Gender Issues The Cause Of Underdevelopment In Nigeria Says AfriHeritage Boss

Executive Director of AfriHeritage, Ufo Okeke-Uzodike, has said that the age-long challenge of gender-based exclusion and oppression of women remains one of the major banes of underdevelopment in Nigeria.

Uzodike was addressing a press conference organized as part of preparations for the Big Ideas Podium slated for the 24th of September with the theme, Gender Disparity, and Underdevelopment in Nigeria.

According to him, Nigeria is basically one of the worst places to live on earth, “if you are poor and especially if you are a poor woman”

He noted that Nigeria is one of the few countries that scored lower overall in the 2018 edition of the Global Gender Gap Report by the World Economic Forum, ranking 133 globally out of 149 countries assessed.

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He, however, regretted that decision-makers in the country have been slow in championing the ambitions of the national constitution which is founded on the ideals of Freedom,  Equality, and Justice

“Rather than becoming the trump card for decision-makers in the struggle to ensure nation-building and national integration, gender issues have remained a blight for a country that remains slow to transform gender-based access and opportunities,” he said.

He explained that the net effect for all is that Nigeria has remained a shell of the country that it can be if only it chooses to embrace social inclusion, especially
with regard to women.

He maintained that the podium will help raise alarm about the growing isolation of Nigeria globally as a country where social exclusion remains rampant and where gender remains a source of continuing physical and psychological oppression of our portion of one-half of humanity.

“If we do not make efforts to address this challenge, the lost opportunities and staggering costs in wasted potential and value will remain highly injurious to the
fortunes of Nigeria” he maintained.