According to Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister of State Dr. Ramatu Tijjani Aliyu, President Muhammadu Buhari's desire and commitment to lift over 100 million Nigerians out of poverty, particularly rural women, by 2030 through the various arms of the Social Intervention Programmes is bearing fruit.
She announced this at the official unveiling of the Yeyedu Rural Women Farmers' Harvest over the weekend in Gofidna Village, Zuba, Abuja.
According to her: “Today marks a very important day whereby history is made and we are glad to be part of it. It gives me great pleasure that our intervention in the form of cash, seedlings and equipment to help jumpstart your farming activities and taking it from subsistence to being a means of earning decent income thereby improving the living standard is yielding great results.
“I am grateful that what initially appeared to be insignificant has become a milestone bringing a new lease of life to women drawn from the six Area Councils of FCT.
“Women are at the Centre of the sustainability of households and communities; improving rural livelihoods and their overall wellbeing, a role that is often being neglected, overlooked, underutilized and undervalued due to stereotyping of women over the years.
“When one woman is empowered, because we are naturally good managers, the entire household and the nation experiences a new lease of life and a higher standard of living.
“It is a well-established fact statistically that women in Nigeria form up to sixty (60%) percent of those employed in the agricultural sector of the economy, thus, they are great contributors to food production and preservation”.
She continued: “What I see here today makes me glad and it is an attestation that the Federal Capital Territory Administration is intervening in the lives of our people in the right direction. Our aim is to increase family income capacity and opportunities; improve food security and nutrition and become food sufficient.
“May I urge you to always strive to employ your expertise and make good use of the little help the government gives with the thrust to multiply the same and employ others. That way, more persons across the different communities will be empowered thereby leading to positive multiple ripple effects.Women have been at the receiving end of negative assertions and biases. Lands are not given or inherited by women nor properties of their parents. However, gone are those days when some men hold onto the primitive assertions that the place of the Woman is in the home, kitchen or that Women are not supposed to rise above a certain level of exposure or relevance, today the narratives are changed and altered.
“We must rise up and take certain vocations that were previously tagged ‘no-go-area for women. If a man can farm large acres of land, a woman can equally do the same, and that is what today’s event is all about.