The Vice Chancellor of the Federal University of Technology, Akure, Prof. Mrs. Adenike Oladiji has called for the need to promote women’s rights on quality education and health.
Prof Oladiji made the call while delivering her lecture at the Precision online newspaper 7th anniversary 3rd annual public lecture held on Sunday 26th November 2023 in Akure.
She argued that women’s rights are human rights and called for policies to address barriers that limit women’s potential.
Oladiji emphasized on the need for women to be educated so that they don’t become a burden to the society.
“First we say that women is up to 50% of the population of the world. If we are 50% and we are not educated then it means we are not using the potentials of that 50% of our population. If we are looking at the society that is going to grow then we should allow that 50% to contribute to the growth of the society” she stressed.
“We do not have even policies that will assist us when things go wrong. For example, if a teenage girl gets pregnant in school, are there policies allowing her to go back to school? If she cannot go back to school then she becomes a burden to the nation eventually. The child that she bore may also become a burden to the nation. These are the type of policies that we think that should come up” Oladiji added.
According to Oladiji some of the things that limit women potentials start from childhood and that women still face discrimination at work places.
“We don’t have excuses to fail, we don’t have excuses if we don’t know how to do some house chores, it is not acceptable in this part of the world. All of these things are part of what limit some of our potentials”.
“There are still discrimination in work places, our drop out rate for girl child in schools is high. So all we are saying is we need policies to tackle all of these things. We want the government to realize these things exist, we need the society to know that these things exist and then look at ways to combat it” Oladiji emphasized.
Speaking at the event, The Grand Imam of Akure, Dr. Abdulakeem Yayi Akorede highlighted the crucial role women play in the society and advised women to recognize and respect their importance.
Akorede urged women to embrace their roles with dignity and emphasized the need for mutual respect in society.
“It’s only that in our society here that women don’t respect themselves at all. If you go to the market you will see women there but if you go to Saudi Arabia you can’t just see women like that, women are like diamonds there, their men try to take care of their women in a good way but in Nigeria here women useless themselves and we want them to bring themselves back and to do the necessary things and to respect that blessing that God has done for them” he added.
Akorede stressed the importance of educating girls, stating that an educated woman contributes significantly to societal development.
He urged parents to prioritize the education of their daughters, emphasizing that the nation benefits when women are educated.
Mr. Hakeem Adebumiti, The founder of Precision Online Newspaper, stated that the public lecture aims to reinforce the newspaper’s beliefs and contribute to public awareness on topical issues.
According to Adebumiti, he said the decision to center the lecture on women empowerment stems from the acknowledgment of the significant contributions women make to society.
Adebumiti emphasized the need to support, enlighten, and empower women for the overall development of society.
The Chairperson of the event, Dr. Mrs Yemisi Jeff-Agboola commended Precision Online Newspaper for addressing the global issue of women’s challenges and stereotypes.
Agboola emphasized the importance of discussing solutions to these challenges and expressed optimism in achieving the millennium sustainable development goals for empowering women and girls.
