A girl and women’s right crusader, Hon. Angela Anthony Oju-Kienmie has charged women and girls to rise up, be bold and defend their rights wherever they find themselves.
Oju-Kienmie who is also the Vice Chairman of Opobo/Nkoro local government area in Rivers State gave the charge when some girls from schools in the area visited her in her office in Opobo to mark the 2021 International Day of the Girl Child which is celebrated on the eleventh of October every year.
” They should be bold, they shoukd speak up in whatever situation they find themselves. I want them to know that they have a right to life, right education, healthcare, safe environment. They have rights to learning skills that will help them,” she said.
Oju-Kienmie added: “This day focuses on the need to address some of the challenges the girl child is daily faced with and to look for a way to solve it by promoting girl child all round empowerment and the fulfilment of their rights as human beings”.
Speaking on the theme of the celebration: “Digital Generation. Our Generation,” she said the theme was apt given the effect of the pandemic on learning.
“It’s apt due to the pandemic which shook the world, we are in the second year of the pandemic,and this has accelerated digital platform for almost everything which is not limited to learning, earnings and connecting, and also highlighting girls diverse digital realities.
“There is no gain saying that the gender digital divide in connectivity, devices and use, skills and jobs are real in the sense that the girl child does not have equal opportunity with the boys”.
“It is an inequity and exclusion gap not only locally, but across geographic lines and generations that is our challenge to address if the digital revolution is for humanity without exception”.
“Digital generation.our generation is a theme that should spur the girl child to know their digital realities and the solutions they need inorder to excel on their different parts as technologists for freedom of expression, and unlimited potential” she said.
She used the opportunity to thank Governor Nyesom Wike for giving women the chance to explore their potentials in various leadership positions in the state.
Hon. Oju-Kienmie further assured that the council chairman, Hon. Enyiada Cookey-Gam “is committed to ensuring that the girl child in the various communities are given all the support they need in this their critical formative years in order to become the empowered girls.”
High points of the visit was prayers for the council and the girl child.
