 You're welcome back. Our next hot topic is getting it right on International Day of the Girl Child. And so let's use this time to say happy Girl Child Day to every girl, no matter the age. Okay, so we're going, we are being joined by Francesca Obunaya, a broadcast journalist and women in leadership advocate who will be helping us make sense of whatever is surrounding the celebration of International Day of the Girl Child. Good morning and welcome to the program. Good morning. It's nice being here. Okay, I understand. Okay, happy, happy Girl Child Day to you. Thank you very much. Thank you very, very much. Okay, so the theme for this year is invest in girls' rights, leadership, well-being. Let's try to understand what made the international body choose this team. Okay, first of all, the celebration of the Girl Child has come of age and then, and I think before now is the much of talk talk talk with that much of actions, I think that's that would be one of the things that formed the decision to team today's celebration in that manner. Because we've been talking, it's time to invest, because without proper investment, all our talks would be nothing but rhetoric. I think that's why the United Nations and all the bodies decided to concentrate more on investing in the Girl Child. The governments, the laws of agencies, they've been doing much on talking about the Girl Child with that much of physical investment and relatable investment. So I think that's why we have to actually make it explicit this time around. We have to invest in the rights of the Girl Child, investing her well-being, investing her education and everything about the Girl Child. We're asking for investment now. We're not saying, we're saying less of the talk. People have talked too much about the Girl Child. Most of you have just paid too much high 30 feet and leave 30 feet to the issues concerning the Girl Child. We want to see, we want to see investments and that's why. So what is it that the Girl Child needs that every other child does not need? Because you're advocating for the Girl Child, the Boy Child is not being considered. So what are the special things that are missing from the lives of a Girl Child that must be concentrated upon? Okay, I have to look at you from the Nigerian context. In the Nigerian context, as long as you're born a girl, you're already losing one zero to demand. It's like that. Because first of all, have a look at the social cultural factors that hinders a Girl Child from actually maximizing his or her destiny. For example, most of us girls in homes where they will tell you a girl, go and you concentrate more on cooking because you consume more on running house just because you are expected to end up getting married to a man who they would send to school or send to go and learn hand work. So they don't really, it's expected, it's such a cultural, some cultures, you have it in the southeast part of the country where I come from, you have it in the northern part of the country, a Girl Child is actually not expected to do much. They're expected to actually groom yourself or be groomed only for you to get married. So, and but that's not unlike, they can be whatever the men are, especially in leadership. They can be whatever the men are, even in career, want to tell the Girl Child to stop asking questions, which is what social culturally they are not allowed to in many cultures in Nigeria. A girl is not supposed to ask questions, you're not supposed to be heard, you're not supposed to speak, you're only supposed to speak when you're asked to speak. Some many places in Igbo culture, there are many places in Malwa, even in southwest, they'll say, no, you're a woman, don't go there, don't touch land, don't, you are not supposed to build, you're not supposed to own homes. Then you, so far with your parents, so far with your parents, maybe along the line where your parents are trying to raise wealth for the family, build houses, you are denied some certain things as much as they deny your brothers. But when they are gone, when your parents are gone, they'll say you cannot inherit because you're a girl child, then the point begins to inherit. Forgetting that when your parents were building their houses, you were denied some comforts just like the boys, so that they can raise this money for whatever they were building. And when they finish their day, deny you those accesses. So, so many things, especially in Nigeria is concerned, you are already disadvantaged as a girl child. So, and that's why we want to see more about the girl child and asking more for the girl child. So, is it a matter of policy or just a matter of orientation of the people that you're seeking? The orientation of policy works together. For example, policies are collections of sexual beliefs, orientation, conventions around, they all come together to make policies. And policies in turn influence orientation. Whatever make up policies today as for the girl child, the generation of my granddaughters, I wouldn't say my daughters because my daughters are already experienced, so I'm a vegetarian now, and the generation of my grandchildren, my granddaughters will now begin to have a totally different orientation as a result of the form of the policies that I and my generation must have made today. So, they work hand in hand, time plus one. Okay. So, is that the investment you're talking about, or there's something more to this investment you're asking for? The investment we're asking for, we're asking for investment, legal frameworks, legislative actions towards the girl child, what we look for policies, what's established bodies that will be responsible for the girl child. We're asking for ministry for the girl child, a ministry dedicated for the girl child, to the girl child and for the girl child. We're asking for proper agencies, capital of ministries of the girl child, even there are some state government that have established special advisor on the girl child, something something, the girl child. That's not enough. We're asking for a full-blown ministry on the girl child. A girl child needs to be encouraged. A girl child is a job who has been told for many years that she cannot be what she wants to be. And if you want to make them understand they cannot be what they want to be. You have to put your success in place to make them go to school, to make them, make the environment favorable for their employment. A girl child's advantage in so many ways, you want to go get a job. As you become pregnant, they would get some of the musicians who don't take you if you're a certain age, because you don't know, they believe you are going to be very children, they will not hire you. But a higher man who is of same age with you. Why? Because some of them will categorically tell you, we realize that you just got married, maybe they are going to see you. We are latex or they've done some