The Senior Special Assistant (SSA) to the President on Leadership and Citizenship, Rinsola Abiola has said President Bola Tinubu is actively working to strengthen programmes and policies that would promote the growth and development of women and youths in Nigeria.
Abiola said this while speaking at a Young Women’s Leadership Conference organised by her office in partnership with UN Women, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, National Information Technology Development Agency, amongst others in Abuja.
She also disclosed that President Tinubu, among other things, has been actively providing support for women to achieve their dreams through programmes, policies and inclusion in government.
The presidential aide called for enactment of laws to uphold the rights of women in order to foster their empowerment through legal protection and laws that deliver on their equity and protection, economic advancement, education and political representation.
“Today, we will talk about laws and the effort to safeguard your rights, we will talk about youth initiatives, we will talk about political representation and how we can work together to close the gender gap across all facets of our national life.
“Please rest assured that we are not just here to talk, but that the recommendations we make and the resolutions we reach at this conference will form the basis of further engagements and detailed advisory to the president, through the Ministry for Youth Development,” she said.
Abiola said, it is imperative that the youths and women are trained and empowered to be take full advantage of the opportunities the government is providing for them, and one of the ways of doing so was the conference for women on leadership.
“We have a president who is committed to gender mainstreaming, as evidenced by the appointment of an unprecedented number of women into key positions. I am one of them, as I serve as his Senior Special Assistant on Citizenship and Leadership, and I make bold to say that a significant proportion of my colleagues are female.
“Going into the Federal Executive Council, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu also made history by appointing a capable young woman in the person of Dr. Jamila Bio Ibrahim as Minister for Youth Development; that is in addition to other capable women manning key ministries.”