategies are designed to harness and provide social protection for the Nigeria’s estimated 99 million female population.

    She said the Nigerian Economic Recovery and Growth Plan identified human capital investment, restoring growth, and building a competitive economy for women and girls as key pillars to national development.

    The minister explained that the Federal Government-led social protection policy had three main programmes, namely: the conditional cash transfer in Care of the People, the health fee waiver for pregnant women and children under five, and the community-based health insurance scheme.

    She said “the Government Enterprise and Empowerment programme, a loan scheme for local artisans, traders and market women, has benefitted about 57,962 Nigerians with 56 per cent women beneficiaries”.

    “Similarly, the ‘Anchor Borrowers Programme’ has produced over 300,000 rice farmers, majority of whom are women in rural areas.

    To further enhance access to public services and sustainable infrastructure, Abubakar said Nigeria was implementing the several measures to drive all-inclusive social empowerment strategies.

    She explained that the ‘N-Power Volunteer Corps has employed not less than 200,000 people with target to hire over 350,000 graduates and non-graduates yearly.

    Another measure, she said, was the establishment of the Development Bank of Nigeria to provide sustainable financial support to small and medium scale enterprises.

    “The ‘Market Moni’ provides loans at single digit for market women, artisans, enterprising youths, small-scale farmers and agric workers nationwide with about 2.5million beneficiaries,” she said.

    According to her, the ‘Home-Grown School Feeding Programme’ provides one free, nutritious daily meal for children in public primary schools.

    “The ‘Agricultural Revolutionary Policy 2016 to 2020’ has boosted agriculture activities and created five million dignified jobs with decent pay for women and youths.

    “With support from the World Bank, the Nigeria for Women Project is established to directly impact 324,000 women beneficiaries,” the minister explained .

    She said a summit on ‘Keeping Girls in School’ was convened to bring together influential traditional and religious leaders from across the African continent to discuss the critical issue of ‘keeping girls’ in school to complete primary and secondary education.

    Abubakar added that a National Strategy to End Child Marriage 2016 to 2021 was launched to highlight the multi-sectoral and multi-faceted measures to halt harmful practices against girls and strengthen coordination.

    “At the 2018 World Technovation Challenge in Silicon Valley, San Francisco, U.S, five Nigerian girls won Gold Medals in the contest.

    “The World Champions won the Challenge with a mobile application called the FDDETECTOR, which they developed to help tackle the challenge of fake Pharmaceutical products in Nigeria.

    “This was one of several innovations by the Nigerian girls,” the minister said. (NAN)

  • Buhari 2019: Alhassan admits indiscretion, apologises to APC

    Buhari 2019: Alhassan admits indiscretion, apologises to APC

    Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development, Hajia Aisha Jummai Alhassan has admitted that her statement that she will not support President Muhammadu Buhari for the 2019 presidential election was made out of indiscretion and has apologized to the party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) has said.

    National Publicity Secretary of the party, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi told newsmen after over two hours meeting of the National Working Committee with the Minister that she has accepted her fault and the fact that the timing of her statement was wrong and apologized to the party.

    The Minister who arrived the APC National Secretariat at about 1.50 pm for a meeting with the National Working Committee did not leave the secretariat until 4.05 pm after a lengthy meeting with the leadership.

    She was however tactically decline to speak with the press saying “I can’t talk when the APC spokesman is here with me. I’m not the party’s spokesperson.” 

    Abdullahi who escorted the Minister to her car told newsmen that the Minister fondly called Mama Taraba was at the secretariat on the invitation of the party.

    He said the party recognized the right of the Minister to say what he said, but was of the view that with her position in the government and he party, the timing of her statement was wrong and capable of sending the wrong signal to Nigerians.

    He said: “Since the issue of the comment she made came up, the party has not said anything regardless of what individuals may have told you because we are a party that recognized the right of her members to express their opinions or views. 

