By Olanrewaju Adesanya
Commemorating the International Women’s Day celebration, the United Labour Congress (ULC) has harped on the need for women to stand up and be counted,aspiring for positions dominated by men.
Giving his opening remarks,Comrade Joe Ajaero ULC President urges women to aspire for greatness in any group or union they find their selves.
The ULC arrowhead (Ajearo) commended the frugal stance of ULC women.
“Avoid distractions women have also gotten to greater heights,if you don’t use your potentials it is not good,pay less attention to man, woman dichotomy.
“Aspire to be great,wherever you are aspire to occupy a position,use your potentials.
“Stand up and occupy higher offices,we want more women to get involved,there is nobody limiting you.
“Don’t compare yourselves with women in other unions,we are not competing with anyone,but carve a niche for the ULC and make it a union to be reckoned with all the time.
“By December ULC we will be having our National Delegate Conference and I expect you to aspire for higher offices ULC is unstoppable.” Ajearo reiterated.
Earlier Comrade Havilah Ofulie,ULC chairperson(Women Commission) in her welcome address charge all women to cooperate and foster a formidable force,to ensure equal treatment for both women and men in the society.
“This gathering provides us an ideal and veritable platform to strategise on how to best contribute to unlocking ‘equal world’s, which will ultimately provide an enabled world towards guaranteeing what I called “women power”.
“It is generally believed that it is a man’s world.
With all sense of humility,I beg to differ and I strongly believe that many of us here today will agree with me that until an enabling environment is created for a total and genuine equal world there can never be an enabled world.
“My Clarion call to all women to rise up to challenge every institutional decimation,cultural prejudice and religious bias that has hitherto held us bound in the kitchen and “the other room”.
“It is time for us to begin to be relevant in governance,economic significance,political prudence,social performance and spiritual dominance,to confront our challenges head-on.
Comrade Adidi Adodo General Secretary ULC promised unalloyed support to the women.
Barr.(Mrs.) Rosemary Giwa Amu who gave the first lecture titled;’#Equal World is an Enabled World’,urge women to appreciate the available provisions that support the course of women and latch on it to assert their rights.
She cited women of repute who influenced the world’s development in time past,noting that they can still assert themselves in the contemporal age.
The second lecturer Comrade Dele Dada who spoke to the topic;”Issues on Women’s Rights”, cited the need for women to stand up and challenge the space already saturated by men.
He added that women are the enemy of women,as they decided to favour men above women,so the situation is self inflicted.
Dada noted that the incessant report of homicides are needless,as gender parity should not be abused to the extent of disrespecting their husbands at the homefront.