Why I Wrote A Girl and Proud, by Osime

PRINCIPAL of Loral International School, Igbesa, Ogun State, Mrs. Ekwutozia Osime, says she wrote A Girl and Proud in order to bring to the fore, how to empower the girl child.

Speaking while presenting the book at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA) in Lagos Tuesday, Osime, a former principal of Queen’s College, Lagos, said that she was compelled to write on how to empower the girl child after 35 years of molding young minds.

She encouraged the public to buy copies to further appreciate how to empower the girl-child.
Former Federal Internal Revenue Services (FIRS) boss,Mrs. Ifueko Omoigui Okauru, who delivered the keynote address on: “The Mathematics, Economics and Politics of Empowering a Girl-Child,” urged young women to open their minds to the fact that they can have a families and careers.

Okauru, who said children must be educated irrespective of gender, added that, “Beyond school education is the need for us to reinforce independent thinking.”
Parents, she advised, should involve their children in discussions that go on at home. “Don’t limit your discussion to you and your spouse. Parenting encourages you to have dialogues, discipline, disagree, make mistakes and let the children make theirs.”

Okauru, who expressed worries over population explosion encouraged parents to do family planning saying, “The use of contraceptive increases with education… We really need to find out how to deal with the population explosion because the demographic challenge is a real problem.

She urged men to take good care of their wives saying that it was not justifiable for men to beat their wives.
“Unfortunately, some women feel it is sometimes justifiable for men to beat their wives.

I think this book will help those who want to know more on how to empower the girl-child. We need more stories to show the importance of values in the family,” she said.