    “We also had an opportunity to discuss with the minister to understand what she said and in what context she said so before we know how to respond. So, when she came, we asked her to explain to us what truly transpired and in what context she said what she said and she did offer these explanations. 

    “Now, having offered her explanations, we acknowledged that as a member of this party, she is entitled to her opinion and she is entitled to her choice. However, as a senior member of this party, her statements represent an act of indiscretion because with the kind of position she occupies even within the party, she is a party leader in her own right, what she said was not what she was supposed to say at the time that she said it.

    “She ought to have exercised greater judgement than she did and she acknowledged that yes, maybe she ought not to have. Maybe the timing was wrong and she apologised that if she had put the party in any difficult position, she apologised.

    “I want you to take note of the fact that nobody is questioning her right to take the position she has taken. We have not come out to say, ‘why are you saying you are supporting this person?’ 

    “She has a right to her choice and to support whoever she wants to support. Afterall, she is not saying she supports a member of another party. But what we are saying is that with the position she occupies, she ought to have exercised greater sense of discretion and better judgment knowing that making that kind of statement would definitely create some other situations for the party, if not for the government.

    The APC spokesman said the party never discussed the option of resigning with the Minister saying “that did not come up. What we just said was that we understand the context in which she said what she said, but it was an act of indiscretion for someone occupying the position she is occupying in the party to make that kind of statement. 

    “If this was 2018 and the people have filed their applications to say they are contesting and she now comes out and says she is supporting this person, how can that be an issue? But we are still in 2017. We are still far away. 

    “Atiku has not said he is contesting. He has not collected any form. He has not announced to anybody that he is contesting. So, that is what we mean by the timing. It is not that she had no right to say what she had said”.

  • Chibok girls won’t return to their former school – Minister

    Chibok girls won’t return to their former school – Minister

    All the 106 Chibok school girls released so far by the Boko Haram sect will not be returning to their former school in September, the Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development, Aisha Alhassan said Tuesday.

    Alhassan who officially received the girls from the various Federal Government medical facilities for rehabilitation and reintegration processes said they will be now be enrolled in other secondary school in chibok.

    Receiving the girls from the Matron, medical services unit of the Department of state services, Anne Okoroafor, the Minister said the girls will from now undergo some skills acquisition and remedial programmes at the National Council for Women Development hostel where they will be living for now.

    “The programme will last till September this year when the school year will begin and the girls will be enrolled in other schools within the country.

    “The decision to enroll them in order school apart from the school where they were abducted is strategic; we want them to forever forget the trauma they have passed through “she said

    Alhassan said that the Ministry have engaged another doctor and two nurses to continue providing adequate medical attention to the girls while at the centre.

    She added that the girls have been divided into four classes and each of the classes have five teachers who will take the girls on skills acquisition and remedial programmes.

    “We have one doctor for the 24 girls, but now we have engaged another one and we have engaged two nurses because the number of the girls has increased to 106, therefore we have two in-house doctors here and two in-house nurses.

    “The medical facilities of the DSS will always be available to us in case there are medical issues we cannot handle here.

    “The girls have been divided into four classes and each class have five teachers, we are training each girl on two skills of their choice”.

    It will be recalled that 24 girls were initially released from captivity before the 82 were released; making the number of girls released 106.

    Speaking further on the girls education, Alhassan said “while they are here, they will be doing ICT training which is compulsory, they will be doing remedial studies, they will be studying five subjects which are English, Mathematics, biology and Agricultural Science”.

    “The girls will be sent back to school to continue from where they stopped, the girls will not return to the Government Secondary School, Chibok where they were abducted from, instead they will be enrolled in other schools within the country.

    “All of them will go back to school together, because if we keep them beyond September, it means that they will lose another school year, they are not going back to their former school, we are taking them back to other schools within Nigeria”, the Minister said.

    Alhassan however said the girls are free to go back to their parents if they wish.

    She said if any of the girls indicates interest of returning to their family, the government will not hold her back, instead her parents will be invited to take them home.

