The first Lady of Nigeria, Dame Patience Goodluck Jonathan has appealed to Kogi State government to ensure 35 percent representation of women in its political appointment.
The first lady made the call yesterday at the meeting of the 15th edition of National Council on Women Affairs and Social Development in Lokoja.
In this vein, she advised the Kogi State House of Assembly members to speed the process of passing the bill into law for the women in the state to take their rightful place and contribute their quota to the development of the state.
The president’s wife, who said parents should strive to maintain peace at home to avoid affecting their off springs, stated that well brought up children are assets to the nation, saying it would be difficult to use them for any violent acts in the country.
Explaining the activity of the National Council of Women Affairs and Social Development, the Minister of Women Affairs, Hajiya Zainab Maina posited that they had put in place mechanisms to boost women entrepreneurial activities as well as encourage skills acquisition for rural women.
Hajia Maina noted that in this endeavour, the government is constructing and equipping 77 skills acquisition centres across the country, adding that 24 of these centres had been completed out of which two are ready for commissioning.
Stressing that the National Centre for Women Development, NCWD, the only parastatal of the ministry, have trained 9, 210 women nationwide in various vocational skills such as cosmetology and beauty therapy, outdoor decorations and hair dressing among others, the minister said the NCWD had obtained the National Board for Technical Education, NBTE, accreditation for diploma certificates in vocational and ICT training programmes.
