Nigerian Women Lament Digital Gap, Political, Economic Leadership Marginilisation

…Urge UN To Reappraise And Implement Beijing Declaration

BY FUNMI ALUKO

Nigerian women have expressed concerns over the widening digital gap in the nation’s political economy even as they lamented that various aspects of the Beijing Declaration for the rights and empowerment of women still exists and yet to be addressed, 30 years after the declaration.

Barr. Igbokwe making her opening remarks during the event

Speaking at the 2025 MMS Hall of Famers’Day in commemoration of the International Women’s Season 2025 held at the Lagos Airport Hotel Ikeja on Wednesday, April 30, 2025, women listed areas of continued marginalization which includes skewed exclusion of women from economic and political leadership positions.

Barr Igbokwe, Mr. Alonge of SIFAX Group and a cross section of participants during the event.

While the chairman of the occasion, Barr. (Mrs) Augustine Igbokwe, Managing Director, Tyse Group, urged for more pragmatic approach to sustaining and nurturing women’s rights, equality and inclusiveness in all human endeavours, women panelists who led discussion on the theme of the event ‘Accelerate Action: Learning, Leading and Driving Innovations Across Industries in Today’s Dynamic Socio-Economic Environment’, urged Nigerian to close rank and be more purposeful in the drive towards achieving gender balancing and inclusivity.

L-R: Ada, Rejoice and Ifeoma expanding the scope of discussion during the panel session

The panel discussion led by Mrs. Ada Okam, a former Director with Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC), with two other participant, the Special Adviser to Imo State Government on Aviation, Mrs. Rejoice Ndudinachi; and the CEO, Ocean Deep Services Limited, Mrs. Rollens Macfoy, represented by Ifeoma Chukwo provided highlights of actions that can be accelerated to achieve a more balanced, less stereotyped and more acceptable, productive world order.

Their position was re-echoed by the Group Head, Human Resources, SIFAX Group, Mr. Oluwakayode Alonge who gave the keynote lecture as he appealed to Nigerian women to be more intentional and to approach the closing of all identified gaps with determination, in addition to presenting alternatives and striving to bring value to the table.

While participants were charged to seek collaboration through networking and learning from each other, speakers were of the consensus that such efforts will provide more numbers of women the opportunity to build together, irrespective of the individuals’ weaknesses or strength.

Speaking on the inability of the United Nation to achieve critical aspects of the Beijing Declaration, Barrister Igbokwe lamented the morbid political atmosphere which she said systematically skew Nigerian women out of balanced participation.

New inductees into the MMS Hall of Famers in a group photo with Barr Igbokwe, 3rd from left and Mr. Kingsley Anaroke, 3rd from right after the new amazons were recognised and presented with certificates.

Quoting Antonio Guterres’  “When the doors of equal opportunities are opened to women and girls, everybody wins” and “Equal societies are the most prosperous and peaceful and are foundation for sustainable development”, Mrs Igbokwe said more of such welcoming assertions will help to reshape orientations and lead to the collapse of stereotypes that promote the divide.

Barr. Igbokwe, Mr and Mrs Anaroke

“l  am truly delighted to be among you today, where we have come to learn, lead and drive innovation in a dynamic, socio-economic environment across industries. This event, as you know, is being organized on the margin of the International Women Day celebration of the season. The International Women’s Day is a day the world stops to notice us, to hear our stories, to recognize our strengths and to acknowledge our strides and our development and the things that we have achieved.

“We know that this year’s theme, like our chief feminist told us is ‘accelerate action’. We are accelerating action on that meeting held 30 years ago in Beijing, China, where the whole world came to affirm that women’s rights are human rights. At that meeting, they agreed and pledged that they will pursue vigorously, right, equality and empowerment of women. That they will work assiduously to make sure that women get education, especially science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

“They agreed that they will pursue financial inclusion for women, and financial independence. They agreed that they will close the digital divide…that promise has not been fully kept. But when they agreed to do that, a United Nation Commission was given the responsibility…and doing all of that…but I’m seeing young people here, they need to know why we are accelerating, what we are doing. So after that meeting the United Nation agreed and saddled a commission within the UN with the responsibility of implementing those agreements: that commission is known as Commission On Status of Women.”

