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Tag: women

  • OVL Foundation calls for empowerment of African women, youths 

    The OVL Foundation has called upon stakeholders in Civil Society Organisations, corporate organisations and  world leaders to provide empowerment, mentoring and guidance opportunities to women and youths in Nigeria and Africa.

    This according to the Foundation will enable them lead economically productive lives and break free from the shackles of poverty, stagnation and retrogression.

    The call was made on Thursday, August 17, 2017 by the Director of the Foundation, Mr. Victor Laniyan during a vision sharing session with stakeholders, including  CSOs, CBOs, international NGOs, donor organizations, representatives of corporate organisations and media organisations in Lagos.

    He explained that women and youths in Nigeria and Africa are vulnerable, faced with unique issues and challenges specific to their gender and stage of life which makes it necessary for them to be empowered, mentored and guided in all spheres of life and learning. 

    While narrating the focus and objectives of the OVL Foundation, the Ag. Executive Secretary of the OVL Foundation, Mrs. Oyinlola Scott-Igbene, noted that the foundation is guided by the belief that every human being irrespective of socio-economic status should be entitled to and not alienated from equal opportunities, economic justice, accessible and prompt healthcare as well as the tools to carve and work out their economic freedom and independence. 

    “Hosting this vision-sharing session with stakeholders and the media is a demonstration of our commitment to providing lasting solutions to pressing health issues in the nation especially among the vulnerable and underserved communities. For us at OVL Foundation, we visualize a nation in which all individuals and communities have the opportunity to achieve their goals. Our goal is to complement the effort of government organizations, nonprofits and private sector institutions to advance education, technology and health opportunities for those who need them most,” Laniyan stated.

    “We have been able to identify with the core of our work which is: creativity, innovation and collaboration to accelerate the impact of our interventions focused on education, health and economic empowerment.” 

    The OVL Foundation was established in 2013 and is duly registered with the corporate affairs commission as a movement to empower women and young people in Africa.

    The mission of the organization is to support and facilitate access to training, business development and healthcare for women and youths through programmatic interventions, partnerships and advocacy to relevant stakeholders.

    According to the Ag. Executive Secretary of the OVL Foundation, the organisation  is committed to supporting women, children and young people in order for them to attain their fullest potentials and contribute to the development of Africa.

     

  • Women protest ‘forceful acquisition’ of ancestral land

    Women protest ‘forceful acquisition’ of ancestral land

    Women of Nsude community in Udi Local Government Area of Enugu State have staged a peaceful protest over an alleged forceful acquisition of their ancestral land at Amozibe and Umuezani villages of the community.

    The women held aloft placards with different inscriptions such as, “This land does not belong to Ifueke Okweuwani, “Government, please, leave our land, “This property belongs to Nsude, “This land does not belong to Ngwo, “Beware of land grabbers”, among others. They said they were not happy that the government acquired their land in the name of Ngwo community without consulting them.

    They urged the government to return the land in question to them, saying they had already shared the plots of lands to their children as their inheritance.

    The traditional ruler of the community, Igwe Ken Onyia, told reporters that some people from two communities in neighbouring Ngwo, who go by the title of stakeholders, claimed that the land which allegedly belongs to the two villages in Nsude belongs to Ifueke Ngwo. He said the so-called stakeholders deceived the government into believing that the parcel of land belongs to Ifueke Okweuwani in Ngwo.

    He said though they have boundary with them, the areas in question was surveyed, registered and published in the gazette of Old Anambra State which dates back to 1991.

    According to him, when the news of the arrangement came to the two communities, Amozibe and Umuezani, they went to Udi Local Government Chairman and presented documents that proved that the land belongs to Nsude people.

    He also disclosed that they also went to Enugu Commissioner for Lands to give the facts of ownership of the place to him with documents to show, continuing that during one of those visits, they invited authentic attorneys for Ifueke to accompany them to the commissioner’s office.

    The traditional ruler  explained that the attorneys told the commissioner that that those people that claimed to be stakeholders were not representing the Ifueke people as far as the land management was concerned, adding that all their efforts met brick wall as the commissioner continued with the arrangement for the acquisition of the land.

