Aisha Buhari, wife of President Muhammadu Buhari

By Emmanuel Oloniruha

Aisha Buhari has called for adequate funding and harmonisation of existing laws to incorporate emerging issues in the fight against Gender-Based Violence (GBV) in Nigeria.

She was represented by the Minister of Women Affairs, Pauline Tallen, at an interactive forum on GBV,  hosted by the Nigeria Governors’ Wives Against GBV (NGVA- GBV), the EU-UN Spotlight Initiative and the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) in Abuja on Wednesday.

Buhari commended state governors for declaring a state of emergency against GBV in June.

She said that experiences had shown that any meaningful intervention in addressing national politics must take GBV into account.

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This, according to her, has become imperative for benchmarking the developmental strives of the country.

She said “I want to thank your excellences for improving the situation of Nigerian women and children through laws, policies and mechanisms that seek to promote women’s’ rights, which you all remain our driving force at the state level in this struggle.

“But, like Oliver Twist, our concern is funding and harmonisation of existing laws to incorporate emerging issues as they reflect in different states.”

Buhari also commended the wives of the governors for the priority and attention given to the GBV fight especially in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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She said Nigerian communities and leaders, through various initiatives, were now coming to terms with the scale of problems, with promising support and solutions.

Meanwhile, she expressed commitment to work with the governors’ wives, noting that one of the outcomes of the partnership was the interactive programme.

NAN