News

IWD: Friends Of The Earth Advocate Environmental Justice For Women

Published

6 months ago

March 10, 2024

By Gloria Ikibah

A non- governmental advocacy group and partners known as Friends of the Earth (FoE) have ramped up efforts to push for environmental justice and gender equality to enhance women’s status in Africa and other parts of the world.

This was the focus of a virtual press conference to mark the 2024 International Women’s Day (IWD, on Friday.

The Coordinator Forest and Biodiversity Programme of FoE, Rita Uwaka emphasized the need to chart a transformative course towards women’s empowerment and gender equality.

According to her, it has become incumbent on leaders, especially in Africa, to articulate a compelling vision of inclusive governance and gender parity, driven by structures that will give women more opportunities to occupy key decision and policy making positions.

Uwaka, a notable advocate of women empowerment, lamented that women play significant roles in agro-commodity production yet they are denied access to land based on obnoxious traditional and cultural practices that hinder them and reduce their potential.

She therefore called on the government and the media to help strengthen the means to democratize development and make women’s voices heard within international solidarity agencies that promote and support women’s right and permit women more access to land ownership, stressing that “environmental justice cannot happen without gender justice”.

Edna Tabajuika from Tanzania said that “women are the backbone of the societies because they are the primary producers in East Africa yet get fewer benefits because of cultural practices that deny them ownership of land”.

She decried the situation where companies in the extractive industries are notorious in grabbing land from women in Tanzania warning that this is leading to food insecurity.

“Food security suffers when women lose access to land, because it leads to economic disempowerment,” she said.

Azeeza Rangunwala from Groundwork based in South Africa in her remarks, highlighted the increasing level of violence against women in South Africa even as she called for a “feminist transition” that will dismantle the patriarchal system that has worked against women emancipation.

She called for reforms in all arms of government to give women more spaces with an action that will work towards ending the obnoxious ideas and cultural practices that exacerbate the crisis the women are grappling with.

Normor Bee from Liberia in her submission called on women to intensify their pivotal role in shaping the human trajectory. She advocated for new generation of empowered women equipped with the knowledge, skills, through training and capacity building to effect positive change in their communities and beyond.

Aminata Massaquoi from Sierra Leone in her remarks said that the issues of policies in plantation areas are rarely talked about. She pointed out that the advocacy groups in Sierra Leone are pushing hard, especially on strengthening the laws that will protect women.

However, in most parts of the world especially in Africa, enhancing the status of women has faced massive impediments due to historical pattern of poor priorities and policies as well as cultural practices that have hindered the women and limited their potential.

In Africa, women play massive role in agro-commodity productivity as their efforts help to feed the growing population of the continent. However, women have limited access to land in most communities and in many others they face gender violence, unequal pay for jobs and suffer severe exclusion in decision and policy making bodies.

They are victims of wars and conflicts like the war in Gaza, where many women have reportedly been killed. The women also face enormous sexual exploitation during such conflicts which most times plunge them into poverty and deprivation.

Naijablitznews.com reports that the International Women’s Day is conceptualized and enacted by the United Nations and celebrated every March 8.

News

LASG shuts down Idera market over ‘environmental pollution

Published

4 hours ago

September 19, 2024

Kayode Sanni-Arewa

By Kayode Sanni-Arewa

The Lagos State Environmental Sanitation Corps (LAGESC) says it has sealed off the Idera market in the Oshodi metropolis.

In a statement on Thursday, Ajayi Lukman, LAGESC spokesperson, said the agency sealed the market due to unhygienic practices and indiscriminate dumping of refuse, which contravened the environmental law of the state.

He said the measure was taken to enforce adherence to environmental cleanliness across registered markets in the state.

‘‘Our operatives stationed across the Oshodi division during routine market monitoring identified the filth, unhygienic practices, and indiscriminate dumping of refuse around the Idera Market area, which prompted us to seal off the market until further notice,” the statement reads.

Lukman quoted Olaniyi Cole, the corps marshal of the agency, as decrying the level of hygiene at the market, which could lead to an outbreak of diseases.

