Mrs. Abosede Ijadele-Adetona, a lawyer and the President, Stand Up for Women Society, SWS, a non-governmental organisation, in this interview with Razaq Bamidele, explained the objectives of her organisation, asserting that it is never to compete with men or to undermine the authorities of the man as the husband . Ijadele-Adetona, the Owo, Ondo State-born alumnus of the Lagos State University, LASU, and the Principal Partner, God’s Glory Chambers, Lagos, also spoke on other issues, concerning her group and the nation.
What does your organisation, Stand Up for Women Society, SWS, stand for?
It is a networking forum created as an umbrella to promote women affairs and influence the minds, actions and practices of the the general public at various government levels to support and ensure a fair share of responsibilities to women.
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SWS will be aligning, promoting and highlighting women’s contribution in all aspects of life and making sure that, women are recognised, rewarded, and celebrated in leadership, in care and in production. The group is also to enhance and encourage women to have self-confidence, freedom of choice, freedom from violence and attack. And in achieving this, no woman or girl would be left behind. Our slogan is ‘Good Women, Better Society’.
What motivated you towards founding this organisation and what are its aims and objectives?
Thank you very much. It is not a gainsaying that women are not occupying their rightful place in the schemes of things in Nigeria. I will not say that we are being marginalised. I will rather say that, perhaps, we are not standing up to demand our rights. Having said that, I will add that, the aims of this organisation is to bring all Nigerian women together to, with one voice, demand for our rights from the government. This group is not aimed at undermining our husbands or our roles as wives and mothers. It is aimed at ensuring that women are treated better in the society. Women were created by God to be help-mate and this role must not be subjugated.
If that is the case, what would you say is the focus of the SWS?
The focus is simple and straight forward. It is to educate women and enlighten them on good governance because no reasonable society would hand over governance of a state to a woman who is not able to reason. And it is important to have as many women educated and enlightened as possible.
In addition to that, we aim at focusing on capacity development and economic empowerment of the women folks. Some women may not be interested in education, but would rather have their capacity built or empowered. This will be made available through the rights awareness advocacy and active involvement/participation of women at all levels of government activities and politics in Nigeria.
I enjoin you all, to still introduce this group to more women, so that we can launch and inaugurate each chapter and go into action. The more we are, the better. We are all welcome once again.
How old is the group and how widespread is it across the country?
The group is just two years old and we have had over 3,000 membership strength across 32 states of the federation. We have been moving round on membership drive with our mission statement that has to do with advocacy for women’s rights and total development, building confidence to qualify women to participate in public matter in the society as well as projecting and planning for women’s world in our society as active players in building enabling environment for all.
We also want to bring about attitudinal positions and other changes for effective participation of women from all levels of society and seeing them as active participants in planning, developing and actualising policies on commerce, agriculture, politics and involving in other areas of national development, and not merely serving as passive participants.
It is the universal belief that women are better managers and that if given opportunities, Nigerian women would prove their mettle as undisputable agents of true change. And it is on this note we enjoin you all, to still introduce this group to more women, so that we can launch and inaugurate each chapter and go into full action.
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What are your plans towards achieving the above spelt out mission and vision statement?
We intend to disseminate knowledge and information about women’s roles in the society, be it political, professional and economic trends that affect women’s lives and status with a view to empowering women to improve their quality of life.
We will undertake to assist in organising training programmes for other women’s organisations and co-operatives, develop and promote programmes with relevant agencies to train privileged and under-privileged women and girls.
We plan to ensure that women’s interests are taken into account in all policy making decisions and governance.