The Niger Development Commission, NDDC, has stepped up its quest for
gender balance in the fields of science and technology through the Girls
in Engineering, Mathematics and Science, GEMS, programme.
The NDDC Acting Managing Director, Mrs. Ibim Semenitari, who announced
this at the final command performance of a stage play, “Little Drops”, in
commemoration of this year’s International Women’s Day, explained that the
GEMS programme aims at encouraging young girls in the region to embrace
science and technology, as well as to provide quality manpower that will
enable them participate in the oil and gas sector.
Mrs. Semenitari said that the NDDC would also institute the Queen Kambasa
Awards for Excellence to recognize and reward achievement of Niger Delta
women in different spheres and in doing so, inspire women to excel in
whatever they do. She said that the award would be in honour of the first
known queen of the Niger Delta because it was important to create role
models for our young women and girls by showing them the path to
excellence.
The NDDC boss said that it was necessary to use the engaging platform of
drama to re-introduce the issues confronting the Niger Delta to national
consciousness, conscience and discourse, through the voice of women.
According to the Mrs. Semenitari, the “Little Drops”, rendered by
Professor Yerima, achieved this eloquently. She said: “It provides us with
startling and brilliant metaphor, a most enchanting pathway through which
we can begin to resolve the twin inequities of gender and development,
both infrastructural and human, which the Niger Delta has suffered for far
too long. Told from the perspective of four women, caught in the crossfire
of the armed conflict in the region, we come face to face with the tragedy
of our beloved Niger Delta.”
“The Niger Delta torment, her needs, her sores and bruised spirit, some
aspects which are so brilliantly captured in this play, must continue to
remain an item in the national agenda, a constant narrative in national
and international discourse, demanding and requiring healing. In doing
that, we must also begin to think more on helping to rebuild the lives of
women and children who are unscripted victims of the conflicts in the
Niger Delta.”
The NDDC Chief Executive Officer said that the burden of development was
great, for which reason the Federal Government identified important
stakeholders that must work together, as development partners, to move the
region forward. “These partners, working with the NDDC, under the new
standards of probity, due process, proper application of funds, clarity of
vision and engagement, which President Muhammadu Buhari has ushered in,
will help ensure greater synergy and accelerated growth,” Mrs. Semenitari
said.
She further stated that the NDDC, in line with its mandate, facilitated
the development of the Niger Delta Regional Development Master Plan. She
explained: “The Master Plan, in exploring 27 sectors, ranging from
biodiversity to agriculture, from physical infrastructure to women issues,
indeed, every aspect of human activity, provides an integrated and
integrative action plan for true sustainable development. It is one we all
must embrace, working together as partners.”
Speaking at the occasion, the wife of the Cross River State governor, Dr.
Linda Ayade, charged women not to be deterred by retarding traditions that
tended to hold them down. “We must resist the negative forces and forge
ahead to be at par with the opposite gender. Whatever inspiration you get
that will lead you to your purpose must be followed without distraction.
You may fail, but failure is not a limitation. What matters is what you do
to overcome your challenges,” she said.
Dr. Ayade charged women in privileged positions in the society to assist
others who were at the fringes to rise to some reasonable level, advising
women to always set their goals right. “Do not follow the crowd for any
person that goes with the crowd will stop where the crowd stops. But the
ones that follow their dreams soar to greater heights,” she said.
The governor’s wife said that women should not allow themselves to be made
to feel inferior as that could only happen when they permit it. “It is
what you permit that comes to you. Our women have been permissive for a
very long time.”