Economic Empowerment
In a desperate attempt to stamp out all forms of violence against women and give them economic empowerment, the Chairman, Ad-hoc Committee of the House of Representatives on Media and Public Affairs, Michael Opeyemi Bamidele, is set to sponsor Paycheque Fairness and Violence against women Bills to palliate the sufferings of the womenfolk in the country.
The Paycheque Bills, Bamidele said, would allow the female entrepreneur to access capital and meet the needs of women owned businesses under a harsh and highly discriminative economy in Nigeria.
The lawmaker, who is representing Ekiti Central Federal Constituency 1, regretted that the voices of women were being subjugated in Nigeria in terms of policy making as well as facing serious economic challenges, which, he said, must be tackled to build a more equitable and virile Nigeria.
In a statement signed by the lawmaker and made available to newsmen in Abuja, he charged all the federal and state legislators to work hard in the area of women empowerment, both at their legislative duties and in the execution of their constituency projects. He said the two bills if passed and assented to would place the womenfolk on a solid rock to compete with their men counterparts in all the fields of human endeavour.
Bamidele stressed that it would further tackle all forms of violence against women rights in their respective homes and in their places of work. The federal lawmaker lamented the increasing waves of rape in Nigerian society, calling on the security agencies and state Houses of Assembly to ensure that all Acts prohibiting such unwholesome habits were implemented by relevant agencies.
The House of Representatives member charged the women to broaden their horizons in terms of having information about their rights and report any incidence of rights infringement to the government agencies for proper action to be taken against the perpetrators.