Agnes James (not real name) is a widow and mother of 4. She lost her husband when her last child was just three years old.
Following the death of the breadwinner, James automatically assumed the role of the head of the family and provider. She vowed to make her late husband proud by ensuring that all their children are well educated.
To achieve her aim, James took to petty trading and doing menial jobs in-between to augment her income from the business.
Thanks to her doggedness, all her children have graduated from the university and the most senior among them is a medical doctor, contributing his quota to saving lives and serving humanity.
Patricia Jafaru (not real name) is a career banker and mother of three. She wakes up by 5 a.m. daily to prepare her children for school and get their launch which they carry to school ready.
She then prepares breakfast for herself and her husband before getting ready for work. After breakfast she drives the children to school before going to her office at Area 3, Garki, Abuja.
When she returns from work she helps the children with their homework before heading to the kitchen to get dinner ready; she then ensures that all that is needed for the following day’s breakfast is ready before finally retiring to bed at about 10 p.m.
She repeats circle daily except on Saturdays when the task broadens to accommodate buying foodstuff and doing laundry and other chores.
The case of James and Jafaru are not isolated. Theirs only a reflection of the daily lives of most women around the world including Nigeria; the difference being that in most house households the tasks are bigger and more challenging.
This perhaps inspired the UN to make women and girls the focal point of 2023 World Population Day.
The theme for this year’s edition was: “Unleashing the Power of Gender Equality, Uplifting the voices of women and girls to unlock world’s infinite possibilities.”
The event demonstrated the place of women and girls in nation building, provided an opportunity celebrate them and lighted their challenges in a world that under-estimates their potential and under-utilises their talents.
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Gender stakeholders blame the failure of the country to utilise the potential of women and girls on what they describe as gender norms, particularly in Nigeria with its patriarchal prejudices.
Gender norms to tend to subjugate women under patriarchal manipulation, intimidation that reinforce Gender Based Violence must be dismantled.
Olumide Okunola, a health specialist at the World Bank, said that numeracy was paramount for the girl child if the country would break the cycle of poverty and also liberate the female gender from the shackles of gender norms.
Okunola told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that there was the need for women and girls to live their lives to the fullest with unfettered access to education and Sexual Reproductive and Health Rights.
He explained that education would give women and girls insight into the need and benefits of family planning adding that family planning is a roadmap to healthy and wealthy women.
The World Bank official argued that child marriage was common among Nigeria’s poorest and rural households especially in the northern part of the country.
A 2017 World Bank lends credence to this and gives an insight into what the society stands to gain from women and girls stating that ending child marriage could generate an additional 7.6 billion dollars in earning and productivity.
But to harness that potential, gender activists say the society must remove all obstacles that inhibit women and girls from maximising their talents.
May Ikokwu, Chief Executive Officer, Save Our Heritage Initiative (SOHI) identified child marriage, Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and other harmful practices as some of the factors that reinforce subjugation of women and girls.
She criticised the `normalisation` of child marriages as a tool for alleviating poverty and lessening household economic burdens.
She said that 43 per cent of girls in Nigeria are married before the ages of 18 years and 16 per cent before the age of 15 years.
Alhaji Nasir Kwarra, Executive Chairman, National Population Commission (NPC) in an interview with NAN called for addressing women and girls rights component of SDG 5 which centers on Achieving Gender Equity.
He identified unlimited access to quality formal education for women and girls and acquiring livelihood skills as keys to gender development and equality.
Kwarra, who said that women represent 49.7 per cent of the entire population, said Nigeria could not afford to neglect this huge and important segment of the population.
He called for inclusion of women in decision-making roles including leadership, adding that doing so would enable them to live life to the fullest.
Kwarra called for the dismantling of all discriminatory laws, customs and culture that limit their potentials including protection from Gender Based Violence and harmful Practices.
For Nigeria to benefit from the largely untapped potential of women and children, all hands, including development partners.
Ulla Mueller, Country Representative, UN Population Fund (UNFPA) at a pre-World Population Day commemoration news conference reiterated the commitment of UN to supporting the call for women empowerment.
Mueller said that only women’s proper access to education and family planning would break the cycle of poverty.
She called for change of the narrative that have denied women equality access to opportunities adding that doing so would pave the way for genuine empowerment.
“When we women and girls are granted opportunity for bodily autonomy, their families flourish.
“We call on all to partner with our goal to achieve women empowerment, I hope if we get access to family planning, it would reverse maternal mortality,” she said at the event.
Olufunsho Adebiyi, Permanent, Federal Ministry of Health, also said at the event that mainstreaming gender in policies to empower women was imperative for national and global development.
According to him, equal representation provides a strong foundation for empowerment of women and girls.
Ejike Oji, Chairman, Technical Management Committee, Association for the Advancement of Family Planning (AAFP), said that women and girls were disproportionately affected by poverty and lack of access to opportunities.
Oji identified education of the girls as key to reducing poverty and strengthening family planning.
“We need to, as a matter of necessity, make family planning a priority”, he told NAN
Margaret Edison, Director, Population Management Department, National Population Commission (NPC) regretted that 44 per cent of women and girls were hindered bodily autonomy.
Edison said that it is the right of women and girls to decide when to have children and the number of children would guarantee women empowerment.
A report by Reuters predicted that U.S. economy could get a $1 trillion boost over the next 10 years. The report cited a study on gender equality
Nigeria women have the potential to contribute even more to Nigeria’s socio-economic development if they are released from their social norms and practices shackles and given the freedom to unleash their potential.
Ikenna Osuoha writes from News Agency of Nigeria
