President Muhammadu Buhari should appoint more competent women into strategic offices in his government to deepen his women empowerment programmes, Children and Women’s Rights Network (CHRINET) has said.

A communiqué issued at the end of their meeting in Abuja yesterday, the women coalition said appointing more women would foster the federal government’s change agenda in their respective communities and organizations.

CHRINET cited the example of the managing director of the Pipelines and Products Marketing Company (PPMC), Mrs. Esther Nnamdi-Ogbue, saying “the integrity and transparency being employed in the effort to reposition PPMC provides a stellar example of what capable and empowered women can do in leadership positions.”

“Women should not just be appointed for appointment sake; we note that her over 30 years’ competence in Petroleum Law in addition to vast experience in NNPC’s top management and administrative business were considered before President Buhari gave her the current assignment, late last year.

 The communiqué was signed by Hajia Salamatu Mohammed (Kano-based Women for Change), Mrs Helen Akintunde (Progressive Women’s Club of Badagry), and Mr. Moses Adedeji (Children’s Rights Network, Lokoja).

 “Women’s groups see men as partners in progress, not competitors; the mass media has a very big influence in our lives and that of policy-makers as they are the most potent tools for establishing and maintaining prevailing ideologies,” CHRINET said.

“In the city and in the village, women persevere in challenging environments that have some peculiarities – by challenging environments, we mean settings, situations and circumstances that are backbreaking, hard, difficult, demanding, herculean and uphill,” the group said.

The group said “through deliberate and inadvertent means, the mass media, culture, religion, economic and political for them to mount a perpetual conspiracy to hold back women in the society.”
 Credit: Daily trust