background check on you, they say, we realize you just got married recently. So you're expecting a child, right? It's there. Okay, if we hire you now, what happens if you become pregnant? But a man who is of same age with you, who also got married, will not be asked those questions. He will be hired. We are not getting hired on our computers. We get hired based on, they have to consider some factors before they hire us. These are issues we are trying to look at. We want to look at situations where a girl child will compete favorably, like the male child, as much as the male child. And we need ministries to enforce this. We need legislative actions to enforce this. We want girls to be speaking and women to speak out. Shouldn't that just be a department in some of the ministries that we have? Women affairs, humanitarian ministry, so many other ministries that could talk directly to the welfare of the child and especially the girl child. Why do you need a full-blown ministry? If it cannot work in the ministries that are existing now, how do you think a full-blown ministry will work? Okay. Before now, people didn't know that the full-blown ministry on humanitarian services would work until people began to take that into actions. A girl child is not a woman. A girl child is a child from the point where she was born as a child. As a child, she went, she's like 35, 40. That's the whole lifespan. A girl child, a minister of the girl child, we consider the area of abuses, sexual abuses, supplied by young girls, molestation. A minister of the girl child would take care of the issue of education, social cultural factors, courses, customs, young girls are not allowed to go to a school. A minister of the girl child would talk about women who get abused, especially young women who get forced into marriage. So many, so many about the girl child. So much more about the girl child. Women are totally different. Women affairs is totally different. So I think we should concentrate on the girl child. But if you get a girl child perfectly raised, you have a well-groomed woman. Okay, let me not ask what is on my mind right now. How far are you going with this advocacy to the people that need to get the right policies in place and all that? What is the level of success that you have achieved over the years? Okay, over the years we worked with agencies, over the years we worked with physicians, but like I said, most of the time they end up talking, talking, talking with their actions. That's why most of us are not really girl child activists. Most of us are women and leadership advocates. We all decided to encourage women to get into political offices. It is when women like us get into political offices, we can dedicate them to advocate for our own daughters, to our own girl child. A man doesn't really understand what we go through. They don't know what it means for you to wake up and get molested by your father. They don't know what it means to get molested by somebody you're selling. They don't even know what it means for you to lose your husband at the age of 20 and you get kicked out of the house and you see a three-year-old mother of three on the streets of Lagos. You understand? They don't understand. They don't get to children. Nine months they don't understand what it means. So that's why I encourage women to get into political offices. Especially legislative offices where laws will be made. Even the executive, we don't know about this appointment. We're out of our stance. We're people suggesting some of the men will serve, to the governor to serve and you know and they'll say okay, this is your policy. My mind's one. We're coming back to the law. We're asking women get into political offices. We have lost a lot in 2023. Let us make the goods of 2027, strive, work hard, get this position so that we can personally advocate for our God children. Nobody can feel our folks better than ourselves. Yeah, as you talk to the policy makers and everybody who is concerned, the stakeholders who will help bring this about, how much are you also talking to the women folk? Because sometimes there is this general understanding that the problem of women is the women themselves. So how much are you? I want to just stop that. I want to quickly correct that notion. People go about saying women, they end up saying women are supporting women. It's just a list of women. The problem of women is not true. Men fighting the nationalism, they break their head. Are they not men? On the state deputies versus government, are they not men? Go everywhere. But in most state government has just removed his deputy and replaced with the woman. What was happening between them? Men fight men every day, but nobody talks about it. But one single thing between man and woman and women, they say, no, I want you to know today that the problem of a woman is not a woman. The problem of a woman is the social cultural factors. The problem of a woman is the society we find ourselves. The problem of women are men like you. Who don't want to feel that women should not be on top of them. So go on. When you said men like you, I was looking at myself like, are you saying that I don't want women to succeed? Anyway, this is how much we can take on this segment. But if you can in one minute, in one minute, yes, 60 seconds, what would you tell the National Assembly if you had the opportunity to stand before them? Okay. Like I said, first of all, I would also don't suggest push out the economy for the minister of God chart. That's number one. That's number one. You know, I want to have to employ them to make laws that will make forms for women, elected positions, you know, free and set up a fund bank specifically for sponsoring many politics. So that makes it because politics is capital intensity. And with that politics, we can't get legislative offices, we can't get people in place of authority yet and it can affect changes in the life of our God chart. All right. Thank you so very much, Francis. Allisa Obonaya for coming on the show this morning. Thank you very much. Okay, Francis. Allisa Obonaya is a broadcast journalist and woman in leadership advocate. She was talking to us on how to get right on the day that we're celebrating the girl child, which is today 11th of October 2023. And remember, the theme for this year is invest in girls' rights. Leadership are well-being. We do hope that in your small corner, wherever you are, you're making sure that that girl child is heard, is seen and is recognized because of her ability and the right to be a full human being with all the rights that everybody else enjoys. And eventually, this is how we're going to wrap it up on the show this morning. We're hoping that you had a wonderful time and let's do it again, same time tomorrow. On behalf of the entire family of the breakfast show on the Plus TV Africa, my name is Nyam Gul Akgaji saying thank you for being there.