By Nsan Ndoma-Neji, Calabar
A group of women operating under the aegis of National Council for Women Societies, NCWS, in Cross River State has charged the federal and state governments to intensify efforts toward achieving gender equality, calling for the need to tackle poverty, illiteracy, and gender-based violence that has unleashed pain on women.
The group gave the charge yesterday during an interactive session with journalists at the Ernest Etim-Bassey Press Centre, Calabar.
President of the Cross River State chapter of the National Council of Women Society, Majority Asuquo stated that despite the ongoing global and local efforts since the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action of 1995, a lot of women had continued to face economic hardship, limited access to healthcare, and exclusion from key decision-making processes.
The former chairman of Calabar South Local Government Area stressed that closing the gender gap, which experts estimate could take 135 years, requires urgent and accelerated action.
She said, “This year’s theme, ‘Accelerate Action,’ is a call for leaders and stakeholders to push for faster reforms. We can’t afford to wait for over a century for equality. Women need support now – in education, healthcare, and leadership.”
