By Danmusa Mohammed & Margaret Akolo

National president of National Council for Women Societies (NCWS) Hajiya Ramatu Halilu Bala Usman has expressed satisfaction with the response of most state governments to the 30 per cent affirmative action agreed upon in 1995 for the involvement of women in government at all levels.

She stated this in an exclusive interview with Nigerian Newsday in Lafia recently. She said although the action was not yet fulfilled, the level of efforts being made was encouraging and called on governments at all levels to ensure women were actively involved in the processes of governance.

Hajiya Ramatu further advocated for the immediate establishment of a gender commission under the presidency as a means of ensuring equal representation for women in the government.

Speaking on the dreaded HIV/AIDS and the vulnerability of the women folk in particular, Hajiya Ramatu called for "a collective approach" to combat the spread of the disease.

She emphasized on the need for married couples to remain faithful and called on unmarried persons to always abstain from pre-marital sex.

The NCWS national president commended the First Lady, wife of the president, Hajiya Turai Yar’Adua for establishing National Women Coalition Against HIV/AIDS (NAWOCA) and applauded the efforts of the wife of Nasarawa state governor, Hajiya Raliya Aliyu Akwe Doma, for launching the state chapter of the agency in a grand style.

She then assured of NCWS’s capacity to continue to fight for the rights of women, maintaining that the council has recorded landmark achievements in the struggle for the liberation of women.