Barrister Uju Kennedy-Ohanenye, the new Minister of Women Affairs, has a new vision for women’s economic empowerment (WEE). The new vision signals both continuity and departure from previous strategies and brings together gender-based violence (GBV) and WEE in an integrated model. Since being sworn in on 21st August, Mrs Uju has been clarifying her new paradigm in a series of strategic public events as well as through press releases of the Ministry’s Media Unit.
The minister’s presentation of the communique at the end of the 23rd National Council on Women Affairs in Calabar, on 22 August, was the first opportunity to voice over her vision. This was soon followed up by a Press Release on 1st September as she addressed the Attorney General, the IGP, UN-Women, UNICEF, and African Lawyers Association. In three strategic events which quickly followed, the minister refined her vision at the 23rd September meeting of the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs (FMoWAs); the 28th…