Plateau women mobilised on skills acquisition, tackling extremism

Women from the five central senatorial district of Plateau State have been tasked to be selfreliant and develop their skills.

The call was made in Pankshin Local Government Area when over 150 women from Bokkos, Mangu, Pankshin, Kanke and Kanam (LGAs) participated in a one-day capacity seminar on life skills and prevention of violent extremism awareness.

Organized by the Institute of Governance and Social Research (IGSR) in collaboration with Global Community Engagement and Resilience Fund (GCERF), the concept note for the seminar outlined that women experience higher poverty rate than men and it is therefore pertinent to engage them in the fight against violent extremism because they play vital roles in building peaceful and resilient communities.

In her remarks, the chairperson of the event and Executive Assistant to Plateau State Governor, Simon Lalong, on Social Investment Programme (SIP), Dr. Sumaye Fadimatu Hamza, said the event was timely because violent extremism has become the order of the day and there was need for precautionary measures.

Dr Hamza stressed that productivity, skill acquisition and economic empowerment of women was a panacea to strategically positioning them in tackling violent extremism and domestic violence.

"Women are increasingly becoming vulnerable as a result of lack of access to economic empowerment and skills to equip them for competitive job market, thus making them easy targets for radicalization and subsequent recruitment into extremist groups, she said.