There is a growing need for women to be represented in positions of power, as having more women in government would likely address critical issues such as early child marriages, domestic violence, and other societal vices.
Joy Isa, an education consultant and president of Isa School of Education, shared these insights during her appearance on News Central TV’s Jasiri program on Wednesday.

She highlighted the lack of women’s empowerment in Nigeria, emphasising that having more women in leadership positions could bring about positive change. “I think we need more women in the corridors of power, because I believe if we have more women with a seat at the table, then perhaps there’ll be more of us in the room to speak up and speak out against early child marriage, domestic violence, you know, just a lot of issues,” she stated. “Having said that though, our judiciary doesn’t seem quite as empowered as we would like it to and so even when cases are presented, let’s just say questionable outcomes often occur.”
Isa further stressed the importance of grassroots and religious leaders advocating for the education of the girl child, explaining that educating women leads to greater benefits for families. “But dial back to simple community leaders, religious leaders, if at that level, at the grassroots level, community level, religious level, if we can have more advocacy for the empowerment of women, the education of women.”
She continued, referencing a well-known saying: “There’s a famous saying that says when a woman is educated in a home, the children are more likely to have higher levels of education. The literacy, the financial capability of that family, the economic power of that family increases when the woman is educated. So how can we, you know, like we say in Nigeria, use our hands to bury ourselves.”

Isa also addressed the growing security concerns in Northern Nigeria, which have led to many families refusing to send their daughters to school due to the fear of abduction. “We shouldn’t do that. We should be the ones to be promoting, you know, the values we claim to be perpetrating in society and I have to go up north for a little bit and say one of the major factors that really we must consider is this security issue because a number of people now are saying they’re not going to send their girls to school for fear of abduction. So the security issue has now put another dent, another span in the wheel. So our legislators, our lawmakers, can we pay attention to some of these things with a greater sense of urgency?”
Watch full interview below.