Work with NASS to advance your cause, Lawan tasks women ministry

President the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, has tasked the ministry of women affairs to work closely with the National Assembly towards the empowerment of the Nigerian women.

The Senate President who played host to the Minister of Women Affairs, Pauline Tallen and her officials, Friday at the National Assembly, said the ministry and the federal parliament  ought to work together to redress the gender imbalance.

He said, “As Legislators, we need to do a lot together with the Ministry of Women Affairs to see how we can empower the female gender.

“You (Minister of Women Affairs) need to relate with the Senate Committee on Women Affairs very closely. You need to define what your roadmap is…What can we achieve together to improve the lives of Nigerian women.

“It is important that we have the road map because we want to have measurable targets. We want to say after six months, we should be celebrating achieving certain targets.

“Therefore, I will propose that you have an engagement with our committee where you have your own idea of what you want to do as a minister and what we can do to intervene through legislations or whatever kind of support that is possible to make you succeed in your ministry.”

The Senate President said Nigerian women deserved far better than the deal they have been having over the years.

Speaking on girl child education, he said the time has come to really take a more decisive position in terms of educating the girl child.

“We owed the Nigerian girl child the obligation and responsibility to make her realise her potentials, give her education that she deserves and requires. We are the country with the largest number of out of school children today in the world. That is not a good story.

“The world is very big and if we will be categorised as number one that is very bad. If we are to ensure that 11 or 12 million, in fact undetermined number of children out of school, are enrolled and kept in school we have to have a better approach.”

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