Bianca Iboma

Convener of a non-governmental organisation, the Live Abundantly Empowerment Initiative, Dr. Ama Onyerinma, says that empowerment of the girl-child will mitigate her vulnerability in the society.

Onyerinma said this during an event at Wesley School for Hearing-impaired Children, in Surulere, Lagos.

The occasion was the commemoration of the United Nations International Day for the girl-child. This year’s celebration focused on helping girls to overcome adversity.

Speaking during the event, Onyerinma urged the society to support and empower young women to build a better nation.

According to her, “Comprehensive education covers formal, informal and non-formal modes.

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“For the girl-child, this will prepare her adequately for the challenges of largely patriarchal society.

“Women across the world have less access to education, technology and resources like the internet. And that is the reason they are falling behind the boys in gaining employable skills”.

Onyerinma emphasised that the society needs to educate the girl-child to be useful members of their communities.

“The society has to educate the girl-child. We need to make sure that girls have access to well-paid jobs.

“They need to be educated to know their rights, especially when they are abused. We must mentor them with special skills.

“We must help them embrace principles of teamwork and collaboration so that they can embrace hobbies and develop creative skills out of them,” she said.

She said there was need to educate the girls and offer requisite skills, regretting that they were not being mentored enough.

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He urged the adults to play a bigger role in mentoring the girls for the greater good of the society.

“If we see a girl that has drive and determination, they should be mentored so that they can develop their skills because if they don’t have skills they don’t have education.

“And if they don’t these, they are not going to have the right jobs and without the right jobs they are not going to break out of poverty”.

She maintained that the culture of leaving out the girl-child and viewing them as lesser than the boys has to change.

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“The society has to change that culture and recognised that our girls have value.

“Girls have knowledge. They are intelligent and are very strong. We have change that culture that sees them as mere labourers and materials for marriage at a very young age.

“This makes them feel unworthy when they are in themselves worthy.”

To bring this change, according to her, parents, communities and the government have to come in.

“Our society has to produce and provide capable teachers who can give the children what they need to developed into useful female citizens.

“The is would create a better chance for them to contribute their own quota to the development of the society.

“It is wrong to say that it is only the boys that should be lawyers or doctors.

Provision has to be made for the girl- child too to develop their potential.

“So, we need to expand that accessibility of the Nigerian girl-child to acquire quality education to be able to access top jobs in the future,” she said.