Empowering Girl-Child Crucial for Nigeria’s Development -Olori Atuwatse III

Olori Atuwatse III, Queen Consort of Warri Kingdom, has emphasised the critical role of girl-child education in promoting female leadership and equal representation across Nigeria.

In a television interview on Monday, she noted the significant barriers hindering girls’ education, such as early teenage pregnancies, period poverty, and societal expectations influenced by traditional norms.

The Queen Consort stated that educating girls equips them to take on leadership roles, ultimately driving societal growth. Olori Atuwatse III further emphasised that Nigeria’s development risks being impacted by the absence of female leaders in key positions. She called on women to support each other in advocating for greater female representation in leadership roles.

“Women must ally each other to push the agenda of getting women into political power,” she said.

Speaking further, Olori Atuwatse III dismissed viewing the push for female leadership through the lens of tokenism, arguing that such narrow perspectives hold society back and impoverish it.

“Women are half of the population of the world; we cannot be excluded from the rooms where decisions are made. It is not tokenism, it is not feminism, and it is not any of those things. Honestly, when we look at it through those lenses, we are limiting our understanding of what true leadership and development are. Nobody is here to compete—women and men are needed.”

The Queen Consort also referenced the efforts of the Warri Kingdom in advancing female empowerment through the Royal Iwere Foundation, which runs 13 programmes focused on education, healthcare, and empowerment, with a special emphasis on women and girls.

The foundation, which is the humanitarian arm of the Warri kingdom and is led by His Majesty Ogiame Atuwatse III, has been a driving force in human capital development at the grassroots level, helping women gain the skills and resources needed to take on leadership roles.

Olori Atuwatse III encouraged women and girls to embrace their full potential.