By NEXTER
The Federal Government has announced far-reaching plans to improve the welfare of Nigerian women, including free menstrual pads for women and girls and a new executive bill to guarantee over 35 per cent representation for women in governance.
The Minister of Women Affairs, Hon. Hajiya Imaan Sulaiman-Ibrahim, disclosed this during an empowerment programme organised on the directive of the First Lady, Senator Oluremi Tinubu.
The programme, which drew thousands of women from across the 13 local government areas of the state, featured the distribution of deep freezers, refrigerators, sewing machines, grinding machines, specialised market kiosks, and direct cash grants of N100,000 to between 100 and 200 traders to boost their businesses.
Sulaiman-Ibrahim said the intervention was only a tip of what the current administration has done for women, noting that investment in women-focused sectors has risen by over 1,000 per cent.
“There is no sector where attention to and investment in women has not increased exponentially. We now have a national menstrual hygiene policy. Very soon, we will have free menstrual pads for our women and girls,” she said.
“The President has said if we can have free condoms, we must also have free menstrual pads, because women must menstruate every month. That is the level of prioritisation this administration is giving to women.”
The Minister also confirmed that work is at an advanced stage on an executive bill that will go beyond the long-canvassed 35 per cent affirmative action and ensure greater inclusion of women in federal appointments and elective positions.
According to her, the Lafia outreach was carried out on the explicit directive of the First Lady, whom she described as relentless in her push for women’s economic emancipation.
“We are here on the directive of Her Excellency, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, CON, the Mother of the Nation. She sent us to energise our women at the grassroots, to excite them and to reaffirm her commitment to their economic empowerment and social wellbeing. She has so much more productive equipment and support lined up for women. This year has been declared the Year of Families because family is the backbone of society,” she said.
In her remarks, the National Women Leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Dr. Mary Alile Idele, said the message to Nasarawa women was continuity of the Renewed Hope Agenda of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
“The message is simple: we want continuity. In the last three and a half years, this administration has restored stability in our education sector, with uninterrupted academic calendars, and delivered on health, transport, and student welfare. Our women have felt the impact,” Idele said.
Receiving the delegation, the First Lady of Nasarawa State, Hajiya Silifat Abdullahi Sule, thanked the Federal Government for placing mothers and home managers at the centre of national development and commended Senator Tinubu for supporting functional infrastructure such as solar-powered community libraries.
She, however, charged mothers to be more vigilant in protecting their children and wards from political manipulation and criminal exploitation.
The delegation later extended the empowerment drive to markets and hospitals, where maternity wards, market women, and micro-business owners received financial grants, trade equipment, and healthcare support — a move party officials said is part of a nationwide grassroots mobilisation ahead of the next general elections.
