 Let me begin by thanking you all of the progressive women and especially the Honourable Stella of Kote Tei for the very kind invitation to this dinner and I'm very honored to be here with you. I also bring you the warm felicitations of the number one he-for-she champion in Nigeria our President, President Mohamed Guhari, and to demonstrate his commitment to that role as the he-for-she champion of Nigeria. Mr. President insisted that Nigerian, that women must be given equal opportunities in all of our social investment programs so that of the 2.4 million beneficiaries of the government enterprises and empowerment program 1.2 million were women that is 56.4 percent of beneficiaries. Women are the heart and soul of our party the APC and we all know it and who doesn't know that women are most reliable voters. It was my dear sister the Honourable Dr. Zainab Gimba who said that women hold half the sky and if they get angry they may let it fall and if they let it fall it will fall on women who they hold responsible for discrimination against them. So I think we must very careful not to let half the sky fall. It is right that any society that refuses to acknowledge and deploy its skills and talents the energy and capacity of half its population is set up for failure is as simple as that and so it is with the political party also. Any political party anywhere or any organization that does not give equal opportunities to women is setting up itself for failure. So I agree that we really have no choice but to recognize the crucial position of our women and resolve to give them equal representation and I want to emphasize that our women should be asking for equal representation not 35 percent equal representation that is what to ask for because I thought the women were I thought the women were busy eating I didn't know you were still here but anyway equal representation is what we're asking for while women are breaking the glass ceilings in business and in the corporate world things are much slower in politics and in public service and the public sector and policy especially a lot more needs to be done and you will find that this is so all over the world there is a need for us to ensure that women are given their fair place. It was the former president of Chile who if a woman of course Michelle Bachelet who said and I quote that from a better democracy is a democracy where women do not only have the right to vote and to elect but to be elected. There's no again saying the fact that we need more women in elected offices in Nigeria across the world we are witnessing that change already just a year ago the first female vice president of the US assumed office after more than two centuries after that country started having vice presidents and right now there are female presidents or prime ministers in Denmark in Moldova in Finland in Iceland in New Zealand in Barbados amongst others there you have female prime ministers or presidents in Barbados in fact both the president and the prime minister are women so at the end of last year we all heard of the most powerful woman ever to hold public office Chancellor Angela Merkel who is honorably stepped down after occupying that chance lawsuit for the better part of two decades all these are inspiring stories and I think they send a strong message to our own women and women around the world that it is possible there is nothing that men offer in leadership that women cannot offer in fact I'm sure some of us came across that recent study from India that found that electing women legislators actually contributes to slightly higher levels of economic output in the constituencies and this is a well this is a well publicized research so I think everything sets us all up for ensuring that women have their fair place at the table but when I looked at the theme of this conference the theme says one voice women uniting for progress one voice women uniting for progress and it reminded me of the slogan that when women support women great things happen that is true but when men help women to help women greater things will happen and I want you to and I want you to and to be sure that we men will support you so that much greater things will happen thank you very much don't bless you and enjoy the rest of the evening