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PAGE 40 — SUNDAY VANGUARD, OCTOBER 13, 2019
You are unstoppable!
Shout out to the Girl-Child out there!
Yes! We celebrate you as
generations who are
taking the world stage. The
foundation has been laid for you
to build your voices on, your
aspirations and dreams. Nothing
can stop you except you stop
yourself. But you know what? You
can just happen suddenly. Anyone
who happens suddenly disappears
suddenly. That is why you are
being built by your parents,
guardians, teachers, counselors,
religious fathers, government, your
environment, just to mention a few.
All you need is the confidence that
will take you up there which is
education. Getting to the top goes
beyond sagging and drug abuse. It
goes beyond exam malpractices.
The one that will participate will
answer to obedience: girls who will
diligently follow instruction.
As we celebrate the girls today,
the boys are not left out. You are
celebrated and you are who you
are. Nothing can change it! It
is just that the world is a stage
for everyone and any society
that fails to harness the energy
and creativity of its women is
at a huge disadvantage in the
modern world.
Have a blessed week
As the world celebrates the
brilliance of girls around the
world who are raising their
voices, leading movements, and
challenging the status quo, gradually,
our society is recognizing the
unstoppable momentum toward
unequivocal civil equality for every girl
child. It is becoming clearer that girls
are not sex slaves and the stereotypes
about the role of women as confined to
the domestic and family sphere where
girls are often socialized to assume
domestic and care responsibilities, with
the assumption that they will be
economically dependent on men is no
longer acceptable. Girls are proving
they are unscripted and unstoppable.
This year's theme, “GirlForce:
Unscripted and Unstoppable”, is a
clear message for every girl child out
there that nothing can stop them from
being who they dream to become. A
quote by Zulaykho Ermatova, 22, from
Uzbekistan on UNICEF site says,
"Whatever life you choose, it’s up to you
and it depends on your interests. Share
your ideas. Get support from your peers,
teachers and families. Get things done.
Nobody can stop you if you believe in
what you do and follow your dream."
A Statement by UN Women
Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-
Ngcuka for International Day of the
Girl, 2019 says, “There’s no doubting
the unstoppable power of today’s young
women and girls to stand up for their
rights and the future they want. They
are a fierce force to be reckoned with. I
see the marches, hear their clear voices,
and witness their impatient challenge
to systems and societies that are too
slow to take action on issues of both
personal and global concern. From
resisting violence against women, to
climate action, to asserting the rights
of a girl and a woman to determine
what happens to her body, UN Women
stand by them and work to amplify their
power and their calls for change”.
Continuing, she said, "It is not all
girls that are able to be that vocal and
that self-assured because for some, life
has not brought knowledge that opens
doors to a bigger life, saying that across
the world, 15 million girls of primary
school age are out of school and likely
never to learn to read or write. She
added that each year, 12 million girls
are married before the age of 18—
Girls are unstoppable as the world celebrates
International Day of the Girl-Child
ABUSED?
Numbers to Call
Aunty Funmi – 08052201992
WARIF- 07038864169
Lagos State Women Affairs &
Poverty Alleviation
(WAPA) – 01- 7617508, 01-
7308112
Lagos Education And Resource
Network (LEARN)
– 07027950412
Lagos State Ministry of Youth &
Social Welfare – 09077333426 /
08172457792
Lagos State Office of Public
Defender – 01- 7926928
Mirabel- 07013491769
•Aloma Mariam Mukhtar •Ogunseye, First Female Professor •Ire Aderinokun-Tech queen
•Professor Alele-Williams
nearly one every two seconds. For
millions of girls, violence—and the fear
of it—is a lurking, limiting threat, and
a present danger for girls both at home
and in public spaces".
Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka
however assured every girl child in
today’s generation that she sees
powerful role models who have
already found their voice and are
taking the world stage to exercise that
power as new leaders and her wish is
that every stakeholder will work
urgently for a new generation equality,
to end the circumstances that currently
limit the world’s least privileged
children, and give their full support to
the movements that allow them all to
flourish.
To every girl child out there, have
confidence that you can bring about
change in your own life as well as other
girls' lives. There are many first
females in almost all sectors now that
grew up in the same environment
where gender inequality of all sorts
thrived but they broke barriers to
become who they are today in their
chosen careers, they dared to dream,
they were unstoppable! You too are
unstoppable.
• Captain Chinyere Kalu is the first
female pilot in Nigeria.
• Florence Nwanzuruahu Nkiru
Nwapa was a Nigerian author best
known as Flora Nwapa. She was the
first African woman publisher.
• Elizabeth Abimbola Awoliyi was
the first female physician in Nigeria.
She earned her medical degree in 1938
from the University of Dublin
•Chioma Ajunwa is the first African
woman, as well as the first Nigerian, to
win an Olympic gold medal in a track
and field event. She jumped 7.12
metres at a long jump event in the 1996
Atlanta Olympic Games.
•Professor Adetoun Ogunseye is first
•Captain Chinyere Kalu
female Professor In Nigeria. She
attended Queen’s College, Yaba,
Lagos. At the University of Ibadan
(where she was the first female student),
she received the prize for the best
female graduating student and got a
scholarship to proceed to Cambridge.
