The Federal Government has called on the four Agencies under the Ministry of interior to appoint women into various management positions with a view to avoiding gender discrimination, more so to promote gender equality in the public service.
Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola stated this during the official unavailing and launch of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) Gender Policy Document in Abuja.
Aregbesola, in his keynote address, titled: “No woman should be left behind,” noted that there should be no discrimination in gender, as he called for the promotion of equal advancement of women and men in all sectors.
The Minister charged the Commandant-General of NSCDC, Dr.Ahmed Abubakar Audi, to promote gender inclusiveness within the corps and ensure that women are given equal opportunity to enable them prove their pontentiality in the service.
“Our nation has faced security challenges in recent times, there has been a long – standing insurgency in the North-East, banditry in the North-West and North Central, farmers- herders clashes all over, kidnapping for ransom in our schools, this called for more security architectures in the schools which resorted in the establishment of the Female Squad by the Corps.
The Minister who attributed the current security challenges to the emergence of the novel covid-19 pandemic stated further that the Nigerian security agencies have risen strongly to face these challenges.
“Female Squadrons are ready to face these security challenges,” Aregbesola emphasized.
Earlier, in his remarks, the Commandant-General of the corps, Dr Ahmed Abubakar Audi, noted that the formulation of the NSCDC Gender Policy was anchored on the outcome of a gender assessment exercise conducted in three formal security institutions in 2019 which included NSCDC,.
Audi commended the Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola for giving him a matching order on assumption of duty early this year that;
“I should Introduce a robust policy initiatives for the establishment of Female Squad in the NSCDC to curtail the security challenges in our schools across the nation.”
Similarly, the Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development, Dame Pauline Talen, commended the gender sensitive policies of the Minister and that of the Commandant-General, their commitment to the plight of women, which according to her will surely address incisant gender based violence against women .
The Women Affairs Minister also used the occasion to confer an Award, titled; “He for She” on the Commandant-General of NSCDC, Dr Ahmed Audi, for his devotion and commitment to the promotion of women in top management positions of the service.
