Francis Sardauna in Katsina
The wife of the Katsina State governor, Hajiya Zulaihat Dikko Radda, has urged the state government to domesticate the Women’s Economic Empowerment (WEE) policy to enable women across the state to benefit from what she termed real economic opportunities.
The First Lady disclosed this when she led a delegation of women on an advocacy visit to Governor Dikko Umaru Radda at the Government House, Katsina.
She said although the state government had taken proactive steps to domesticate the WEE policy, there was an urgent need to complete the domestication process and ensure its full integration into state planning, budgeting and implementation frameworks.
She noted that the government should also make a time-bound commitment that will guide ministries and partners towards finalisation and implementation, “so that women in Katsina State can begin to feel the impact not only in policy documents, but in real economic opportunities”.
She equally advocated adequate and sustained budgetary allocation for prevention and protection of survivors of Gender-Based Violence (GBV) across the 34 local government areas of the state.
She urged the governor to prioritise the prevention of sexual and gender-based violence as a governance and public safety issue and support community-led approaches to social norm transformation.
She said: “Your Excellency, the connection between this (WEE) and our GBV prevention agenda is direct. Economic empowerment strengthens prevention. When women are economically secure, communities are stronger, households are more stable, and vulnerability to violence reduces significantly.
“It is on this note that we are presenting these two agendas together, not as separate interventions, but as mutually reinforcing pillars of human security and development.”
The governor’s wife further demanded strong executive backing for the enforcement of existing laws, particularly the Violence Against Persons (Prohibition) Act and the Child Rights Act in the state.
Responding, Governor Radda expressed his administration’s unwavering commitment to tackling gender-based violence and domesticating Women’s Economic Empowerment policy in the state.
