International Women’s Day 2022: Gender Equity for a Sustainable Development – “Break the Bias” -By Adesanya-Davies

INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY, 2022

Tuesday, March 8, 2022
India Time: 10:30am – 4:30pm
Int’l Google Meeting joining info:
Video call link: https://meet.google.com/hji-wmzc-ahb

SPEECH PRESENTATION BY AMB. PROF. MERCY FUNMILAYO ADESANYA-DAVIESI

International Women’s Day 2022: Gender Equity for a Sustainable Development – “Break the Bias” —Adesanya-Davies

International Women’s Day 2022, 8 March 2021 —Amb. Prof. Funmilayo Adesanya-Davies

Today, as we celebrate the International Women’s Day of 2022 captioned “Gender Equity for a Sustainable Development –
“Break the Bias”, let’s break the Bias, break the Limits and break Barriers” —Adesanya-Davies

We all might have seen International Women’s Day mentioned in the media or heard friends talking about it. But the question is: What is this day for? When is it? Is it a celebration or a protest? Is there an equivalent International Men’s Day? And what events will take place this year? These are some of the questions that readily come to mind.

International Women’s Day, also known as IWD for short, grew out of the labour movement to become an annual event recognised by the United Nations. Actually historically, “For more than a century, people around the world have been marking 8 March as a special day for women.

“The seeds were planted in 1908, when 15,000 women marched through New York demanding shorter working hours, better pay and the right to vote. A year later, the Socialist Party of America declared the first National Woman’s Day.

“It was Clara Zetkin, a communist activist and advocate for women’s rights, who suggested the creation of an international day. She put her idea to an International Conference of Working Women in Copenhagen in 1910 – and the 100 women there, from 17 countries, agreed to it unanimously.

International Women’s Day was first celebrated in 1911, in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland. The centenary was celebrated in 2011, so this year we’re technically celebrating the 111th.Things were made official in 1975 when the United Nations started celebrating the day. The first theme adopted (in 1996) was “Celebrating the Past, Planning for the Future”.

International Women’s Day has become a date to celebrate how far women have come in society, politics and in economics, while the political roots of the day mean strikes and protests are organised to raise awareness of continued inequality. In Nigeria, on March 5, 2022, President Muhammadu Buhari with the Minister of Women Affairs, Dame Pauline Tallen as reported by Jauhar S. Salihu have remarkably marked the lnternational Women’s Day of this year with the THEME: Gender Equity for a Sustainable Development, “Break the Bias”.

May I cite the quotation from King’er (1995:137), which captures the need for men’s involvement in the women liberation struggles thus:
“Men are complementary to women and, they too, are part of humanity in its entirety. Neither part of mankind can claim freedom while the other suffers nor escape its obligatory commitment to liberate itself as well as the other half. Men, therefore, cannot just afford to be simply sympathetic to the cause of women’s struggle. They must be critical, pragmatic and resolute in their concern to contribute to the struggle, since, for one reason or the other, they may be the only ones who hinder or help the success of the struggle. Men must release the liberation of women will mean the liberation of humankind.”

“The need for men’s involvement in the struggles for women inclusiveness could be found on two grounds which are moral and economic. Worldwide experience shows clearly that supporting a stronger role for women contributes to economic growth, it improves child survival and overall family health, and it reduces fertility, thus helping to slow population growth rates. In short, investing in women is central to sustainable development.

Moreover, every man has a mother and every mother is a female gender. Most men have sisters, that later grow into womanhood, aunts etc. Should man therefore act as the stumbling block to prevent either his mother, sister, aunt from developing their full potentialities simply because of their own type of gender? The answer from any morally sound mind will be NO! What then do men engage in discriminatory practices against women? Is it inevitable and unchangeable?

The answer could be that man as turned himself into a selfish beast; and that gender fairness is not unchangeable, it could be changed if man outgrows being a beast. Thus, on moral grounds there is need to stop rating women as second class citizens resulting in discriminatory practices against them mostly by our so called cultural practices.

Women in civilized societies are offered a relatively equal opportunity with male children, so that their potentialities can equally be cultivated along with men. There we always see ladies with dreams to pursue a career in any academic discipline, we see them quantitatively becoming prominent lawyers, Doctors, Security personnel, Surgeons, Pilots, Engineers, Teachers, Veteran journalists etc.

Women are as intelligent as men; there is no study ever that portrays women as less intelligent to men. NOTE: We are talking of intelligence NOT muscular strength. But unfortunate for my sisters born into culturally siege families that can’t even socially adjust to the progressive worldviews that move forward our contemporary society. In addition to that, women play a very vital role in human progress and have a significant place in the society. They are not at all inferior to men. They are capable of sharing all the responsibilities of life. The main responsibility of a woman is to preserve the human race.

