By; ALEX UANGBAOJE, Kaduna
Stakeholders in Kaduna State, promoting gender equality and equity on Wednesday, expressed disappointment over a remark made by the state Attorney General, Aisha Dikko, that she has never heard of Gender and Equal Opportunities (GEO) bill in the state.
The Gender and Equal Opportunities Bill is a piece of legislation that would have domesticate the convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women in Kaduna State.
According to her, she only heard of the existence of the bill from a presentation made by a facilitators at a “Strategic meeting with state Coordination Committee, Legislators and State Government for the effective implementation of the model laws” in Kaduna state.
The meeting was organized by the Women’s Rights Advancement and Protection Alternative (WRAPA), under her “Legal and Social Empowerment Program on Women’s Right” project being implemented in Kaduna and Plateau States.
The AG, however said though the state has passed the Violence Against Persons Prohibition (VAPP) law since 2018, but she is not sure if anyone has been persecuted under the law in the state.
She noted that the law was not enacted to fight men, but a law expected for everyone to abide by, adding that ignorant makes a lot of women to suffer in the society without knowing that what they are going through is illegal.
The AG did not wait for participants to make comments as she had announced that she was leaving for another meeting immediately.
Her remarks which did not go down well with the participants triggered a lots of comments where most of speaker expressed concern over her ignorance of the bill.
Their major concern was that if the AG and Commissioner of Justice of the state who should fast track the enactment of the law and it effective implementation is not aware of it’s existence then there is serious problem.
According to them, it looks as some people are either not doing their job or they are deliberately sabotaging the efforts of Civil Society Organizations who are working tirelessly to ensure the right laws are in place to address abnormalities.
In defence of the AG, the facilitator, Barrister Rebecca Sako-John, explained that since the bill was sponsored by a member of the State Assembly, it is possible that the desktop officer from the Ministry of Justice didn’t brief the Commissioner before the end of the last Assembly.
According to findings, the bill was a private bill presented by a member of the Assembly in 2018 and passed first reading, but because of political activities in the build up to 2019, the law makers abandoned the bill for political campaigns.
Earlier in her remarks, Chairperson of WRAPA’s Board of Trustees, Justice Fatima Abubakar, who commended the state government for her efforts at ensuring an effective implementation of the VAPP law, noted that Kaduna is the only state apart from Lagos, which have budgetary allocation for implementation of the VAPP law.
Represented by the Senior Admin Program Officer of WRAPA, Mohammed Maifada, She added, “We commend Kaduna State for this giant stride, we have seen the commitment, we have seen the passion. The state government can not do it alone, we also need the by in of all the key stakeholders.
“Every stakeholders have a role to play, the government has passed it, you need the Police to prosecute, you need the judiciary to understand various sections of this law that are to be used when prosecuting these cases.”