He said Cole frowned at the inability of the market leadership to provide a valid waste collection contract, which resulted in the heaps of refuse in the facility.

He added that the display of wares for sale on road setbacks, lay-bys, medians, verges, kerbs, street trading, and hawking remained banned in the metropolis.

The LAGESC corps marshal reiterated the ban on the sales, distribution, and usage of styrofoam in the state, noting that anyone found culpable would be punished decisively.

News

Hours to Edo guber polls, major opposition candidate crumbles structure for Ighodalo

Published

4 hours ago

September 19, 2024

Kayode Sanni-Arewa

By Kayode Sanni-Arewa

Hours to the Edo State governorship election, the guber candidate of the All Peoples Party (APP)Amb Osalumese Areloegbe on Thursday morning collapsed the structure for the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Dr. Asue Ighodalo and his running mate, Osarodion Ogie Esq.

Addressing journalists at the party secretariat in Benin City, Areloegbe said his decision to collapse the structure for the PDP candidate was because he believed that Ighodalo had all it would take to govern the state to greater heights.

According to him, I urged all my followers and supporters to disregard any information that I have aligned with the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate, Senator Monday Okpebholo.

“I am supporting Asue Ighodalo because he is competent, not that I am not competent but I believe Asue is on the forefront. That is my reason for supporting his candidacy.

“My party is aware because they have been having a series of negotiations for us to align with the APC, and I told them categorically that I am supporting PDP. My eighteen local government followers are in full support of my decision, I mean 100 per cent supporting the PDP candidate, Barr. Asue Ighodalo and his running mate, Barr. Osarodion Ogie in this election.

“My choice for Asue Ighodalo is because, apart from myself, I see him as the next better candidate that I can support and I can put my weight on because he has the capacity, mentally, physically and otherwise to pilot the affairs of Edo State to greater heights.

“The national secretariat of my party, APP – they are in Abuja and I am in the state, and know much more of what is happening in Edo State. They are not here and don’t know what is going on here in Edo. And I am in a position to tell them what will be better for the Edo people.

“There is a parable that says, ‘You cannot shave a man’s head when he is not present’. I am here in Edo State and I know who to support and why I am supporting him. The national leadership might have taken a different tone, but this is what I and my followers have chosen.

“We had a series of other politicians who had made such decisions before. That is why I agreed with the support of my supporters to collapse my structure for the governorship candidate of the PDP Barr. Asue Ighodalo and his running mate, Barr. Osarodion Ogie.”

News

SAD! Woman reportedly d!3s in Osun building c0llapse

Published

4 hours ago

September 19, 2024

Kayode Sanni-Arewa

By Kayode Sanni-Arewa

A resident of Ifetedo in Osun State, simply identified as Idowu, had reportedly died in an incident of collapse building that occurred in the town.

The collapsed structure was said to be a dilapidated building that suddenly caved in and killed the woman.

A resident of Ifetedo, simply identified as Ogunyemi, while speaking to The PUNCH on Thursday, said operatives of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, responding to a distress call, were at the scene of the incident.

Some NSCDC operatives rushed to the scene after they were informed of the incident. They were joined by some other people in the community.

Idowu was the only person in the building when the incident happened. She was brought out dead from the rubble.

“The incident caused panic in Omiloode Area, where the building is located. The building that collapsed is a dilapidated structure,” Ogunyemi said.

Osun NSCDC Public Relations Officer, Kehind Adeleke, when contacted confirmed the incident, adding that the scene was immediately cordoned off by security men.

“An abandoned dilapidated building located along Omiloode Street, Ifetedo collapsed and killed one Mrs Idowu, who was said to be around the structure when the incident happened.

“The tragic incident occurred at about 17:30 hours on Tuesday.

“Officers and men of NSCDC Ife South Division, upon getting information rushed to the scene of the incident for rescue operation. But unfortunately, the woman had passed on. She was brought out of the rubble dead. The site was immediately cordoned off,” Adeleke said.