    He noted that the during the flag off of the present 9th mile bypass or Nsude Ngwo Bypass through the land in question,  he was the person that presented the welcome address to the governor and his entourage.

    The royal father stressed that traditionally “it is not known that a traditional ruler will present a welcome address in a land that does not belong to his community”.

    He expressed dismay that despite all the efforts to prove that the land in question belongs to two villages in Nsude Community, (Amozibe and Umuezani), the government went ahead to issue a Certificate of Occupancy to a private company for the Nsude land in the name of Ngwo people.

    The retired academic don pointed out that there was no land dispute between Nsude and Ngwo people, adding that their understanding of the land use act and powers of the government to acquire land against the wishes of the owners is when there is dispute between communities or that the land will be acquired by overriding interest and not to be given to private concerns.

    The royal father further hinted that the laid out areas have been shared and given to all male adults in the two villages above the age of 18 as their inheritance, adding that some of them have sold their plots to other parties.

    “Our demand is that the government should not take our land through Ngwo people when we don’t have any disputes with them. The layout has been bulldozed. Our land should be given back to us and the layout restored to its original state”.

    The Traditional Ruler noted that his community has never been stingy with donation of lands for developmental purposes either by the government or private concerns, recalling that   the community had earlier donated land for international market, A Catholic Seminary, among others.

    “We also note that Nsude community has never been stingy with donations of land for developmental purposes either by government or private concerns. For Example, Nsude community donated land for an uncompleted international market; we also donated land for the building of a catholic seminary,” he noted.

  • ‘Plateau women farmers can’t access agric fund’

    ‘Plateau women farmers can’t access agric fund’

    Some women farmers in Jos, the Plateau State capital, have said it has been impossible for them to access the federal government’s agriculture fund. The women said they have been marginalised by government agencies.

    Operating under an organisation known as Small-Scale Women Farmers of Nigeria (SWOFON), Plateau State chapter, the women growers said they were aware government launched a dedicated fund reserved for agricultural activities to be accessed through loans, grants or aids to farmers.

    The state president of SWOFON, Mrs. Mary Afan said, “As women farmers, it has been impossible to access the federal government agric fund; there is hardly adequate information to women on how to access the fund and other advantages provided by both state and federal government.”

    At a seminar, the group said, “SWOFON is a coalition of smallholder women farmers who formed themselves into cooperatives groups across the country, who are engaged in agricultural activities especially farming. Women farmers are not often involved in decision making and policy formulation at federal, state and local government levels, which is why women are not carried along in agric programmes in the country.

    “Agriculture, apart from the fact that it contributes 23% to Nigerian GDP, and also provides 88% of non-oil earnings, it remains the largest employer of labour with 2/3 of the country’s population. Women constitute 60-80% of the agro labour force in the country, yet women farmers have no access services of credit facilities, inputs, training, advise, technology, crop insurance, etc.

    “Women farmers are hardly considered to be given allocation of fertilizer, pesticides, herbicides, feeds, seeds and seedlings. No capital, poor awareness, poor skills and technical support, poor excess to marker due to bad roads, and several other challenges.

    “Our predicament as women farmers originally began with access to land for farming, traditional, women in Nigeria have no right to land, land belongs to the men and women remain tenants in our own country. Even when we rent land to farm, women are so unsecured on the farm. We are being raped on our farms by men, we are being killed on the farm, this is more peculiar to states like Plateau where cattle grazers and farmers are at loggerheads,” she said.

     

  • Women urged to participate in politics

    Women have been urged to join the political struggle to enable them occupy their central position in the scheme of things in the country.

    The Ondo State Chairperson of the Nigeria Elements Progressive Party (NEPP), Mrs. Ibitoye Olusola, stated this at the maiden congress of the party held  in Akure, the state capital.

    At the Congress supervised by the officials of the INEC and security agents, Olusola, who was former Acting Chairperson of the party, emerged the substantive Chairperson alongside other state executive members.

    She said gone were the days when women would be taking the back seats when it comes to active politics in the country, adding that as prudent managers of resources, women are better positioned to perfectly run the affairs of the nation at all levels of governance.

    Olusola stressed that the NEPP was ready and determined to form a formidable platform in the nation’s political landscape with the aim of taking over power at all levels of governance come year 2019.

