Utomi Calls For Laws In Reducing Abuse Of Women
In celebrating 111th International women’s day, the founder of CVL, Professor Pat Utomi called for law in reducing abuse of women in the country.
He said, “Women deserve the gratitude of all in remaining our social glue, the crafts-persons of the values that will sustain the future and tapestry upon which their children walk to greater economic freedom.”
In a statement marking 2017 International Women’s Day and the launch of an expanded vision for the Widow Support Centre he founded more than 25years ago to support poor widows, Utomi said, “The future of Nigeria depends significantly on how well we invest in the education, health care, entrepreneurship capacity of women who are carrying an increasing financial burden of raising their children.”
Utomi set up the Widow Support Centre in 1991 to provide new economic opportunities for widows. That initiative is currently undergoing reshaping and intensification of strategy in response to changing times.
He lamented the many abuses women currently endure in Nigeria in spite of how much they contribute to the regeneration of communities including some in which they are the primary breadwinners in addition to taking care of the home.
He said the abuses, which include human trafficking, relatives plundering assets of a deceased who has left a family, increasing incidents of ‘dead bit dads’ where men abdicate the responsibility to provide for their children when separated from their spouses, battering and other physical abuse of women, and sexual harassment.
Utomi called on men from all over the world to rise in unison against the views of the member of the European Parliament who last week referred to women as smaller, weaker and less intelligent.
Utomi noted that a society that does not provide opportunities for half of its population sub optimised and is cutting its nose to spite its face.
