The immediate past Governor of Abia State, Dr Okezie Victor Ikpeazu, yesterday, said that he signed a law making it mandatory for female children to inherit their fathers’ property and own community land.
He said his passion for women development came from his wife who was instrumental to the enactment of a law empowering female children to inherit land and other property in Abia state by his government.
According to him, the law allows the female children to be allocated land as against the customs and traditions which made it difficult for them to own land in their communities.
“Today in Abia State, female children can now inherit their fathers’ property. Now it’s an offence for female children not to be allocated land. The female children can now inherit their fathers’ property” he noted.
Governor Ikpeazu, who spoke on the sideline of Gender and Inclusion Summit, organised by the Policy Innovation Centre (PIC) of Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG) in Abuja, also recalled that he signed a law against the discrimination of disabled persons.
This, he said made it compulsory for all houses in Abia State to be designed with ramps to enable the disabled easy access.
With this development, he said women in Abia State can now have free access to farmlands and use them as collateral to collect loans for any business of their choice, contrary to old practice in the state.
Other speakers at the event lent their voices in calling for domestication of the law across the 36 states of the country and FCT.
Earlier, chairman of Policy Innovation Centre (PIC), Mr Udeme Ufot said, “that the Gender and Inclusion Summit encompasses women, men, children, youth, people with disabilities, and other vulnerable population.”
Ufot noted that Nigeria has one of the largest population of youth in the world —— about 70 per cent of the population is under 35 years old.
“The median age of youth in Nigeria is 18.1 years and 42 per cent are under the age of 15. The size and youthfulness of the Nigerian population offers great potential for innovation, technological advancement and economic development.
“For this potential to be harnessed, strategic investments in health, education, infrastructural development and job creation is critical while leveraging technology to deliver sustainable development at scale.”
“I must commend the efforts of the current government in providing platforms for youth such as the recently-launched initiative to train 3 million tech talents by the Ministry of Communication, Innovation and Digital Economy.
“We have a collective responsibility to develop inclusive approaches to address barriers to quality education, job and internship opportunities, and access to health services for Nigeria’s burgeoning youth population” he added.
