Following the recurring conflicts over the years in Plateau State as a result of ethno-religious violence, attacks on communities and other forms of clashes which have cost thousands of lives and destruction of immeasurable property, stakeholders have converged to brainstorm on the vulnerability of women and check the challenges they face.
The meeting was also a High-Level Multi-Sectoral Security Dialogue to strengthen collaboration among government institutions, security actors, civil society organisations and local communities to prevent further violence and improve community safety.
Held in Jos, the state capital, yesterday, the dialogue was organised by the West Africa Network for Peacebuilding Nigeria (WANEP-Nigeria), in collaboration with the Plateau State Peace Building Agency (PSPBA) and with support from Urgent Action Fund-Africa.
In her remarks, the Director of Women Affairs, representing the Plateau State Commissioner of Women Affairs and Social Development, Maureen Dakim, stated that women and young girls alike remain particularly exposed to the consequences of insecurity.
According to her, other challenges women face include displacement, sexual and gender-based violence, trafficking of the girl child, loss of livelihoods and shrinking access to their farms, among others.
Therefore, she said, women’s meaningful participation in security and peacebuilding processes is critical to developing responses that reflect the realities of affected communities.
According to her, women are now speaking out in general, and the women of Plateau will continue to speak out and call on the government to take action through the appropriate committees and to embrace every effort that promotes peace, so that women will not continue to bear the brunt of the crisis.
On her part, the National Coordinator of the West Africa Network for Peace Building (WANEP), Patience Ikpeh Obaulo, pleaded with every woman to lean on one another’s shoulders and not neglect one another.
The Coordinator urged women not to compete or envy one another, nor should there be unnecessary jealousy, stressing that if they can set these aside and focus on their common purpose, the peace and security of women will be achieved.
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“In Plateau State today, for instance, women are no longer able to go to their farmlands due to crisis. Women are no longer able to go to their trading places, and so on. That is why we must lean on one another’s shoulders and partner with one another to ensure that we eliminate the challenges women face during crisis, trafficking or gender-based violence,” she said.
In her presentation, the Director of Media at the Plateau State Gender and Equal Opportunities Commission, Nene Dung, said that, undoubtedly, whenever crises occur, women and girls often suffer the most.
But again, she said, there is another serious menace in Plateau State, which is the situation where a lot of girls are being trafficked out of the state in the name of seeking greener pastures.
The Media Director explained that the girls are often deceived by the traffickers and thereafter cannot return to their communities, but rather continue to look for ways to make life better for themselves.
According to Dung, as a result, the girls look for greener pastures; they further fall into the hands of more dangerous people who take them outside the shores of the country, and they become victims of international trafficking.
“So our call to WANEP is to explore the youth angle of the UN Charter, which talks about youth, security and peace, so that as women’s intervention programmes prevail, we should also look at the young women so that they will know what to do and not fall victim to trafficking.
“And worse still, is that the young women cannot be able to return to their communities again. And should a young girl who was inadvertently trafficked out of this country by any chance find her way back home, what happens to her?
“Besides, what are the things that will be put in place to ensure that such girls can be rehabilitated and reintegrated back into society? So let’s begin to go to the communities and look at how we can help survivors of trafficking,” she stated.
