Rochas Okorocha, a former Governor of Imo State, has blamed the rising insecurity in the country on injustice and failed family system caused by indifference to the role of women in nation-building by politicians.
The former governor noted that for Nigeria to pull out of the current security and economic challenges, women must be empowered and carried along in governance and policymaking.
Okorocha who is also the senator representing Imo West at the Red Chamber said the collapse of family values and system gave rise to insurgency, banditry and youths restiveness, adding that a safe and prosperous society begins with the home.
This he said while receiving an Award of Excellence from the United Business Women Association of Nigeria and Diaspora.
He noted that women have a critical role to play in the security of the country by impacting moral and family values in the children.
He said, “A woman is a special creation by God, women are givers and custodians of life, nations that ignore their women are considered failed nations, while nations that make good use of their women are called developed nations.
“So if Nigeria must rise again, then we must make a turnaround and look at the women. If we don’t carry the women along we are in for very serious trouble.”
He argued that “if any nation must get it right it has to start from the family, it is the bad family system that we have today that has given rise to insurgency and other criminality in the country. No sane woman who gave birth to a child will allow the child to go astray.
“The problem is that we have not taken care of the women and we have not empowered the women. Whatever you give a woman is what you get in return.
“While we men have succeeded in dividing this country along religious and ethnic lines, the women have remained a force of unity. For as long as we have not empowered the women in the house to give us good family, for as long as our politicians continue on the path of injustice, insurgency, kidnapping will never stop.”
Presenting the award, the president of the association, Mrs Nkiruka Madu, said the former governor was selected for the award as a result of his philanthropy, especially the empowerment of women and free education for indigent children across the country.
