Minister Of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi’s Powerful Speech To Nigerian Women Is So Refreshing!!
The Minister of Transportation, Honourable Rotimi Amaechi has declared that the 35 percent affirmative action policy currently being given to women is not enough considering the intelligence and capacity been displayed by the female gender.
Speaking as a Guest at the 2nd edition of the Association of Women Business Network of Nigerian Women (ANWBN) forum held in Abuja, the former Governor of Rivers state said that women have proved to be far more intelligent than men.
The National Gender Policy (NGP) has formulated a 35 per cent Affirmative Action (AA) in Nigeria since 2006. The policy demands that women should constitute 35 per cent of those involved in all governance processes.
In a statement released by his Special Assistant on Media, Taiye Elebiyo -Edeni, Amaechi noted that “women should see inclusiveness in governance as a right and women in all sphere of life should be carried along. In Amaechi’s words:
“I do not support male domination, neither do I support female domination. I believe that all of you seated here are qualified to rule this nation, I don’t believe that a particular seat should be set aside for a woman, reason is that, women are by far more intelligent than men.
“The Deputy Secretary- General of the United Nations, Amina Muhammed was selected not because she was a woman but because she performed excellently well in her previous position.
“When ‘I am invited to a function and women are gathered dancing, I just wonder why women should be dancing at a function; women should be taking more seriously than dancing at a function. When you get to the table, assert your authority as somebody who is brilliant, who is intelligent to get what others are getting.
“Don’t tell me you are on the table and should be given a position because you are a woman, don’t ask that any seat should be set aside for you, ask for your right, it is your right. Women in politics stay for meetings till 2am. So if your husband allow you to join politics, he should be ready to support you. ”
Amaechi further said that women should come together to support and elevate each other, not bringing each other down because they are the same reason why some men do not give women appointments. He said that all the women he ever gave an appointment deserve it on merit not because they are women. He stated:
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“Any woman I have ever given an appointment to merited it, but you are also a problem unto yourselves. If the appointment is given to a woman, a fellow woman will start saying the man is dating the woman and not because she merited it, which is one of the reasons I stopped.”
The Minister, therefore, urged women to support one another to make progress and also reach out to women at the grassroots level to give them a voice too.