Irrespective of the years of global struggle to close the gaps, Mrs. Igbokwe says that much has been achieved in the Nigerian socio-economic environment.

Initiator of MMS Women Hall of Famers, Anaroke and Mr. Alonge

“When you see this theme and you read it with our theme for today, for this year, ‘Accelerate Action’, you will a sense of urgency, urgency to take stock like our convener mentioned. Urgency to press harder on the throttle to power progress and to insist on the progress and justice that women equality demands.

“So while we admit that there has been some kind of shift, because since that conference, women have shattered barriers, many women have overcome stereotype and bias, and have achieved in the manner that we’ve not achieved before. But we are still very far from the objective. If you look at statistics, you’ll see that we are really far. Let’s take Nigeria for example, we know that recently there has been some kind of progress for instance in the banking industry, today we have 10 CEOs that are women out of the 25.

“But when you look at other areas for instance at politics… because what we are going to discuss today and what we have promised is that women should have power, share power, should have a seat in the places where decisions are made. But look at Nigeria; take the Nigerian Senate for instance, out of 109 senate members, only four women, House of Reps 360 members, 16 women. In ministerial appointments…there are 45 ministers, how many do we have…eight women.

“There is no woman governor…deputy governors we have 6, and when you look at the global index for equality, Nigeria is far behind, we are 125th out of 146 countries. In Africa, we are 29^th…while countries like Namibia is first in Africa and 8th globally, Rwanda is 39th globally and 2nd in Africa, but we still say we are giant of Africa”, she noted with a tone of dissatisfaction.

On the charge that much of the promises of the UN to bridge the gap have not been fulfilled, she notes that unless the responsibility is approached with a lot more sense of urgency, situation in the coming years may not detract significantly from what it presently is.

“The commission meets every year in New York during the month of March to kind of take stock and try to strategize on the way forward. When I said that that promise has not been kept, this commission every year when the y meet, they say we are going to do this, we are going to do that, but recently at almost 30 years, we are not close to where we should be.

“So there must be a sense of urgency, last year I was at the CSW 68 and the theme…to show the urgency was ‘Accelerating the Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women and Girls by addressing poverty and strengthening institutions with gender perspectives. This year’s CSW 69 in New York, the theme was “The Review and appraisal for the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action.”

But she also charged women to focus and be resilient.

“In spite of what we want the world to do for us, we women today have a role in the sense that we must learn to lead and be able to drive innovation across industry fronts in our socio-economic environment. That is what we have come here to listen to and to do, but you must ask yourself, how do we do that?

“Prepare yourselves as we listen today so that we have an open mind to listen to how we can do that. In learning we women must know that learning does not stop, it is continuous, we must continue to learn and remember that as you learn, that every book you read, every course you attend, every seminar…whatever you do, remember that it is something that will benefit you. It opens your heart and your mind, it brings possibility.”

Continuing she said, “And remain curious, remain adaptable and remain informed because that is how we rise. When it comes to leading, let us not be ashamed to lead, we are born leaders, we are natural and multi-skilled, God has imbued us with talents, and when we lead, let us do so with empathy because that is who we are. Let us lead with boldness, with sensitivity because we are women.

“And remember women…that in leadership, it is not only to sit at the table, you must create tables, you must pull other women along. And then how do we innovate? Look at all the women…we are co-creators, we are incubators, we are nurturers,  that is who God has made us. So we must learn to innovate…we are today talking about STEM…science, technology, mathematics, we need to encourage more women to get into it and that is what we will be discussing today.”

Mrs. Igbokwe also claimed that some of the scientific disciplines and courses are skewed against women through application and occupational biases.

“More women will get into AI, more women will get into stem but you must also know that innovation does not only stop with technology, it comes anyway you define yourself whether in the arts or humanities. Wherever you find yourself you must learn to do things differently. We know that in AI and Algorithm women are very far behind, so we have biased algorithm”, she lamented.