No Gender Discrimination At Work In Nigeria – FG
The Federal Government through the Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige, has dispelled the fear of gender-based discrimination in Nigerian workplaces as expressed by the International Monetary Fund, IMF, Article IV Consultation Team.
The Minister spoke while receiving an IMF team led by its Economist, Western 1 Division, Africa Department, Mrs Monique Newiak, on courtesy visit.
According to him: “The fears you are expressing about gender-based discrimination in terms of work does not exist in Nigeria. As a matter of fact, Nigeria has implemented the Beijing Women Convention in 1995, and we do not believe that the female should be regarded as underdogs.”
Ngige insisted that the Nigerian Constitution, Section 16, 2D, made provision for the government as a state policy to provide shelter, food, jobs, minimum wage for all irrespective of gender, saying: “the same constitution also makes provision for equal work and equal pay without discrimination.”
Continuing, the minister said although President Muhammadu Buhari came into government at a time the economy of the country was nose-diving as a result of the global fall in the price of crude oil and mismanagement of the accrued resources in time of surplus by the previous administration, efforts were made to diversify the economy by paying more attention to the agricultural and mining sectors.
“In diversification, we paid more attention to Agriculture and Mining so that we can feed ourselves because any country that cannot feed herself is not worth being called a stable country, ” Ngige added.
