•No country has achieved full gender equality, says UN
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has demanded the immediate implementation of affirmative action policies to guarantee women’s proportional representation in governance, political parties, and all socioeconomic boards.

The labour union equally issues a direct challenge to the state and employers to stop paying lip service to gender mainstreaming while women toil in the most exploitative conditions and on the streets in the informal economy, where they suffer most horrendously in the hands of “sextortionists” and brutal state-sponsored thugs in the name of the collection of Internally Generated Revenues (IGR).

The NLC said this in commemoration of International Women’s Day (IWD), where it also demanded affirmative action policies for universal crèche facilities and breastfeeding breaks in every workplace, public and private, as a non-negotiable right, and not a privilege.

NLC President, Joe Ajaero, said the theme of the ‘Give to Gain’ was not a charity appeal but a radical strategy and, as such, a call to battle stations.

While reaffirming that the fight for gender equality was inseparable from the fight against neoliberal philosophies and the ruling-class exploitation that impoverishes the people, he said: “When we speak of empowerment, we speak of smashing the structures that force women into precarious labour, deny them living wages, and exclude them from the commanding heights of economic and political power.

“Our ruling elite must hear this. The patience of the Nigerian woman is exhausted. The days of symbolic celebrations, while our sisters die in childbirth, our daughters are kidnapped, and our mothers are forced into poverty, are over.”

He urged that the country pour its collective resources, intellectual energy, and organisational power into the movement for women’s emancipation.

Meanwhile, the National Association of Seadogs (Pyrates Confraternity) has joined the global community in celebrating women and calling for greater inclusion of women in political leadership and governance as the world marks the 2026 International Women’s Day (IWD).

In a statement issued yesterday by the Cap’n of the National Association of Seadogs, Dr Joseph Oteri, the organisation said the day provides an opportunity to recognise the resilience, achievements, and invaluable contributions of women to societal development, while also reflecting on the persistent challenges that continue to limit their full participation in leadership.

Oteri noted that although women remain central to family stability, community development, and national progress, their representation in Nigeria’s political leadership remains alarmingly low.

However, the United Nations (UN) has warned that despite decades of advocacy and reform, no country in the world has yet achieved full equality between women, girls and men.

The organisation, which raised the concern to mark the 2026 International Women’s Day, said it could take a century for women and girls to have the same rights as men.

In a post on its X handle yesterday, it said: “It’s 2026, and as of yet, no country has achieved gender equality.

“At the current rate of progress, it could take hundreds of years for women and girls to have the same rights and protections as men.”

Citing a new report titled “Ensuring and Strengthening Access to Justice for All Women and Girls,” released ahead of the observance, the UN also revealed that women worldwide hold just 64 per cent of the legal rights afforded to men.

The organisation said this persistent legal discrimination leaves women and girls vulnerable to exclusion, violence and systemic disadvantage at every stage of life.