The President
General, Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC), Comrade Peter Esele has assured
TUC women that the union will include them in its budget and train them on how
to raise money on their own.
Esele said
this while addressing the women during the TUC Women Commission’s Delegates
Conference in Lagos recently that though many shared the sentiment that women
are seen to mean nothing in the society but said that it has become a thing of
the past.
According to
him, “I believe that the perceived gap created
between women and their men counterparts is predicated on the fact that over
time women have rarely come together to tenaciously fight a common cause.
However, today women's oppression and inequality have prompted them to become
more vocal and active in campaigning for change.
“Comrades, having laid this foundation,
I must also add that in advertising if you do not say here I am nobody will say
there you are. This implies that if the TUC Women Commission fail to take
advantage of the grand opportunity provided them by the National Secretariat to
possess their possession in TUC, Nigeria and the world at large, then you have
done a great disservice to yourselves and everyone else.”
This year’s TUC Women Commission’s Delegates Conference which coincided with the just
celebrated World International Women Day, Esele described it as a day to
celebrate womanhood and the great strides that have been recorded in the
age-long struggle for the emancipation of women from the bondage of slavery and
second-class citizenship in just about every area of human experience ranging
from socio-economic, political, physical struggles. “You too can make us and
children unborn assemble tomorrow to celebrate your legacies. But how do you do
this? One way is by voting right today. Please make sure you vote and vote for
only the best candidates who will make the struggle for woman emancipation
worthwhile,” he added.
He urged the women as they were about to
elect new executives of Women in TUC to remember the multitude of brave women
as well as supportive men who have fought and made immeasurable sacrifice to
ensure that the women and girls of today and future generations enjoy the
appropriate recognition, dignity, freedom, gender equity and opportunities for
self-fulfilment that were wrongfully denied our mothers.
“Remember the efforts of past leaders that
have resulted in the universal suffrage that has given women the right to vote
and be voted for, and also caused significant increase in the number of
girl-children enrolled in schools, the greater presence and visibility of women
in positions of authority in political and other spheres of life, the
international focus on resolving women health issues (e.g. Female Genital Mutilation
(FGM), breast cancer and high maternal mortality rate), eliminating rape and
ending women trafficking, etc.
“As for the winners in today’s
elections, my advice is that you be magnanimous in victory and carry everyone
along. And you must endeavour to advance the cause of women in general to the
next level. Women and their children are the most hit by societal problems,
e.g. the poverty and insecurity in the country. Many others have been
killed by our dilapidated roads or by robbers, Boko Haram, etc. the
burden of ensuring that these and other ills against women are effectively
redressed is a cross that you will bear from this day. I trust that you can and
will do it judiciously as the true unionists that you are.”
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