Lorine Emenike
The Rivers State Commissioner for Women Affairs, Hon. (Mrs.) Ukel Oyaghiri has charged women in different tertiary institutions in the state to obtain their Permanent Voters Card(PVC), and be involved in politics.
She stated this during a courtesy visit by the Tertiary Women Association (TIWA), in her office on Friday in Port Harcourt.
Mrs Oyaghiri said politics is not only when people are affiliated to a political party but when one tries to galvanize all that is around him/her to make sure that one gets the best from the government for the good of the society.
She also charged TIWA to imbibe the passion of affecting the society positively as educated and professional women, especially in presenting their wealth of knowledge as resource persons in educating and sensitizing other women in the society.
The commissioner condemned some of the activities of Rivers INEC with the way by which they treat ordinary citizens who approache their offices for either one reason or the other.
She urged the TIWA women to positively impact and change the society, saying that they are educated for peculiar benefits that are needed to reawaken the consciousness of women which will impact lasting legacies in the state that will be passed to future generations.
The commissioner promised that the state’s ministry of women affairs will work in synergy with the Tertiary Institutions Women Association to build a state conducive enough for all.
She encouraged TIWA to support the state government as the government has shown true patriotism and love for women in Rivers State. She added that Governor Wike is the first in the history of Rivers State to have a woman as his deputy governor and also ensured that all vice-chairmen in the twenty-three local government areas in the state were women.
She encouraged the TIWA group, that in working together as women, they must play down on issues that divide women and work on things that unit women more, adding that when women come together and work as a force, great impacts are achieved.
In her remarks, the wife of the vice-chancellor, Ignatius Ajuru University of Education, Port Harcourt, Mrs Mekuri–Ndimele Joy, Said that the association is made up of wives of head of higher institutions in Rivers State, like Rivers State University, Ignatius Ajuru University of Education, Captain Elechi Amadi Polytechnic, College of Health Science and Technology, Ken–Saro Wiwa Polytechnic and female Management Staff.
She stated that the group decided to acquaint themselves with the commissioner and to introduce their plights and what they stand for, adding that though the organization was formally inaugurated in the year 2006 during the tenure of Dr Peter Odili, it has been silent after his administration but have decided to resurrect it.
She said the organization is out to join programs that will help lift the plight of women in the nation, especially in Rivers State, and in the state-owned higher institutions.
She said as wives of head of higher institutions in the state, the organization have agreed to come together to join forces with the state ministry of women affairs in order to contribute their quota to the development of women in the state.
She also condemned the standard of education in the country, but said that jointly, the standard of the nation’s education can be improved to measure up with the world standard of education.
She used the medium to ask the government to formulate policies that will favour women and the girl-child in the country, not just in academics but also in skills and entrepreneurship programs so that the Nigerian women can achieve better things in the nation and help build the nation.
