By Bilkisu M. Usman

Rector of Federal Polytechnic, Nasarawa, Mr. Pius O. Salami, has said that women were the pride of any nation without whom a nation could not achieve proper development.

Mr. Salami stated this at a two-day workshop on Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) organized by the Federal Polytechnic, Nasarawa in collaboration with the Millennium Development Goals (MDCs).

The workshop was organized to educate and train women and girls in Nasarawa State on skills acquisition and poverty alleviation.

The rector said that men alone could not cope or handle the affairs of a nation, stressing that the assistance of women was needed to make a country great.

He said that the workshop was meant purposely for women and girls of various local governments to interact together to acquire different skills, so that Nasarawa State would become one of the developed states in the country.

Mr. Salami commended the Nasarawa State Government for providing machines to facilitate salt mining in Keana Local Government Area of the state.

He said the provision of the machines has made it easier for the women who are mostly the salt miners, to carry out salt mining and production.

He said that the skills acquisition workshop focused on major areas, such as soap making, Soya beans milk production, hair dressing, knitting, sewing and the making of candles and cream lotions.

Speaking at the workshop, Alhaji Maikano Abdullahi Ari, Special Adviser to Governor Alhaji Aliyu Akwe Doma, and the state coordinator of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), said poverty "is not lack of money, poverty is lack of knowledge". He stressed the need to organized various programmes aimed at reducing poverty in the country.

The MDGs coordinator who was represented by Alhaji Usman Ogah, called on the government to implement the Universal Basic Education (UBE) scheme, provide more equipment for relevant technology as well as promote gender equality for women and girls to acquire skills.

He said, when these problems were tackled, they would go a long way to reduce poverty in the state and country at large.

In her remarks, the wife of the state governor, Hajiya Raliya Aliyu Akwe Doma, assured that the state government would ensure that women in the state were trained to make them self-reliant.

Hajiya Raliya who was represented by the state commissioner for women affairs and youth development, Alhaji Musa Loko, advised the participants to cooperate so that the Federal Polytechnic, Nasarawa and Millennium Development Goals would achieve the aims of the workshop.

She called on the participants to be committed during the workshop so as to be productive afterwards.