•Justice Aloma Mukhtar made
history by becoming the first female
Chief Justice of Nigeria. She was also
conferred with the National Award of
GCON (the second highest honour in
the land)
•Prof. Grace Alele-Williams was the
first Nigerian woman to become the
vice-chancellor of a Nigerian
University. She studied at Queens
College, University College, Ibadan
and then the University of Vermont,
before receiving a PhD in Mathematics
education from the University of
Chicago.
•Ambassador Adenike Ebun
Oyagbola is the first woman to ever be
appointed as a Federal Minister in the
history of Nigeria under the regime of
Alhaji Shehu Shagari. She was also a
Nigerian Ambassador to Mexico.
•Blessing Liman is the first female
military pilot of the Nigerian Air Force.
On her achievement she has been
quoted elsewhere as saying; “As a first
female pilot I would want to make a
mark that would encourage other
females to join the military because I
believe that all females have equal
opportunity to exercise their rights in
whatever they choose to..”
•Maureen Nkeiruka Mmadu is the
first Nigerian women’s football coach
attached to a top European club. She
is a former Super Falcons midfielder
and is the first Nigerian to have played
100 games for the national team.
•Ibukun Abiodun Awosika: She is
the first board chairperson of First
Bank of Nigeria . Making her the first
woman to assume this position since
the establishment of First Bank of
•Chioma Ajunwa
Nigeria in 1894. She is also the
Chairman, Board of Trustees of Women
in Management and Business
(WIMBIZ).
•Sandra Aguebor is Nigeria’s first
lady mechanic. She studied
mechanical engineering at the Auchi
Polytechnic graduating in 1991 as the
first Nigerian woman to be certified as
an auto-mechanical engineer.
•Chief ‘Folake Solanke (SAN) is the
first female Senior Advocate of Nigeria
and the first Nigerian female lawyer
to wear the silk gown as Senior
Counsel. She is the first Commissioner
of Western State and is a former
Chairperson of the Western Nigeria
Television Broadcasting Corporation
(WNTBC).
•Dr. Abimbola Ayodeji Abolarinwa
is first female Urologist in Nigeria. Her
medical career started in 2004 after
graduating from University of Ibadan.
She worked as a Medical officer for 2
years before she commenced her
residency training at the Lagos State
University Teaching Hospital, Ikeja.
•Captain Abimbola Jayeola
(Captain AB) is Nigeria’s First Female
Helicopter Captain. In February 2016,
Captain Jayeola was widely celebrated
for her heroism in saving the lives of 11
Nigerians onboard a 5B BJQ Bristow
helicopter headed to Lagos from Port
Harcourt.
•Olabisi Alofe-Kolawole is the first
female public relations officer (FPRO)
of the Nigeria Police Force. She has a
degree in law from Ogun State
University and a master’s in police
leadership and management from
University of Leicester, UK. She is also
a member of the pool of investigators
assisting the office of the Prosecutor at
the International Criminal Court (ICC)
at The Hague in the investigation of
Sexual and Gender-Based Violence as
international crimes.
•Dr. Salamat Ahuoiza Aliu: is a
neuro-surgeon at National Hospital,
Abuja. She is the first indigenously
trained female neuro-surgeon in
Nigeria as well as the first female to be
certified a neuro-surgeon in West
Africa.
•Margaret Ekpo is nationally and
internationally recognized as an Icon
of Nigerian politics and a pioneer
activist of women’s rights. Margaret
Ekpo was one of three women
appointed to the House of Chiefs, in
the 1950s. The others were Chief (Mrs)
Olufunmilayo Ransome Kuti
(appointed into the Western Nigeria
House of Chiefs); and Janet Mokelu
(appointed along with Margaret Ekpo
into the Eastern Nigeria House of
Chiefs).
•Mo Abudu: Mosunmola is an
entrepreneur and pacesetter in the
media industry. She is the first woman
in Africa to launch a pan African TV
Channel.
•Tara Fela-Durotoye: She is a
Nigerian makeup artiste and lawyer.
A pioneer in the bridal makeup
profession in Nigeria, she launched the
first bridal directory in 1999, set up
international standard makeup
studios and established the first
makeup school in Nigeria.
•Agbani Darego is a former Most
Beautiful Girl in Nigeria best known
as the first native Sub-Saharan African
to win Miss World.
•Admiral Itunu Hotonu is the first
woman to attain the rank of Rear
Admiral (a two-star General), in the
Nigerian Navy. She was also the first
female military officer to attend the
then National War College, now
National Defence College, where she
emerged the best overall graduating
student and won the Commander-in-
Chief’s prize as well as the
Commandant’s prize for the best
research.
•Ire Aderinokun – First Nigerian
woman to become a google dev expert.
•General Aderonke Kale – First
female army general in Nigeria.
•Sarah Jibril – First woman to run
for president in Nigeria.
Do you know this expression?
To hold your tongue
This idiom does not actually mean that you should stick your
fingers in your mouth and grab a hold of your tongue. It means
that you should not talk.
People "hold their tongues" when they are in situations where
they want to talk, but it would be better if they didn't. So, while
their tongue is ready to do some talking, they "hold" it and don't
say anything. For example, when your parents are talking with
their friends and you feel like you want to contribute but you have
not been called into the conversation, it is better to hold your
tongue and just listen instead of interrupting.