A non-governmental organisation, the Women Safe House Sustenance Initiative, has advocated economic justice, empowerment and development for women in Akinyele and Lagelu local government areas of Oyo State.
Members of the NGO made this call on Saturday, in Ibadan, during a stakeholders’ engagement on economic justice organised for women in the two local governments, which was sponsored by Urgent Action Fund Africa for Women’s Human Rights.
The founder of the NGO, who is also a lawyer, Wuraoluwa Ayodele-George, said the essence of the engagement was to look at the issues affecting women, especially local/community women, in terms of economic justice and general welfare, and to see how her organisation can help them to cope.
“We are advocating favourable working conditions for women and also empowering them in their businesses,” she said.
“We are looking at policy creation and implementation that will guarantee them justice in what they do.”
Wuraoluwa-George stated that the advocacy is not a local endeavour, adding that they are expanding the engagement to the state level through policy previews and government collaboration.
The Programme Manager of the Shade of Women Foundation, who was also a facilitator at the event, Omobolanle Adedeji, noted that the reasons most women are deprived of economic justice and business empowerment range from distrust, gender bias, insecurity and religious beliefs.
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“We need to create adequate awareness for these women and let them know their rights in issues concerning business, work and income,” Adedeji said. “Laws should be put in place to punish people who stop their spouses from working.”
Another facilitator and doctoral student of the Faculty of Public Health, University of Ibadan, Omowumi Okedare, lamented that Nigeria is a patriarchal society that does not want to see women progress and develop like men.
She stated that any man or society that discourages women from working is cheating the family and the government, adding that when women work, they grow the economy and pay taxes.
“When a woman works, it is for the betterment of the man and the family,” Okedare said. “Any man that stops his wife from working is cheating himself.”
In the course of the event, interactive sessions were held, and some of the issues raised and discussed centred on what Nigerian women can do to make the country better; why having economic justice, especially for women, at the local level is important; gender-based/domestic violence; among others.
Prior to the event, the NGO intervened in some economic, gender and legal issues of ten selected women across ten communities in the two local governments areas.
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