Sen. Ireti Kingibe, Chairman ,Senate Committee on Women Affairs, on Thursday called for the recruitment of more women into the various security agencies to ensure gender inclusivity.
She made the call while speaking at a three-day āStrategic Sensitisation Workshop with Senior Officers of Defence and Security Agencies and Relevant Committees of National Assemblyā in Abuja.
The training was jointly organised by the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS), UN Women and National Defence College.
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The theme of the workshop was : Enhancing Gender-Responsive Security Operation and Community Dialogue Project (Phase II).
Kingibe (LP-FCT) said having more women in the various security agencies would promote diversity and gender responsiveness.
āThere is the need to also encourage the recruitment of more women and prepare pathway for their professional development and leadership within the security forces.ā
She also called for the inclusion of more women in all spheres of governance .
āWe are the giant of Africa and we need to start thinking like the giant in every way. As long as we donāt legislate on issues concerning women, we wonāt achieve more.ā she said.
The lawmaker called for training programmes for security personnel to raise their awareness about gender dynamics,and equip them with the skills to handle diverse security issues in a gender responsive manner.
āAlso ,there is need to train them on developing and utilising gender disaggregated data to understand the specific security needs of different demographics, specifically women.
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āThis approach will enable targeted intervention and will help in assessing effectiveness of security measures.āshe said.
In his presentation, representative of UN Women, Mr Peter Mancha ,said that women were largely excluded from peace building processes.
āWe have failed to utilise the potential that women have to contribute to conflict prevention and peace building.
āIf we want to have sustainable peace, we must bring women to the table because of their potential.āhe said.
He said that legislators were very critical actors in ensuring the security of women, calling for laws that are gender responsive.
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āWe need to have lawmakers who will have oversight functions to ensure that gender responsiveness is fully achieved.āhe said.
Earlier, Director-General NILDS, Prof. Abubakar Sulaiman, said that no stone would be left unturned to ensure gender equality through legislation.
Sulaiman, represented by Prof. Shadrach Best, expressed the hope said thatā a more robust security sector in Nigeria and a more gender friendly and gender inclusive security sectorā would be achieved at the end of the project .(NAN)