Hajia Aisha Abubakar, former the Minister of State, Industry, Trade and Investment was early this week, appointed Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development. JOY YESUFU, in this report, takes a look at the task ahead of her as she settles in her new office and expectations from many Nigerian women on how she can go about handling issues that concern them.
President Muhammadu Buhari recently appointed Hajia Aisha Abubakar as the minister of women affairs after the former minister, Hajia Aisha Alhassan tendered her resignation.
Reports have it that Abubakar was chosen to pilot the affairs of this sensitive ministry because of her credibility and service so far especially in her capacity as the Minister of State, Industry, Trade and Investment.
While taking over her new office earlier this week at the conference hall of the ministry of women affairs and social development, Abubakar said issues that concern the ministry have been very sentimental and core to the federal government under the present administration.
She assured management team and members of staff of an open door policy and that she would be quick to respond whenever her attention is needed.
She said, "I have an open door policy, I don't hesitate whenever my attention is needed. I try to do whatever I can do with whatever resources behind me."
She urged the management and staff to cooperate with her so the ministry can achieve the aim for which it was created.
Several years after independence, the fundamental problems of the average Nigerian women are yet to be addressed properly.
Many women have been marginalised, suppressed abused over the years without commensurate response from adequate authority. Nigerian Women deserve better than what is obtained at the moment.
Below are some of the issues she needs to tackle.
Out of school girls : Several reports have had it that Nigeria has a very high rate of school drop outs and most of these numbers are girls. Issues that concern young girls should be of utmost concern to Abubakar as they are the ones that metamorphose into women.
The director-general of the National Institute for Educational Planning and Administration (NIEPA) Prof Lilian Salami, during the opening ceremony of a five-day 2018 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) training for head teachers and policy makers on girl education at the headquarters of the institute in Ondo town, Ondo State, lamented that over 5.5 million school age girls are out of school in Nigeria.
She said: "The education sector is bedeviled with a lot of challenges, revealing that "one third of all girls are out of school in Nigeria, amounting to over 5.5 million school age girls, not in school. "Net enrollment rates for girls at primary level are five per cent lower than for boys; gross enrollments at junior secondary school level follow this trend. Both figures hover around 50 per cent. This falls far short of the targets SDGs."
Salami also noted that data reveals very little progress in universal access to primary schooling in the last decade. She listed series of factors militating against the achievements of the continental and global goals to include, "Gender disparities in access to basic education are compounded by interrelated regional, wealth and residence inequalities in access and completion."
The new minister is expected to put in place stronger policies that would reduce to its barest minimum, number of out of school girls in Nigeria.
Early marriage: Child marriage in Nigeria is one very painful and disturbing problem in the country. Usually, it is done in the poor regions, where people force their young children, especially daughters, to get married, quite often to a total stranger.
According to the Child's Rights Act of 2003, it is pointed out that the age of consent for a child is 18 years old.
In Nigeria, a lot of 10-12-year-old girls, whose reproductive systems are not yet ready for intimate activities and childbirth, are forced by their parents into marriage. They are stopped from going to school and getting an education and are compelled to
serve their husbands and give birth to children. Considering that they are still children themselves, it is absolutely unacceptable, as it kills their future and entire life, exposing them to adulthood so early.
Though, according to statistics, child marriage has been reduced but it is still a problem. Nigeria has to get rid of this issue once and for all.
The new minister has a lot to do on this to create serious awareness on the dangers of this malady that have destroyed a lot potentials in their prime.
Maternal Mortality: Maternal mortality ratio (MMRatio) is the annual number of female deaths per 100,000 live births from any cause related to or aggravated by pregnancy or its management (excluding accidental or incidental causes). The MMRatio includes deaths during pregnancy, childbirth, or within 42 days of termination of pregnancy, irrespective of the duration and site of the pregnancy, for a specified year.
According to the World Bank estimate, Nigeria's Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR) is still as high as 821 per 100,000 live births. Worst still, of the 303,000 women that died globally due to complications of pregnancy and child births in 2015, 58,000 women died in Nigeria.
