Chukwuemeka Nwajuiba, the Minister of State for Education, on Tuesday said for Nigeria to achieve an all-inclusive government, women must be positioned as team players.
Mr Nwajuiba said this at a two-day National Capacity Workshop for Gender Officers in UBEB Schools in the 774 Local Government Areas in the country.
The workshop was organised by the National Council of Women Societies, NCWS, in collaboration with the Ministry of Education.
The minister, who was represented by his Senior Special Assistant on Communication, Imaan Ibrahim, said that Nigeria women must speak with one voice to achieve this feat.
According to him, women must strategically position themselves as team players in nation building to achieve the goal of inclusion in governance and policy creation.
”We must master the art of being another woman’s keeper; we must consistently speak with one strong voice and challenge ourselves and continuously build on our capacity.
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”To transform our education sector, all hands must be on deck. Inclusion is key; we must individually choose our roles either as the visionaries, the enablers or the actual implementers of the next level which we would like to see,” he said.
Mr Nwajuiba said it was commendable when a coalition of women took charge to bring key players together to further empower women on their roles in enhancing inclusion to impact the education sector.
”It is no longer news that President Muhammadu Buhari led government is determined to provide all-inclusive, equitable education for all girl-child, boy-child, drop-out, Amajiris and out-of-school children being our agenda and no one of the focal point of our ministry,” he said.
On her part, the NCWS President, Gloria Shoda said education remained the most potent tool of social mobility and foundation for societal growth, adding that an investment in knowledge was in the best interest of the society.
Mrs Shoda said that educating the girl-child was the key to unlocking access to economic and social development of Nigeria.
“The challenge is how to deliberately optimise the potential of the huge youth population to be highly productive at home and competitively exportable abroad.
”And we cannot export illiterates in a world driven by digital technology.“
So, the easiest way to waste the future is to churn out millions of semi-illiterates, largely unemployable citizens most of whom seek criminality as the only way to escape the poverty trap.
The two-day workshop with the theme: Achieving Inclusive, Equitable Quality Education and Gender Equality through Education Empowerment of Girl-Child, Boy-Child, Drop-Out and Amajiri by Education/Gender officers in Nigeria.
NAN
