Wife of Lagos State Governor, Dr. Ibijoke Sanwo-Olu, said the progress of the Nigerian women was stylishly discarded by the recent rejection of gender bills by the National Assembly, demanding an immediate passage of the bills.
The governor’s wife who led a rally of women from different walks of life, organised by the Purple Women Foundation in collaboration with the Nigerian Governors’ Wives Forum tagged “One Million Women March Against Gender Discrimination”, said the action was retrogressive.
Mrs Sanwo-Olu and the women who marched from Lagos State secretariat to the House of Assembly in Alausa, Ikeja were received by principal officers including the Speaker, Mudashiru Obasa; Deputy Speaker, Wasiu Eshinlokun; Majority Leader, Sanai Agunbiade; Chairman, House Committee on Women Affairs, Poverty Alleviation and Job Creation, Hon Mojisola Alli-Macaulay, among others.
It was put together as part of activities to commemorate the 2022 International Women’s Day Celebration, with the theme: “BreakThe Bias: Gender equality today for a sustainable tomorrow.”
Addressing the women, Mrs Sanwo-Olu described the rejection of the gender bills as an act of brazen discrimination against Nigerian women, calling on the National Assembly to promptly reconsider the bills and approve them.
“Our interpretation of what transpired with this pattern of voting at the National Assembly on March 1st, 2022, is that the progress of Nigerian women has been rejected. All the proposed constitutional amendments were meant to end bias against women and ensure the minimization; if not total removal of barriers millions of women face on the basis of their gender.
“We hereby condemn in no uncertain terms this brazen discrimination against Nigerian women. As half of the population of the country, our voices and our lives matter. There can be no development without the full and equal participation of women in all spheres, and any country that continues to deliberately undermine the advancement of women, is simply stifling its own advancement,” she said.