The report which revealed that in sub-Sahara Africa, Nigeria has a modeled estimate Maternal Mortality Ratio of 821 per 100,000 live births, which led other countries with wide margin. The closest was Kenya with 540 per 100,000 live births and 8,000 maternal deaths in 2015. Followed by Tazania and Uganda.
This is a dangerous trend that has cut down lots of women and their young ones in their prime. The new minister can put funding in place in health care centres to improve on the services given to women.
Human Trafficking: The rise in the scourge of human trafficking in Nigeria over the years too is quite alarming and calls for more attention from authorities concerned to checkmate perpetrators of these dastard acts.
Out of 700,000 persons trafficked across the world every year, Nigeria's notoriety in the act has become an issue of international concern. Thousands of young Nigerian girls are routinely trafficked to Europe and Asia for sexual exploitation.
Trafficked victims are forced to swear to oaths that they would deposit all their earnings with their traffickers once they start working. Some of the rituals reportedly performed on victims included eating chicken hearts and drinking blood containing worms, and powdering incisions.
International Office of Migration (IOM) has spent huge sums of money over time to evacuate back home hundreds of Nigerians most of whom were trafficked to Libya enroute Europe with promises of better life. Several of them lost their lives while those who survived went through anguish and trauma before the federal government came to their rescue.
This traumatic experiences can be avoided if adequate measures are put in place to punish both traffickers and their victims to serve as deterrent to others who intend to venture into such barbaric acts.
Rape: Rape is a conscious process of intimidation wherein perpetrators keep women and children especially, in a state of constant fear. Rape devalues the victim. It is a crime which stigmatises the emotions, a crime of insult, oppression and revenge that needs to be punished because a rapist is a criminal and all crimes and their beneficiaries must be punished.
In Nigeria, there has been an increasing number of rape and sexual harassment cases on daily basis. A total number of 150 reported cases of sexual and physical abuse were recorded in Lagos State alone for one year period as of April 27, 2016.
Perpetrators of this evil and devilish act sometimes claim they were seduced by the way their victim dressed. And we ask, how about those who rape toddlers? Six months old, three years old? What seduced these sets of dangerous species?
Madam minister must rise and ensure that rapists in this country are brought to justice at every point as a means of deterrence. They must be punished.
She should work hand in hand with the judiciary to intensify efforts in removing the delay in prosecuting rapists, being fully aware that rape cases are hard to prove. The law should not at any point be lenient with rapists and perpetrators at all levels in the community so as to deter others.
Domestic violence takes many forms including physical, sexual, emotional, and mental. Traditionally, domestic violence is committed against females. Common forms of violence against women in Nigeria include rape, acid attacks, molestation, wife beating, and corporal punishment.
While domestic violence is a global problem, in Nigeria particularly, the epidemic has assumed a disturbing dimension that even current penalties have not been able to serve as deterrent. Endless stories of pains and sorrow follow it.
In some local communities in Nigeria, domestic violence is mostly perceived as what is due to women who nag, disobey or want to take over the seat of authority from the man, who is always revered as the head of the house. It is also known as a "therapy through which a man can conveniently vent his anger or frustration on a 'lesser being' who is his wife or children". Many women now believe that physical abuse is most times justified.
Often, we have woken up to read of murder and violence. Domestic violence happens across all sectors of society. It cuts across the educated and the illiterate, the religious and the freethinkers, classes of career women and stay-at-home wives, the married and the single as well as all ages.
Any form of orientation on couples living together in peace can help curb domestic violence but in case of misunderstandings, physical abuse shouldn't be an option.
Madam minister can write her name in the sand of time that while she held sway at the ministry of women affairs in Nigeria, all forms of crimes against women and young girls were reduced to their barest minimum through policies she enacted and that she went all the way to ensure their implementation.
QUOTE:
The new minister is expected to put in place stronger policies that would reduce to its barest minimum, number of out of school girls in Nigeria.