    “If anyone of them today says she wants to go home, we are very pleased to call her parents; it means that she has forgotten the trauma and ready to reintegrate.

    “They are here on their own free will, no compulsion, they are free to go home any time they want, we are keeping them here on the consent of their parents”, she added.

    Handing the girls over to the Minister, the Director Medical Services of the DSS, Dr Anne Okorafor said though some of the girls needs continued medical attention, but they are medically stable and ready to move to the Ministry of Women Affairs.

    “We have done the necessary investigations on the girls, whatever we found during the investigation, we have treated them, some of them are still have some medical issues, we are treating them. They are all stable and we are comfortable to move them to the ministry,” Dr Okoroafor said.

     

  • Negotiations ongoing to free more chibok girls -Minister

    Negotiations ongoing to free more chibok girls -Minister

    The Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development, Senator Aisha Alhassan Thursday said negotiations is going on to exchange the remaining chibok girls with Boko Haram detainees.

    Alhassan who spoke with newsmen in Abuja on the present state of the recently released 82 girls said they are currently undergoing rehabilitation and reintegration processes in various medical facilities across the Federal Capital Territory, FCT.

    “Negotiations are ongoing to exchange the remaining girls with Boko Haram detainees we can’t afford to keep them any longer,” she said.

    The Minister who condemned insinuations that the Federal Government is shielding the parents and the media from having access to the girls said there is the need for the girls to be taken through some process to relieve the trauma they passed through while in captivity.

    “Most of them were having nightmares some days after they were released, we need to keep them away from the media for some time to avoid some questions that they might be asking them, we are not keeping nor hiding them”

    “We are not shielding the girls from their parents, the parents of the recently released 82 girls have already been contacted and they will be in Abuja any moment from now, most of them live in villages very far from Borno town, so it will take some time before they can get to Abuja”

    On the other 21 girls released before now, the Minister said they will be returning back to school in September alongside the recently released ones.

    “The 21 girls initially said they won’t like to go back to school in chibok but after the various rehabilitation and reintegration process they have gone through, they are now set to return to school in September, they are now fit and eager to go back to school”

    “The girls have gone through a lot of reintegration process that will make them fit to return to school, they are now medically fit, they have gone through various vocational skills including ICT training, their parents are always in touch in them

    “I always take them to movies and parks during weekend, they are now fit to return home but we must ensure that they forget all the traumatic experience they passed through while in the Bush before they can go back to Chibok,” she said

     

  • FG committed to cushioning effects of recession – minister

    FG committed to cushioning effects of recession – minister

    The Federal Government is making efforts to cushion the effects of the current economic recession in the country, the Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development, Hajiya Aisha Jummai Alhassan, said on Monday in Kano.

    The Minister gave the assurance at the Grassroots Town Hall Meeting. The meeting was organised by the Federal Government to sensitise people on the harsh economic realities confronting the nation and the way forward.

    Alhassan said the present administration had taken measures to alleviate the sufferings of the people as a result of the  recession.

    “We know we have a problem at hand but we want to reassure Nigerians that things will get better soon,” she said.

    Alhassan said it was in line with the government’s effort to alleviate the sufferings of Nigerians that it put together  social investment intervention programmes.

    She said the programme which consisted of five pillars, were designed to improve the socio-economic status of Nigerians, especially the less-privileged.

    Alhassan said out of the five programmes, the Government Enterprise and Employment Programme, popularly known as GEEP, was implemented by the ministry, in collaboration with the Bank of Industry.

    She explained that out of the GEEP fund, N1.6 billion had been set aside exclusively for women

    The minister said the ministry would focus on helping businesswomen and female entrepreneurs in the country.

    “We will particularly target those at the grass root levels so as to assist them to get the necessary support for overcoming barriers and obstacles to their full economic empowerment,” Alhassan said.

    She called on the people of Kano state to support the government in its efforts to end the economic recession in the country.