    According to her, NEPP would play a vibrant and constructive opposition in the country in the bid to wrest power both at the state and national level.

    The politician particularly appreciated the National Chairman of the party, Alhaji Usman Mamman Kastina, for his efforts at developing the party and make it the best alternative political party for Nigerian masses.

    She also expressed the party’s total support for the restructuring of the country to reflect true federalism, assuring that restructuring would naturally address various agitations by different ethnic groups in the country.

  • Business training for 500 Kaduna women

    A firm, I-Care Women and Youth Initiative, has trained 500 women in business management to enable them generate income and raise their children better.

    The women, who are mothers (caregivers) were trained in how to run successful business, to generate stable income for their households, which according to I-Care will in turn enable them raise healthy children free of malnutrition.

    The women were earlier trained in different skills, including tailoring, hair dressing, tie and die, shoe and bag making, beads making and cosmetology. But, to ensure that they use the skills for economic liberation of their households, I Care Women and Youth Initiative resolved to follow up the skills acquisition training with business training.

    At the opening of the three-day training, the Resource Person and Household Economy Strengthening Officer with I Care Women and Youth Initiative, Ibrahim Ayuba said, training which is part of the System Transformed For Empowered Action and Enabling Responses for Vulnerable Children and their families (STEER) Project was aimed building an economic viable households, to enable them cater for their health and wellbeing.

    Ayuba said, “What informed our resolve to train them in businessis because they have earlier been trained on vocational training by I Care through the STEER Project. 477 women were trained in various skills ranging from tailoring, hair dressing, tie and dye, shoe and bag making, bead-making and cosmetology, among others.

    “That led us into this training we are doing today. The essence is to educate them on how to market their goods and having a broad goal to achieve a lot with the skills they have already acquired.

    “We want to see them at the end of the day having the expertise to manage their business well and diversify when the need arises, not only relying on one business. This we believe will generate into for their respective households.

    “The women you are seeing here were selected for the programme after a baseline survey in 2015 that showed the vulnerability status of the women. We had the vulnerable, more vulnerable and most vulnerable. So, these are the ones that were identified as, more vulnerable. We selected them because these are people making efforts to do one business or the other, but without reasonable income.

    “This is a community where women don’t really do anything, but rely solely on their husbands. So, having understood that, we adopted a strategy where we brought what they call, Village Savings and Loans Association. With the programme women were brought together to save the little they earn and get from their husbands. From the programme, they are entitled to loans for small businesses. So, these encouraged them.

    “What we have realised a long time ago is that, you cannot separate household economy from their health status. Particularly, in the area of nutrition, which is another focus of our organisation, we have realised that, proper nutrition of a household cannot be achieved without viable economy for that household.

    “From our studies, we have discovered that, households could not get the required nutrients because their income levels were low. So, that is why we have chosen to empower women, because we believe that, when they have stable income, they would be able to cater for their children better,” Ayuba said.

    Similarly, the Head of the NGO’s Nutrition Desk, Hadiza Abdulsalam said, I-Care had earlier trained the women on how to get required nutrients from locally available foods. “But, we thought it wise to equally empower them to get stable income, so that they can always put their nutrition information into practice”.

    She said, the programme was being carried out in five communities across Kaduna South local government, namely, Kakuri Hausa, Ungwan Kaje, Ungwan Muazu, Down Quarters and Ungwan Makama.

    One of the beneficiaries of the programme, Maryam Mohammed expressed appreciation to the NGO, saying that, she would make effective use of the knowledge acquired to assist her husband in keep the home.

  • The society must help women

    There is no doubt that women play important roles in the formation of any society. According to the United Nations, 49.4 percent of the general population in Nigeria are women; despite this increasing population with eminent contribution as obtains in every capitalist society, women are still oppressed and marginalised.

    We live in a society where women are blamed for everything; if a child misbehaves, it is the fault of women and if a man dies, a woman is subjected to drink from the water used in bathing the corpse to prove her innocence. Yet, if a woman dies the man is never subjected to any tradition. Women are raped day-in-day-out, yet, the society is doing little or nothing to remedy the situation.

