Ms Amina Mohammed, UN Deputy Secretary-General, has expressed excitement at the appointment of Nigerian women into global leadership positions.
Mohammed spoke at a dinner organised for the Nigerian delegation to the 62nd UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) at the Nigeria House, New York, on Thursday night.
The UN deputy scribe said the Nigerian women were living up to expectations and had not disappointed their country and the African women in the positions they had occupied.
The Nigeria’s former Minister of Environment, congratulated Nigeria’s Fatma Muhammed-Kyari on her appointment as the AU’s envoy to the UN.
She said: “The Nigerian women are doing the women proud. We are moving from Nigeria to the UN and to Africa.
“We have the Permanent Representative of the Observer Mission of the AU to the UN, my sister Fatma Muhammed-Kyari, who is also doing us proud there.
“We will continue to make Nigeria women and African women proud and I hope we will take along the cause of every rural woman for whom we have raised our voice”.
The Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development, Hajiya Aisha Al-Hassan, commended the Nigeria women for their contributions to the country in different capacity.
Al-Hassan said the Muhammadu Buhari-led Federal Government had done a lot for the women, adding the president has a special place for the women and would continue to support them.
Nigeria’s Ambassador/Permanent Representative to the UN, Prof. Tijjani Bande, commended the women for their resilience and contributions to the development of the society.
Bande said Nigeria had continued to occupy its place of raising the flag of the African continent at the UN, saying Nigeria will never abandon the African course.
“The African Group is the most united and strongest among the regional groups at the UN,” Bande said.
He commended the Chair of African Group for the month of March, Dr Mamadou Tangara, who is The Gambia’s Ambassador to the UN; and the Ambassadors of Angola and Uganda for their presence.
With the theme of the 62nd CSW as: ‘Challenges and opportunities in achieving gender equality and the empowerment of rural women and girls’, CSW is the UN’s largest gathering on gender equality.
The event brings together global leaders, non-governmental organisations, private sector actors, UN partners and activists from around the world.
The event was attended by Ms Amina Mohammed, UN Deputy Secretary-General, Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development, Aisha Al-Hassan and Ms Hajo Sani, Senior Special Assistant to the President in the Wife of the President’s Office.
Others were Nigeria’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Prof. Tijjani Bande, his Deputy, Amb. Samson Itegboje, members of the diplomatic corps, wives of Governors, Commissioners for Women Affairs, and members of civil society organisations. (NAN)
