The Coordinator of a one-day conference organised by the University of Bamenda, UBa women, Associate Professor Fai Lilian has called on her female counterparts to upgrade their skills and academic qualification in their respective domains to seek equality.
She was speaking at the close of the conference, organised as part of activities to celebrate International Women’s Day this Thursday March 3.
“In as much as The University of Bamenda has a semblance of Gender Equality across all the levels from administration to the students enrolled into the different faculties and schools, the women of the University of Bamenda should go to school, acquire the necessary skills and we shall enjoy the representation”, she urged her peers.
The conference that comprised four presentations with two focused on Gender Based Violence and the other two on Gender Equality had two gentlemen present a paper each and the other two by ladies in order to drive through the gender balance agenda.
In one of the presentations titled: Issues of Gender Equality in Cameroon, presented by Associate Professor, Valentine Ngalim, Head of Department of Philosophy in the Higher Teacher Training College, HTTC, the speaker asked women not to go for equality because they are above equality but rather seek equity for a fair society.
Qualifying women as partners to God’s creation, the pedagogue said “…women have the secondary participation in God’s beautiful creation”. He further argued that “the woman is the representation of the values of their community”.
As if to say it was not an all-sweet sermon, the senior scholar presented a flip side of the coin, castigating women for not availing themselves of the values they possess as the mirror of the society “the exemplary life of a mother is very capital for the wellbeing of the children…the woman has a greater responsibility in shaping society and so, they should assume their role”, he concluded.
This year’s International Women’s Day billed for March 8 is commemorated on the theme “Equality between men and women today for a sustainable tomorrow”.
Among other sideline activities, the women are engaging themselves in sports, charity outreach and community mobilisation for peace.
WIFAH j. NDE
