As a way of adding more impetus to the widespread campaign that women’s economic and political rights shouldn’t be subjugated in Nigeria, the Chairman Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters, Senator Opeyemi Bamidele, has trained and empowered  100 women in his Senatorial District .

The gesture, according to the Senator representing Ekiti Central in the Senate, was primarily targeted at making them economically self -dependent and viable under the current harsh situation.

The All Progressives Congress(APC) chieftain, said history and  records had vividly indicated  that women were dedicated and untiring  builders of any nation and economy, which he said makes it imperative for them to be economically active  in the Nigerian society.

Bamidele said this in Ado Ekiti on Thursday during a training and empowerment programme held for 100 women across the 57 wards in Ekiti Central Senatorial District of the state.

This was a follow up to the three-day vocational and entrepreneurial trainings organised for 240 persons from Ijero, Ekiti West and Efon local governments in Aramoko Ekiti and 100 physically challenged persons across the Senatorial District in the State capital.

Addressing the participants, Bamidele, who spoke  via his Senior Legislative Assistant, Mr. Bunmi Oguntuase, described women as strong and potent nation builders , who deserved economic upliftment for the country to progress.

Bamidele added that the programme was part of the myriad of  schemes  he initiated to reduce poverty among women, with statistics confirming that they are the worst hit by the scourge in African continent.

” This is just one of the series of trainings and empowerment  we are going to do for women in this senatorial district. Women are not only relevant in all aspects of life, they are dedicated builders of homes and the economy of any nation.

“The cries for political emancipation for women has been a topical issue in Africa for over three decades. But the agitation has refused to gather enough traction, because they are not economically active like their menfolk, hence, the little relevance they commanded in this regard.

“But with copious strides of empowerment, women would be spurred to take a plunge in political contests. Their voices would no longer be subjugated as we are witnessing due to the fact that politics in financially demanding in this clime.

“Though, the APC government has been deploying useful policies to promote them through ceding of certain percentage of representations to them. As lofty as this seems to be, we can widen the horizon by promoting them economically to buoy and accelerate their meteoric rise to stardom in Nigerian politics”.

Espousing the relevance of the programme, Bamidele stated that those trained in hair dressing vocation among others would get a dryer each with other accompanying benefits to keep them in operation , so that the kernel of the programme can be achieved.

“Earlier before now, we had conducted trainings and empowerments for 120 people in fishery and aquatic lives in the district. We gave them money, feeds , fingerlings and other equipment to keep them in business. The experts were brought from Marine and Oceanography school in Lagos.

“The most interesting aspect  is continuity in business. Lack of continuity  has been the bane of series of empowerment programmes  organised by government.

“To resolve this crisis, we have a monitoring team that will be evaluating the progress made by each of the beneficiaries to appraise areas to improve on and ensure that all these programmes become successful”.

Bamidele appealed to the beneficiaries to keep the spirit high and refrain from selling off theequipment distributed to them after empowerment, saying this can derail the focus of the programme.

Sone of the participants, Mrs Adu Iyabo from Efon Ward 08, Nihi Rachael from  Okemesi ward 09,   Olusegun Kemi from Ijero ward A and Mrs Lola Afolabi from Iyin Ekiti Ward A, praised the Senator for prioritising the economic wellbeing of the women, to bail them out of unproductive economic  situation.

They  advised other colleagues to complement the Senator’s giant strides through effective use of the equipment given.

“We thank Senator Bamidele  for recognisinig us. This programme is one that can make us relevant in our homes, because there is no honour and dignity for any able bodied woman who decide on her own to be jobless.

“God will grant our Senator  good health and oportunity to be able to do more for humanity”.