Education
By Uwumarogie Peter
Gombe, May 17, 2018 (NAN) Mrs Rhoda Zira-Dia, Technical Adviser on Gender, United Nations Women (UN Women) in Gombe, has urged northern women to seek education as a tool to develop themselves for active participation in decision-making.
Zira-Dia made the call in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Gombe on Thursday.
She said that education was a veritable tool to fight gender inequality and for active participation in decision-making for the development of Nigeria.
“Northern women should seek education first for themselves and for their children; education is key to contributing their quota to the development of Nigeria.
“With education, the issue of gender inequality will be drastically minimised; but first, women must get proper education.
“Proper education at all levels must be sought as there is no limit to what women can do, if properly educated. Education gives women opportunities to explore their God-given skills to make a difference.
“For those who have gone to school, I urge you to participate in all forms of development and not to keep quiet like in the past, when women believed that their rights end at home.
“Who says a woman has no voice? Who says a woman cannot be involved in decision making? When a woman develops herself with education, her opportunities to be relevant becomes limitless.
“Being part of any team to develop a nation either at the decision-making stage or policy implementation stage requires the tool of education.’’
She, however, warned that education, which gives women a voice, did not mean disregarding or disrespecting the men.
Also speaking with NAN, Dr Erisa Danladi, a UN Women Facilitator, decried the non-involvement of women in decision-making in most communities in the North.
According to Danladi, women can only correct this societal disparity, if they educate themselves.
She said that the UN Women was currently building the capacities of women in this regard with support from the European Union and the Nigerian Government. (NAN)
UP/HUL/COF/NKO
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Edited by Oluyinka Fadare/Nkechi Okoronkwo