To celebrate the World Girl Child Day, the Green Girl Company Limited, organisers of the Miss Nigeria Pageant, held the first Raising Girl Summit to inspire, educate and speak on issues that affect the girl child in Nigeria.

At the Incubator event center, Victoria Island, Lagos, over 1000 school girls from different primary and secondary schools in Lagos where present to be inspired by women who have done remarkably well in their different field of endeavor.

One of the key points that many of the guest speakers focused on were on how to empower girls for a brighter tomorrow.

Great women like, former Miss Nigeria, Helen Prest Ajayi, the 42^nd winner of Miss Nigeria, Chidinma Aaron, Media influencer, Linda Ikeji; Nimi Akinkube, Chioma Udeh, Director United Nations Information Center, Ronald Kayanja and many other were among the panelists that spoke to the girls.

 

Speaking to the Chief Executive Officer of the green Girl Company, Dr May Ikeora, explained that  when the Green Girl company started with the Miss Nigeria pageant, they wanted people to know that  that are an empowerment platform. She stated that part of that empowerment is to give the girl child a chance to deliberate on issues that affect them

“Green Girl Company organizes the Miss Nigeria pageant, the one that started in 1957, raising girl summit is one of our project and we have the green girl academy. We started with the Miss Nigeria pageant and we have been telling people that we are an empowerment platform. We are doing this today to give girls a chance to deliberate on issues that affect them. We are giving them a chance to speak up on the issues that affect them. When talk about girl’s empowerment, we see mostly women and not girls and that is why 80% of the participants today are little girls”.

Dr Ikeora who asked for the support of every First Ladies in the different 36 states of Nigeria, stated that it is important for government to start paying attention to what happens in the families. She explained that every crime in the society is done by people who come from families which can be avoided if these young people are well monitored and taken care of.

“We call this Raising Girls summit for a reason. The first point of contact for these girls is the home. If you go to the United Kingdom, they have the Department of family and children which we do not have here in Nigeria. When things happen in the family, people turn their backs and say it is their family issue, when actually this is where government should be putting their eyes into. All the boys in prison today, and most of the girl child that are molested, the problems start within the family. So parents are a huge recourse to raising children. The parents need support as well. They have inherited how to raise children from their own parents which should be looked into as well, to find out if their inherited ways are the right way to raise girls for better tomorrow,” she said.

Also speaking at the event, the 42nd Miss Nigeria, Chidinma Aaron, who was one of the speaker and co-organiser of the event, told the media that this is the time to pay attention to issues affecting girls because they are the future.

Ronald Kayanja, Director United Nations Information Center, and representative of UNESCO Director encouraged the girls to focus and achieve in life.

Kayanja stated that he is one of the men that believe in the girl child. He also encouraged the young stars by saying,

“I have two daughters and everyday, they keep me on my toes to do more. They are always interested in every detail of my daily activities. I once had a High Blood pressure episode and my daughter took care of every detail when their mom steps out. They went ahead to check the internet to find out this I should eat and things not to. They are just 13 and 15 years old and they care so much. One of them said she will become a doctor to find a cure for blood pressure just because I have it. That is the kind of resolve you get from girl child. The care and nurture is nature to them. This is why we must put hands together to make the girl child great,”he said.