The Association of Female Politicians (AFP) in Ondo State, on Monday, trained secondary school students on gender equality, realisation of women’s rights and social justice.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the event, organised to commemorate the 2020 International Women’s Day celebration, took place at the Akure city hall.
The event has as its theme: “I am Generation Equality: Realising Women’s Right and Social Justice.”
The President of the association, Hon. Janet Adeyemi, said that they were invariably training future women on generational struggle and educating them on things they needed to carry into the future.
Adeyemi, who said that in the next 10 years, most of the current students would become women, added that it was, therefore, important for them to know how much they had absorbed and how much they knew about gender rights and equality.
The former member of House of Representatives, said with consistent advocacy, the rate of women’s participation in politics had been increasing.
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“Ladies should be able to hold themselves high and not see themselves as sex symbols; they don’t have to use sex to drive anything, either to get job or determine who to marry.
“When you know your right and build up on yourself, you will have self- confidence and God will help you to become whatever you want to become,” she said.
A former Commissioner for Women Affairs in the state, Hon. Omowumi Olatunji Ohwovoriole in her welcome address, said that the platform was important for the girl-child to know that they were not limited by their gender.
Olatunji said it was important to put the young girls through in areas where they had miscalculated or failed in the past.
“There must be equality in all ramifications; we talk about social, cultural and political issues. We want women to wake up to understand that they have something to offer the society.
“When we talk about politics, we have a very little number of women in politics in a way.
“This programme is an awakening: to let women know their rights; we want to instill boldness; they must know the quality they possess as a woman; we are not limited to the male counterpart,” she said.
A legal practitioner, Mrs Jumoke Anifowose, said that the programme was on point and would allow the participants to see enough women role models whom they could emulate and tow their paths to greatness.
Anifowose praised the organisers of the programme for ‘catching them young’ and to let them know they too could be successful like their male counterpart.
Also, the Deputy Director, National Orientation Agency (NOA), Mrs Wunmi Olumuyiwa, said that the programme was apt to the lives of the female students.
One of the participants and student of Akure Academy, Miss Jaiyeola Fayemi, said that she had learnt a lot and thanked the organisers for what she called ‘an eye-opening programme’.
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