The President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Mr. Yakubu Maikyau SAN today hailed women all over the world on the occasion of the International Women’s Day.

In a statement on Wednesday signed by the NBA boss, Maikyau said that the association “is delighted to join the rest of the global community to commemorate this year’s International Women’s Day.”

He stated that the 8th day of March is set aside “to celebrate our women and their outstanding achievements and contributions to the society,” adding that “This year’s event is no different, and as an association we are taking the time to celebrate all the female members of the legal profession who have done their bit for the advancement of the legal profession and the betterment of our world.

“The NBA has consistently maintained the position that, for us to achieve transformative change in the world, issues relating to gender equality and empowerment must be prioritized and addressed head-on. We are, therefore, happy to identify with the theme of this year’s event: DigitALL: Innovation and Technology for Gender Equality. This year’s theme, which focuses on innovation, has given the world a veritable platform to assess and re-assess how to maximise the use of digital technology to bridge the gender gap. The next global agenda should therefore put in place developmental policies and pragmatic mechanism to accelerate equality and equity with the aid of technology.”

“In celebrating this year’s International Women’s Day, we wish to acknowledge and celebrate specially the female pioneers in the legal profession. These women blazed the trail for others to follow and shattered glass ceilings to reach for the stars in a hitherto male-dominated sphere.

The NBA is proud to be supporting the International Bar Association (IBA) and LexisNexis Rule of Law Foundation’s ‘50:50 by 2030’ Gender Project (the ‘Gender Project’). The Gender Project is designed in an effort towards achieving SDG 5.

“It is an innovative and unprecedented project through which the legal profession looks inwards; to study the available data and understand the primary causes of gender disparity at all levels of seniority within the legal profession with a view addressing same.

“So far, the Gender Project has surveyed and produced reports on England and Wales, Uganda and Spain. The Gender Report on Nigeria is next and will be published over the next few days. I thank all participating law firms, corporate organisations, public sector establishments and members of the judiciary who supported this project. I enjoin all our members to study the report when it is published, take the lessons from the data and become champions of the change we want to see in our nation, starting with the legal profession,” he stated.

Read the full statement below