However, in our world today, women are being treated as inferior persons and second class citizens. A case on mind for instance, is on some of the Bills recently passed by the Senate and House of Representatives in Nigeria, basically related to gender parity, I am of the candid opinion that, “The female gender species is seriously endangered in Nigeria.” The two Bills are as follow: Kindly take note of the gender Bills that were voted against: Nos 15 and No 16 as follow:

15. – For an Act to Provide for Special Seats for Women in the National and State Houses of Assembly; and for Related Matters.
30 senators voted in favour
58 senators voted against.

STATUS: NOT APPROVED

16. – For an Act to Provide for Affirmative Action for Women in Political Party Administration; and for Related Matters.
34 senators voted in favour
53 senators voted against.

STATUS: NOT APPROVED

May I sadly remark that , “As I read through the BREAKING NEWS on some notably passed Bills on Tuesday, by the Nigerian Senate, my heart bleeds on the issues relating to gender parity / equality and women centered matters in Nigeria in this century. This is because, out of the 68 Bills that were presented, only (2) were related to gender/ and gender parity and both failed in the hands of our men, as the senate is constituted by about 95% of men folks.

Firstly, may we seize this opportunity to celebrate and thank our fathers, the men, I mean the thirty to thirty-four (30-34) senators, who voted in favour of the two gender parity Bills. We sincerely appreciate you all, you are not only truthful to yourselves, but to Nigeria our father and to God, the creator who made us both male and female. May the almighty God continue to bless you and indeed bring to pass your very heart desires on this matter, one day and very soon!

Secondly, as regards other men that have refused to vote in support of the women, the mothers, not remembering that, when it comes to general elections, women or the female gender constitutes over 45% of voters, but they will choose to vote for the men, our dear fathers. Oh my! We seriously need the help of the HeForShe to please come out en masse the more for the rescue of the female/women folks in the nation.

These two Bills on gender parity and matters were neither carefully nor painstakingly considered and failed to fly. Why? The truth of that matter is that, the issue of the two Bills on gender parity would still need to be represented, revisited and re-considered positively inspict of this fact.

How it works: The fact is that Bills that pass in only one chamber will not make the list of those that will be sent to the state houses of assembly to be voted on. Two-thirds of the state assemblies will have to pass the bills before it is now sent to the president for assent. Here is how both chambers of the national assembly voted. It was confirmed that a total of 43 bills made the cut.

It was earlier on reported on 17 December, 2021 by Africanews, that “For the third time in five years Nigerian senators have rejected a bill that sought to promote gender equality in the country, while this serves as the fourth time. “The proposed package was rejected after some lawmakers in the upper chamber, mostly northern Muslims, cited social, cultural and religious concerns.

The bill focused on making discrimination on the basis of gender or marital status a crime. Another aim was to reinforce existing laws against gender-based violence. Many of the senators who opposed the legislation during a plenary session on Wednesday said their resistance was strictly a religious issue. Nigeria is Africa’s most populous country and is deeply divided along religious and ethnic lines. Just only about 7% of the nation’s senators are women.

Thus, I seize this opportunity of today’s celebration of this year’s International Women’s Day 2022 worldwide, captioned “Gender Equity for a Sustainable Development” – “Break the Bias” to appeal to the Nigerian lawmakers at both Upper and lower chambers to kindly revisit and review that matter again.

As the Country President of the United Nations Positive Livelihood Award Centre UN-POLAC International Peace Advocates, I appeal to them in the spirit of this year’s theme, to allow Gender Equity to prevail in this matter for purpose of Sustainable Development – While they“Break the Bias”.

Today, as we celebrate the International Women’s Day of 2022 captioned “Gender Equity for a Sustainable Development –
“Break the Bias”, lets break the Bias, break the Limits and break Barriers”

Finally, women are a great resource to family and national development if given the opportunity to express their full potentialities in contributing their own quota this world would be a develop place. As we unwind towards International Day for Women with the theme “Break the Bias” I advocate for creating an equitable, diverse and inclusive environment that will enable young women to be champions of progress in all ramifications with their growth unfettered by gender constraints. Let support their courage, passion and encourage them to achieve more.

Lastly, may I conclude that for me, I am most passionate about the transformation, development, progress and unity of Nigeria, as an accomplished educationist, who believes I can boost Nigeria’s Human Capital Development Index and its Competitiveness in the area of skills and talent management.

I therefore use this platform and opportunity, to once again make my declaration concerning 2023 Presidential election in Nigeria that, “I have a dream, that one day, a woman wil become the president of Nigeria, and the dream is NOW!!!”

SPECIAL NOTE

Prof. Funmilayo Adesanya-Davies is a frontline presidential aspirant, the only Amazon in the 2023 Presidential race on the platform of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and an academic and technocrat in Nigeria. She speaks on International Women’s Day 2022: Gender Equity for a Sustainable Development –
“Break the Bias”; specifically on two (2) Bills on gender parity out of 64 Bills which were voted out and dismissed by in Nigeria lawmakers.

#IWD2022 #BreakTheBias.

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