Ex-minister Ciroma urges writers to address issues affecting women

Hajia Maryam Ciroma, former Minister for Women Affairs and Social Development, has urged Nigerian authors to use their works to promote awareness, advocate equal opportunities and challenge stereotypes against women.

She made the call in an interview our correspondent at the 2025 End-of -year Dinner and Awards of the Abuja chapter of Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) over the weekend.

The event held at the Mamman Vatsa Writers Village in Abuja, with the theme “A celebration of the Spoken Word and the Written Craft”.

It brought together seasoned and young authors, scholars, as well as literary enthusiast and students of different institutions in the Federal Capital Territory(FCT)

According to the former minister, writing is a veritable instrument to challenge patriarchal norms and advocate equal opportunities for all citizens, especially in governance at all levels.

She urged Nigerian writers to leverage the power of writing to promote issues affecting women in order to have an egalitarian society.

“Authors are historians and once they write a book it is supposed to preserve and showcase history, and ANA is doing that already, and I want them to write more about issues affecting women.

“Therefore, we are appealing to authors to promote women, to write about women, for people to know more about them, and for every Nigerian to know about their problems.

“I have always said that Nigerian women need to be considered, especially the girl child; it is her right to be educated.

“If we have women educated in Nigeria, they will ensure that our country moves forward because if you educate a girl child, you are educating the nation,” she said

Ciroma lamented that female representation in government was abysmally low, falling short of the 35 affirmative action targets outlined in the National Gender Policy.

According to her, there is a need to have a just society where the needs of all genders are equitably considered, in order to build a nation where everyone, regardless of gender, can thrive.

She therefore called for support for the passage of the Reserved Seats Bill that seeks to create legislative seats exclusively for women at both national and state levels.

“In fact, Nigeria signed the Beijing conference during Obasanjo’s period, that is the 35 per cent affirmative action, and since that time we have not been able to implement it.

“We are appealing to Nigerian men that women should be considered because we need the space also in the governance of this country.

“When you are talking about the legislative part of governance, they are making laws for Nigerians and these laws also affect women so we need more women in the National Assembly.

“In some state assemblies you hardly get a single woman , so we are not getting enough when it comes to female participation in governance and legislation,” she said.

Chukwudi Eze, Chairman ANA Abuja, said the association was committed to engaging young scholars through mentorship programmes that encourage them to embrace reading and writing.

He said the “ANAtainment” event was an opportunity to honour partners and other stakeholders who have contributed to the success of the association’s programmes during the year.

According to him, the membership of ANA, Abuja chapter has increased within the last two years because of innovative initiatives under its current leadership.

He said the flagship monthly “Reading and Writers Dialogue” i programme of the association featured celebrated authors during the year including Amb. Kema Chikwe and former president Olusegun Obasanjo , among others.

“In our first term, we took the association, this chapter, from 57 on the platform of our membership to 974.

“I think with today’s event and the kind of interest that has been expressed, we have crossed the 1,000 mark.

“The first thing is to attract people into the written craft through programmes that are relevant to the time and the space , and by that, we are able to attract very interesting guests here,” he said.

Earlier, Prof. Emeka Aniagolu, the keynote speaker, commended ANA Abuja for providing a platform that brings together writers to share ideas and as well mentor young writers.

Other stakeholders at the event include Prof. Udenta O. Udenta, a literary scholar and human rights activist, among others.

Our correspondent reports that the event featured spoken words by students, goodwill messages from partners and awards to members and other stakeholders who have contributed to the growth and development of the written craft.