The rural women in Nigeria and especially in the Niger Delta are again remembered for their plight to enjoy their right to life and conditions that make life livable. In line with the global theme of this year’s event: ‘Rural Women and Girls; Building Climate Resilience’, we see an environmentally enriched live for our women and girls as they continue to take their place in destiny.
At the Society for Women and Youth Affairs, we use the commemorative International Day of the Rural women to draw attention to issues rural women are up against in communities and hamlet where they are found in rural areas. In the face of daunting economic realities and infrastructural nakedness of the rural areas, rural women are expected to brave the tide and work their body and soul off individually and collectively to oil the wheels of nation’s growth and development.
Road worthiness and interchanges in the rural communities are now considered trivial and inconsequential projects yet these are the pass-ways rural women have to travail through if they are to be considered contributors to economic development and helpers of food security agenda of every past and present government. Several communities in the Niger Delta have been submerged in flood and this has negatively impacted the economic activities of these rural women. Their livelihood has been taken over by a deluge of water outpouring which when traced properly is as a result of failures of government at all levels to proactively address the issue of flooding in communities.
School going children of our rural women are not spared the harsh economic realities of our time as our public-school system are fast becoming fertile grounds for churning out mediocre and ill-equipped persons with impaired mindset to progressive economic growth and development. Clean and portable water supplying system in rural communities are still projects in files and folders of government agencies causing our rural women to result to questionable sources of water with dare health consequences and challenges. Rarely are banking institution cited in rural areas and this have denied considerable number of rural women access to such financial services and trappings of modernity.
The contributions of our rural women to economic development and food security cannot be over emphasis. Same way technology is advancing and improving lives, we therefore advocate for technological improvement to specifically improve the lives of the rural women especially in their use of farming implements and other inputs. We there call on relevant agricultural agencies, government and other stakeholders to fashion out policies that will deliberately encourage rural women in the use of modern farming machines, inputs and methods to improve the quality of lives especially the rural women of the Niger Delta.
Stella Amanie
Executive Director