UNICEF expresses concern over govt’s indifference to gender issues

Ishola Michael, Gombe - 05.11.2009

The United Nation Children’s Education Fund (UNICEF) has expressed concern over the indifferent attitudes toward the issues affecting women and children by government at all levels in the country.

It was based on this development that the state Directors of Information, National Orientation Agency, and journalists from the 10 states that make up the UNICEF D-Field Office in Bauchi, on Wednesday, converged on the conference hall of the Emerald Hotel in Gombe State to map out plans on how to awaken government interest.

Speaking on the occasion, UNICEF Communication Officer, Samuel Kaalu, lamented that in spite of the availability of resources, children and women, who are often referred to as vulnerable, are not being attended to.

Kaalu, who took participants round the pathetic photo-essay of Nigerian children and their mothers, beckoned on them especially the media on the need to draw government’s attention to the ugly situation.

The need for government to engage in relevant policies that will inject smiles on the faces of the vulnerable by creating “child-friendly governance, child-friendly social values, promote and develop capacity for transparency and accountability and to, as well, support institutional capacity development, “ he said, was very necessary

To achieve these, however, all hands, according to him, must be on deck to “promote and facilitate, facilitate partnership, create evidence, among others.”