Launch Of The #HeForShe Campaign At The International Conference Centre

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ADDRESS BY HIS EXCELLENCY, PROF. YEMI OSINBAJO, SAN, GCON, ACTING PRESIDENT OF THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA AT THE LAUNCH OF THE #HEFORSHE CAMPAIGN AT THE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE CENTRE, ABUJA ON MAY 23, 2017

PROTOCOLS

It is a special pleasure to be here this morning to represent the President, Commander in Chief, President Muhammadu Buhari at this historic launch of the He for She campaign.

I bring you his very warm wishes and his acceptance of his nomination as Champion of the He for She Campaign conferred on him.

Indeed as a father of seven daughters, he really does believe that he more than anyone else should be a passionate advocate of gender equality, and so should I.

I also have two daughters, Damilola and Konyinsola. They are both out of University. From the day they were born they could assume that they would have equal legal, social and political status and rights as their brother and as any other male.

I am sure that is the case for many of us here in this room who have daughters. Our daughters are educated or being educated and can and will compete favourably with their male counterparts anywhere.

But the story of the daughters of those of us in this room is not the story of a large number of girls in our country. Over 40 percent of girls on average are illiterate. Illiteracy means that they will not find decent, well-paying jobs, they will in many cases, be married off early, many would be discriminated against in inheritance rights, or punitive widowhood practices, they would work the hardest on the farms, and long hours in the markets but would earn far less than men.

But even the educated, will probably several times in their working lives, be subjected to one form of gender-based discrimination or another, many may even add to the growing statistic of victims of domestic violence.

Most women, and in many cases, even the least educated and those resigned to their fate know that there is something wrong with being unfairly treated, that these discriminatory practices are wrong. And for many generations, women have fought these manifestations of gender inequality.

Over time the struggle has been refined to the level of a right to gender equality – the notion that women and men should have the same legal, social and political rights. This body of rights is the public law basis for Feminism. Feminism initially attracted suspicion and hostility, especially from men; a feminist was seen as an aggressive man-hating over-liberal woman.

But something has changed with this He for She campaign. Women are now saying that the fight for gender equality is not one for women and girls alone, it is also a fight for all fair-minded and just men who believe that men and women must have equal rights.

But the campaign is much more important in shaping the future; boys are now being challenged to stand shoulder to shoulder with girls in the struggle for gender equality. They are learning that insisting on equal rights for women is not a favour being done to girls; it is an imperative of justice and fairness, an entitlement, a debt owed to women and girls, not a gift.

This is perhaps the greatest leap of development in contemporary history when boys and girls today cannot take gender equality for granted, women and girls are free to reach their full potentials, get an education and earn equal pay for equal work, the full potential of the other half of the population of the world will be unleashed. The implications for a vastly improved quality of life for all can only be imagined.

In a few minutes, I will be signing on as a Champion of the He for She campaign. I do so as a convicted believer in the equality of men and women, and a firm believer in the notion that respect for the rights of women and girls is a measure of our respect for the dignity of the human person.

Today we begin that journey in Nigeria, very confident that we will very quickly overtake Rwanda and every other African State.

Thank you.