Scores of women on Tuesday stormed the Imo Government House in Owerri, demanding an immediate end to all kinds of rites and customs affecting the growth of the girl-child.
The placard-carrying women marched to the Government House entrance gate, faulting the National Assembly for failing to pass gender-related bills recently.
They also called on the Federal Government and Academic Staff Union of Universities to speedily resolve their differences so that students could go back to their schools.
President of Women Unite to Live Initiative, Nigeria, Chika Nwachukwu, who led the women during the protest, also urged the government to deepen democracy by building basic amenities for the masses.
Nwachukwu said that Nigerian women had the capacity to compete favourably with their counterparts if equal opportunities were provided.
The woman activist said, “Use the 2022 International Women’s Day with the theme #BreakingTheBias to ponder on the place of a typical African Woman.
“There is this clarion call for all nations to rise against all forms of unfair cultural and customary practices which inhibit women and girl-child from utilising their potential for self-realisation, socio-political and economic advancement and general well-being at the various communities, workplaces, schools, colleges and universities.
“However, #BreakingTheBias begins with us women as we need to look inward and motivate one another to make a good society. In the words of the great Napoleon, “Give me good mothers and I will give you a good nation. Similarly, Mary Wollstonecraft said, ‘I do not wish women to have power over men, but over themselves’, hence if we can come together and encourage intergenerational mentorship, the societal values epitomised by good moral standards shall be restored.”
The deputy governor of the state, Prof Placid Njoku, assured the women that the state government would look into their demands with the intention of solving the ones that were within the purview of the state government
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