 In the wake of the International Women's Day, Nigerian women have taken a peaceful rally to the Lagos State House of Assembly to request for a change of women representation in the Constitution. They are also demanding an immediate passage of all the gender bills recently rejected at the National Assembly. Still on the International Women's Day, we have a Faith Emmanuel Executive Director, Faith Emmanuel Girls Initiative joining us right now from Quaro State. Good afternoon to you. Thanks for joining us on News Brief and Plus TV Africa, Faith. Good afternoon. Thank you for joining me. Yeah, good afternoon. Now, one of the aims of the International Women's Day is to highlight the major challenges that women face across the globe, specifically here in Nigeria. There are lots of them. Can you tell us some of the steps that can be taken to break these barriers often faced by women? All right. Thank you so much. So women in Nigeria generally are facing a lot of bias, from cultural biases to workplace biases. But then again, what do we do? What exactly do we do to curb these essences or help women have more inclusion equality in the workspace or the gender space generally? One of the things I believe that women can do is that all the women, women who have stayed or lived for a while and have understood Nigeria, what I mean by that is the fact that some people who are conversant with how this works, they've endured so much bias that they decided that it's time for them to finally rise and take up positions. These kind of women that now have a voice, I personally believe that they should continue to project themselves in a proper light. By that, I mean that when they come out, when they become more visible, what they do for the younger generation by implication young girls is that they build the mind of these young girls to see that regardless of biases, that someone else dreaming, that someone else taking the batting and running forward regardless of the discrimination, regardless of who is trying to drag them back. So one of the ways that women in Nigeria can help to reduce bias or if possible, the bias being taken away generally is by them coming out and deciding that they want to show what they do. They want to help more young girls, mentor more young girls because one of the things I know is really, really wrong now is most people who this bias is carried out against had me talk about them or how they overcome them. So if we have sessions, if we have people speaking out more about how they overcome these biases, it will help, right? Yeah. Let's talk about something more that is an issue right here in Nigeria. Oftentimes, aside from the issue of gender equality, there are other biases and some stereotypes that need to be changed. For instance, I will talk about the girl child education. Most times the female gender are not actually given the rightful place. That's on the one side. Other issues also include gender-based and violent, which we find in the homes and women are actually the ones who bear all of the brunt. How do we begin to change these narratives? All right. Firstly, I do not even think that Nigeria has a problem with allowing the girl child to go to school anymore, like other areas. That's not one of our dominant problems. One of our dominant problems right now is allowing the girls find their voices when they finally get to school. So it's safer space for girls in schools. It's allowing their voice to find expression in schools. Gender-based violence tries because people don't talk. Most of the victims of the act hardly find their voices. So if there is a platform, if there's a place that a lady knows that she can go to, a girl knows that she can go to and can be heard, she would definitely speak up. And every dark act, every act that is not right against the women, tries when there is silence. We know that for a fact. So the more voices that we encourage to rise, the more female voices that we encourage to rise. The better it is with us, helping this excess. Faith, in your opinion, would you say women are doing enough to champion their cause, to speak up, to ensure that most of these biases that we're talking about are actually broken in Nigeria? Well, that's why there's something like the International Women's Day campaign for the buyers to be heightened and then people get to know that this is what's going on. I think that women are trying their best. If it's enough, yes, no, it's not yet enough. We will continue to speak, raise our voices and join our voices with the many people fighting for an equal society. Of course, it's not yet enough. But that's why we're doing more. Okay, I think we can get to that point in Nigeria where women would actually stand side by side with their men counterpart in the decision making process, not just in government, but also in the business world and the economy in general. That's a dicey one. All right, we get these questions a lot. I personally even get a lot from workplaces that, well, women may never get to that point. But I personally believe, like you said, my opinion, I believe that it's possible, but it's possible if more women take up mentees, young people coming up and put them under their wings and show them the path to follow. So when you know a road, definitely when you're working past it, you're not scared of the potholes anymore. So if that continues to happen, definitely come to that point where we can stand side by side, because after all, it's about your mindset. It's about if you know what you're doing or not, and it's about competence. So standing side by side, the male gender, it's not a masculinity struggle or a femininity struggle. If a femininity, sorry, struggle, it's a struggle for intellect. It's a struggle for excellence. It's a struggle for competence. When you know what you're doing, why not? Of course, I thank you so much. And indeed, we have been speaking with Faith Immanuel. She is the Executive Director of Faith Immanuel Girls Initiative. Thank you so much. She joined us all the way from Kwaresi. We do appreciate your time.