    Women are irreplaceable, they are just perfect the way they are because God designed them to be so, why then are people bastardising what is being beautified by the Almighty? Why are they harassed and unkempt? I think the society needs to comprehend and embrace women, nurture and pamper them rather than showing nonchalant attitude towards them. Women are to be shown earnest concern and protectiveness, they are supposed to be well fed with a healthy dose of authentic love and care because they are outstandingly gorgeous, majestic, refined, courteous, creative, distinguished, polished and simply amazing.

    The plight of women in the society must be given a serious thought. There is need to seek redress in cases of domestic violence, verbal and emotional abuse. Today, it is only extreme issues of women right violation which leads to death or permanent disability that earn the media attention and police interest, the husband in most cases abuse the woman verbally and emotionally, yet nothing is done. This escalates to women being deprived of their rights of peaceful coexistence and, sometimes, these aggressions are transferred to the children who are not even the initiators of problem.

    Women who are victims of  these domestic violence hardly report to the appropriate authorities because they believe action will not be taken and it would be considered a private affair between the husband and wife, moreover tradition and religious beliefs in the society see the wife as a property of the husband.

    Therefore, to help curb this situation, laws to protect women should be adequate and there should be provision of formal mechanism to seek redress in cases of domestic violence, verbal and emotional abuse through police investigations and court proceedings.

    • By Galadima Amirah Soba

    Department of Mass Communication

    Bayero University, Kano.

  • UN seeks more investment in women, peace in Nigeria 

    UN seeks more investment in women, peace in Nigeria 

    The United Nations (UN) on Wednesday called on the Federal Government of Nigeria to double its investment on the development of women and promotion of peace in the country.

    Deputy Secretary General of the UN, Amina Mohammed made the call after closed doors meeting with Acting President Yemi Osinbajo at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

    According to her, the UN team led by herself was at the Villa to discuss the implementation of the agenda 2030 and 2063 and see how Nigeria could be supported especially in regards to development of women.

    The UN deputy scribe who served as minister of Environment before her current position t the world organization explained that in achieving the desire of promoting women development, the Federal Government needs to begin to put women at the center of it affairs.

    She said “I am honoured to be leading a delegation with the focus on peace and development of women.

    “With me we the chief executive of the UN women, we also have our special representative on women and conflict, we also have with us, our partner the AU, the special adviser also on peace, women and development.

    “All our regional heads partnering together with the ministry of women affairs and the support of the minister of for national planning,” Amina said.

    “It’s an exciting time to be here because really we are talking about the implementation of the agenda 2030 but also 2063 and for us, it’s about how do we support Nigeria and it’s a very difficult context to do more and to do scale so everybody feels it.

    “We know that there many lessons that have learnt and there challenges that we have but we have some successes from the North East all the way to the South.

    “We want to make sure that we do more so that we can see the scale of this, particularly from the women at the center.

    “In our discussion with the acting President, it’s been about how to increase investments in women, peace and development to ensure that women are a central part of what we do.

    “And we will see the difference, as he said, it’s not just the question of the morals or rights but it’s an economic one as well,” the UN deputy scribe added.

     

  • LSETF partners lawmaker on women empowerment scheme 

    The Lagos State Employment Trust Fund (LSETF) has signed a partnership agreement with Hon. Wale Raji Women Empowerment Scheme, a brain child of the lawmaker representing Epe Constituency in the House of Representatives, Hon. Wale Raji.

    The Memorandum of Understanding on the partnership agreement was signed at the weekend in Epe, Lagos.

    As part of the partnership arrangement, the lawmaker will provide N10,000,000, which will be matched by the LSETF with another N10,000,000 to fund the Hon. Wale Raji Women Empowerment Scheme. The LSETF will act as the administrator of the scheme and the Ibile Microfinance Bank will be the custodian of the pool of funds.

    Under the partnership arrangement, business owners and promoters specifically women operating within Epe Constitency can get loans from the Lagos State Employment Trust Fund (LSETF) to invest in their businesses at interest free rates. With this agreement, the 5% interest rate originally meant to be paid per annum on loans serviced to the LSETF will be paid by Hon. Wale Raji to ease the burden on applicants of the loans.

    Speaking on the development, the Executive Secretary of the Lagos State Employment Trust Fund (LSETF), Mr. Akintunde Oyebode said the project is a step in the right direction as it answers the LSETF’s call for funding partnership from in dividuals,  private  organisations,  donor agencies,  not-for-profit  organisation for its various programmes aimed at combating unemployment.

