Traditional rulers in Gombe State Tuesday, pledged to intensify their support on girl child education and women empowerment in various communities within the state.
This is in furtherance of the campaign against gender based violence and promotion of women empowerment and equal opportunities for women in Gombe State.
The Senior District Head of Gombe, Alhaji Abdulkadir Abubakar (Yariman Gombe) expressed the commitment of the traditional leaders to further promote and protect women in the society during a meeting called by Peace and Gender Media Practitioners of the United Nations’ UN women and traditional rulers in Gombe.
According to him, Gombe State has over the time improved in areas of women empowerment, especially in recent time when more women are actively involved in decision making positions in the State.
The Lead Women Mentor of the UN Women in Gombe State, Mrs. Hannatu Ibrahim stated that, despite concerted efforts by various organisations on gender and equal opportunity, there is still a very wide gap in decision making positions and opportunities for women.
She noted that, “despite improved number of women participation in politics in the state, only few of them were able to scale through the electoral processes due to absence of level playing ground for the female gender.”
She said there was need for traditional leaders to be actively involved in promoting gender balance and protection of women and children in the society.
Stakeholders at the meeting also, appealed for intensified effort on girl- child education, special support programme for female politicians, and special attention to women’s unpaid care at various levels of the society.
The UN Women in Gombe has held similar meetings in Cham chiefdom of Balanga LGA and Kaltungo LGA of the state with representatives from various wards within the Southern Senatorial District where calls were made to engage women in peace and security matters in the area.
Gender Technical Advisor for the UN Women’s Peace and Security Project in Gombe, Mrs Rhoda Diya, told journalists in an interview that the UN women is interested in promoting women involvement in peace and security, especially in the northern part of Nigeria.
