Wife of the Governor of Ogun State, Mrs. Olufunso Amosun has charged members of the Guidance and Counselling profession to draw out modalities that would ensure comprehensive women’s health and empowerment for meaningful sustainable development.
The governor’s wife said this during the opening ceremony of the 41st International Conference of the Counselling Association of Nigeria (CASSON) at the University of Lagos Multi-purpose Hall in Lagos. She urged them to recharge and rededicate their services for the benefit of humanity.
According to her, “the society looks up to us as counsellors to help solve some of its ills, and attendant societal vices, by offering guidance and advice that can take us to greater height.”
Mrs Amosun stressed the need for continuous sensitising, educating, informing and enlightening the global community on the emerging trends and paradigms of women requirements geared towards sustainable development.
She added that it was heart warming to note that women are now actively involved in various socio-economic, cultural and political engagements by virtue of their academics and exceptional intelligence and multi-task.
In his remarks the CASSON National President, Prof. Alfred Adegoke decried the maginalisation of women in societies in Africa, saying there would not be any sustainable development when women are denied opportunities to contribute to nation development.
He appealed to people in corridor of power to help lift the association to the next level by taking up the sponsorship of the establishment of the Counselling Practitioners Council of Nigeria Bill to change the landscape of the counselling practice in Nigeria.
Delivering her Keynote address, the Wife of the former Governor of Lagos State, Senator Oluremi Tinubu explained that despite various attempts by government to ensure the participation of women in the scheme of things, women were still being marginalised and denied equal rights to basic education, economic advancement and matters of governance among others.
She charged counsellors to lay emphasis on the role of women as foundation builder in the home, adding that counselling was required by everybody in the society to enhance national development.