    “Today we are signing an agreement between the Lagos State Employment Trust Fund (LSETF) and Hon. Wale Raji’s Foundation. Under that agreement, we will offer loans of up to Five Hundred Thousand Naira (N500,000) to constituents in Epe with Hon. Wale Raji paying the interest on behalf of the beneficiaries. As a result of this arrangement, the loans will be available to the beneficiaries at no interest rate.

    “We are very excited at what we are doing with Hon. Wale Raji and this indicates a step in the right direction. Hon. Wale Raji indicated his desire to help businesses in Epe grow and for people in his constituents to do well.

    ”This is a great model for proper representation and we also ask well meaning Nigerians in Lagos State who wants to run similar programmes in their communities to please contact us at the Lagos State Employment Trust Fund (LSETF),” Mr. Oyebode said.

    Raji said the partnership was necessary to improve small and medium scale businesses in Epe and Lagos State.

  • Feminism and the Dialectics of African Culture

    Feminism and the Dialectics of African Culture

    Feminism as a concept is not alien to Africa. Women in Africa have always been conscious of their status and well being. It only didn’t appear to them as feminism. The concept of Western Feminism is what could be considered alien to Africa. As such, conceptualizing it could be difficult. This is because these two independent enclaves have divergent realities and history. While the concept means 50/50 power sharing formula to some, others sees it as placing both genders on same social, political and economic pedestal and advantage. To this end, and for the purpose of knowledge, let us stick to the global definition since it is now a concept being pursued globally. Do I need to give the definition again? Yes, it is simply an ideology that seeks to place women on same strata with men in all spheres all of life.

    One of the reasons advanced in support of feminism in Africa is the patriarchal structure of the African society. Western-Feminists believes this structure isn’t designed to favour women as it places women on the second class category of man. To them, African societal structure ought to have been designed in a way that would have fit into the western culture or style. This “oughtness” or assumption, for me, has been a self-inflicted bane on the campiagn for feminism in Africa.

    Again, one would also be forced to surmise that they have not truly interrogated the dialectics of African culture as to why it is so designed. Let me make a brief X-ray.

    In the precolonial Africa, farming was a major preoccupation. Both men and women took part as active agents. However, women, complemented the role of men by helping in the gathering of farm produce like cocoa, fruits and vegetables. These provided for them items of trade, which was their major preoccupation. During these periods, women also took to other enterprise and craft work like cloth-weaving, dyeing and other lucrative enterprise, which obtained at that period. Domestically, women were made to care of the home while the men fended for the home. Both genders were culturally designed to be mutually responsible. Where a gender is perceived to be lacking,  it becomes a tool of mockery in the society. As such, they were curious to meet up their responsibilities. In cases where the male gender tries to dominate the other, it could be argued as human deficiency and not cultural.

    African culture is loving and considerate. This partly explains how it has forbade the idea of women soldiers and other tasking leadership roles from the reach of women. This mustn’t be mistaken for what feminists argues to mean men’s ego. To a large extent, that is a misrepresentation of African culture. Another classics to demystify this school is  the exceptional and outstanding cases of Moremi and Queen Amina of precolonial Nigeria. Their roles clearly reveals the hypocrisy of this school and its misrepresentation.

    With the advent of colonialism came a new societal structure where western education began to  dictate the tune of the African society. This change also goes with the culture of its origin as a yardstick for measuring African progress, growth, and development. Carelessly, this has informed the misinterpretation of the role of women in the precolonial African society as true agents of development and change.

    One must not be tempted to agree that African culture at that time was perfect. There were indeed troubles like infertility and infidelity, which were peculiar to both male and female genders. “Okobo” was that of the male gender, “Lakriboto” and “agan” was that of female gender. While the women in modern times have Used these as an argument in advancing their case of female marginalisation, it is also sad that the case of “okobo”, which places the male victim at a disadvantage in the social circle has mostly been downplayed by the Western-Feminist agents. A classic example of this is the “Joys of Motherhood ” as captured by Buchi Emechita.

