By Hassana Yakubu
Kaduna – Kaduna State Commissioner for Women Affairs and Social Development, Hajiya Rabi Abdulsalam, on Wednesday sought for stronger collaboration with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) to promote issues affecting women and children in the state.
The commissioner made the appeal when she paid a courtesy visit to the Kaduna Zonal Office of the agency.
She said that NAN has a wide platform through which critical issues affecting vulnerable groups, including women and children, would be highlighted to enable government and other stakeholders take appropriate action.
Abdulsalam added that the collaboration would also help people to know what government was doing to promote their cause, and areas the administration needed to make amends for the good of all.
“If we are doing something wrong publish it and if we do good publish it. We need this collaboration with your Agency for people to know what government of the day is doing,” she said.
On the push for the domestication of the Child Right Act, the commissioner said it had scaled second reading and would come into effect once the necessary legislative inputs were concluded.
She said that it was time to hold parents responsible for their inability to ensure proper upbringing of their children.
“It is a law when put in place, our children and women will be protected. Heatless people who throw children in the dusbin will be punihed.
“If this policy is put in place, every parent or gudiant will know their role and if such parents fail to play their roles there will be punishment. This particular law will help put such people in check and also limit a number of abuses.”
On the recurring crisis in Southern Kaduna, the commissioner used the forum to call on women in the area to champion efforts of government to bring lasting peace to the area.
She said that as mothers, the women must come out strongly to stop thsoe promoting conflicst from continuing with the circle of violence.
Abdulsalam said that the women must always put their safety and that of their children first in all circumstances.
“I want to call on people of Kaduna State that we are humans and one people. Unity and faith in a peaceful Nigeria is very key to our success as individuals, communities and a nation.”
She decried the championing of violence and hate by Pastors and Imams, and wondered the kind of generations the religious leaders were trying to bequeeth.
“What kind of generation are we creating; I am not talking of us, because we had a better life, but what about the lives of our children and those generation yet unborn.”
The commissioner assured people of the state that the administration of Gov. Nasiru El-Rufa’i would redeem all the 84 promises it made to the electorate during the campaigns.
She said that already, the government had fulfilled some of the promises, including ongoing construction of drainage across the state, the school feeding programme, tree planting, roads constrcution and repositioning of the health sector.
Responding, the NAN Zonal Manager in Kaduna, Maharazu Ahmed thanked the commissioner for the visit and asured her of the support of the agency.
He said that the main focus of the Agency is to promote and push Nigeria forward, adding that the agency is giving priority to all issues affecting women and children, as well as other vulnerable groups in the society.
Ahmed advised the commissioner to take the rising cases of rape in the state very seriously and ensure that culprits were punished and victims rehabilitated.
The zonal manager assured that NAN would always collobrate and promote agendas that promote citizens’ health, safety, freedom and rights.