Director-General (DG) of the National Centre for Women Development (NCWS) Mary Ekpere-Eta, has called on leaders at the state and Local Government levels to introduce and sustain policies, laws and programmes that will better the lot of women, while applauding the Federal Government for performing better in this regard.
She made the call in a statement signed in Abuja as her Independence Day message, calling for support and prayers for the nation’s leaders for them to be blessed with wisdom and strength to lead the country into prosperity.
Ekpere-Etta noted that women have struggled to survive some of the challenges that come with a nation still on the road to development like Nigeria, urging them not to buckle to these challenges but rather to reposition themselves as new frontiers for better opportunities emerge.
She opined that Nigerian women have by dint of hard work and admirable resilience made feminine excellence the norm in a country like Nigeria where women were once held down by socio-cultural barriers.
She noted further that Nigerian women do not lack female role models from the pre-post independence era, as women from the community to the national level have helped in moving the nation forward, adding that women have played major roles in key sectors of the national development, rising through cultural barriers and limited opportunities, qualifying the women folk to be hailed as nation builders.
“From the academia to business, sports, politics and governance, Nigerian women have proven themselves as major contributors to the nation’s progress. Nigerian women are agents of peace and harbingers of hope, the mothers who have raised the world class beaters, young Nigerians the world regularly celebrates.
“Our country’s independence celebration , especially the landmark age of 60 is a good time to celebrate how much our women have contributed to all the attributes and qualities for which Nigeria is respected across the world”, the Director-General stated.
“Nigeria’s 60th independence anniversary presents a good opportunity to celebrate the immense contribution of women to the country’s development,” she added.