    The point to be made from the above is that both genders have always played a crucial role in the development and growth of the African society. Where the male gender fails in discharging its responsibilities, he is deemed incompetent a man. And where the female gender erred, it is also deemed as misfortune.  Both were served right. Most issues raised against African culture as being a patriarchy working against gender equality is at best misconstrued and misinterpreted. Proper understanding of its dialectics is expected of the Western-Feminist agents. Perhaps, if they do, better result could be achieved beyond mere sloganeering and women takeover impression. Who knows?

    Waliu, a Historian/Aspiring Diplomat writes from Le Havre, France.

  • Why some women are doing better than men in business —Jumoke Omojuwa, CEO, Spices

    Why some women are doing better than men in business —Jumoke Omojuwa, CEO, Spices

    Jumoke Omojuwa is the MD/CEO of Spices Confectionery Ltd. She is an award-winning entrepreneur and a counsellor on family matters and women. In this interview with GBENGA ADERANTI, she talks about the implications of wives earning more than their husbands, why it is likely to continue to be so and other issues.  Excerpts: 

    WHAT were you doing before now?

    I was working in a media outfit as an assistant manager in the finance and administration department in a Lagos based-media firm . At that  time, my marriage was young and I lost my first child immediately after birth. After some time, I got pregnant again and decided to resign to have time for my young marriage, myself and my unborn child, but I quickly became bored due to my restless nature and I started looking for what to do, in the process my natural passion for cakes blossom and I went for trainings to better equip myself on the act of making cakes. That was how Spices Confectionery came to be.

    What has been the experience as a CEO?

    Well, the experience has been challenging but we give God the glory, it has been bad, it has been good.

    Spices Confectionery started operations in the year 2002 after my training in cake making and decoration from one of the foremost cake companies in Lagos, Nigeria in 2001.

    Nowadays, more women are in the business and they are doing better ; what could have been responsible for the surge?

    Before now, women were relegated to the background, but after the Beijing conference, women were encouraged to take up positions in the economy, politics and government that men do. Also, women are detailed and lot more passionate about what they set out to do,  women are more patient than men. Women have discovered that they are people of purpose that they have their career and family to take care of. In today’s economy, the income of our husband cannot cover all the expenses of a home and women have taken up the challenges of being a help mate fit for their spouse by going into business and making sure they excel in it

    How did you manage to win federal government’s grant?

    A friend of mine told me about the federal government ‘u win’ grant and I took up the opportunity. I did not believe the federal government could come up with such initiative that was so free without any influence such as political and others; I waved all doubt, applied and fulfilled all requirements. It was very competitive and it was in two phases but mine was the second phase meant for women. A total of 1200 emerged as winners of the u win programme, and I was part of them.

    How did you invest in Spices initially?

    I started with N100,000 and by the grace of God it has grown into millions.

    What are the things a woman going into business should watch out for?

    They should watch out for male supremacy. A woman who is into business should brace up and build her capacity because the world is practical built for men, a woman should also balance her home and business so that work will not have supremacy over her home because she is the home builder. She should put proper structure and devote more of her time because business is work, most importantly the woman doing business should be disciplined.

    Most private business lifespan is short in Nigeria, what could have been responsible for this?

    Private business fail in Nigeria due to lot of reason, the business environment in Nigeria is very challenging and lot of people go into business to make end meet, infrastructure decay such as power supply bad road network, the banking system, high interest rate and lot of business fail because there is no structure in place that allows the business run smoothly when the owner is not around

    Lots of businesses don’t have business management capacity, people go into business when they have money and without training on the said business they want to go into

    Where do you see Spices in the nearest future?

    I see it growing to employ not less than 200 staff capacity, branches in major cities in Nigeria, Spices Confectionery one day being a major player in confectionery business in Nigeria, I see Spices Confectionery empowering the youth and all age group and contributing our quota to national growth.

    What is Spices all about?

    Spices Confectionery Limited is a company dully registered with the corporate affairs commission. It started operations in 2002 as a business name and became a limited liability company in 2013 we are currently located in Ikeja, Lagos State and Alagbole -Akute, Ifo Local Government in Ogun State. Our products and services are cakes, bread, catering services, event management, cocktail and Chapman drink, professional ushers, barbecue, and trainings.