We're Proactive on Gender Equity, Women Protection-NIS

The Nigeria Immigration Services has said that it operates proactive policies aimed at enhancing gender equity and protection of women in every facets of life.

The service made the statement in Abuja on Tuesday, via its Comptroller, Appointment/Promotion Unit, APU, Tahir Lawal, while speaking at a media parley on Gender Mainstreaming, organized by the International Center for Migration Policy Development, ICMPD, and its partners, to mark the 2024 UN International Women’s Day celebration. 

He noted that the NIS has already put in place a number of policies geared towards bridging the parity gap in gender, currently tilted against women.

One of them, he said, is that the NIS is deliberately making efforts to address issues mitigating against gender parity in the system while also addressing immigration issues as they affect women, by creating opportunities for women in the service.

“The issue about women migration is something that is of concern particularly because of its sensitive nature, and the need to accord them protection that they deserve in a male dominated environment. A number of policies have been introduced aimed at bridging the gaps not only at protecting them but also at making sure women are given their dues equally, without discrimination.” 

Compt Lawal, who also spoke extensively on women as the most vulnerable migrant, reiterated that given the priority accorded the protection of women rights by global migration norms, the NIS has since set in motion the implementation of specific and deliberate policies that seek to reduce the limitation of their rights to their barest minimum.

According to him;   

“We all know that in the course of migration, women are the most vulnerable particularly in tracking. It is a scourge the world is battling with to make sure it is reduced to the barest minimum if not completely eliminated.

"Nigeria has had its fair share of it and Nigeria Immigration Services has played a great role in ensuring that the scourge is reduced to the barest minimum, to ensure that women are protected at the transit of our borders and their exploitation is reduced to the barest minimum or completely eliminated at our various border crossings. All of these policies that the NIS put in place, including the ones on gender mainstreaming, ensuring that women have their place.”

While also speaking at the event which had immigration officers from the Ghana Immigration Services, Dr Mojisola Sodeinde, Head of Region, ICMPD, West Africa, organizers of the event, explained that the essence of the event is to discuss issues surrounding the recruitment of women into the Nigeria Immigration Services, enough to narrow the women/men ratio, which currently tilts heavily against women.

Towards achieving the goal, she noted that the ICMPD is collaborating with the Nigerian government through the NIS in order to identity areas where gaps exist with a view to finding solutions to them through synergy.

“…ICMPD is working in collaboration with the Nigerian government through the NIS, through NAPTIP and many other agencies that deal in migration. Our experience so far, has been a very positive one because we work in close collaboration with the NIS, Nigeria Immigration Service. We listen to the requests, um, the role of the ICMPD is of course not to dictate to the Nigerian government. Our role is to see what the gaps are, to work together, to bring our experiences from other places, to try and find solutions to the problems that have been identified. 

“In this case, we are talking about the recruitment of women so that the ratio of women to men can be narrowed. As we have heard from our colleagues here, that a lot is being done even under this project, MoNIS, is a project which ICMPD is implementing which has um, of course, which is responsible for this gathering that we have here,” she explained.

"So that process of bringing together, of listening to the Nigeria Immigration Services, the process of working together to develop a program is what ICMPD does. It listens to the Nigerian government, it supports the Nigerian government and of course, it implements programs like this one that is helping to develop policies for gender mainstreaming, helping to develop policies for training, the career progression framework, and also working with the NIS to implement.

"So in a variety of ways, the ICMPD is working collaboratively with government, helping to identify what the issues are and then working together to see how we can resolve those issues." 

She pointed out that as a Governmental Organization, the ICMPD not only reports back to member states, it equally relies on them for fundings. 

“Another thing that the ICMPD does of course is that we have member states, ICMPD is a Governmental Organization. We have member states that we go back to, report back our experiences in the field, then we say oh, Nigeria Immigration Services need this, that. Through that we are able to, perhaps apply for funds where…to support NIS or any other organization. We have other stakeholders, like the European Union that we can also fall back to, to provide support. 

"In short, these are small ways that I think the ICMPD has engaged the Nigerian government in order to help resolve some of these issues.”

Present at the event are, among others, Mrs Sedef Dearing, Director, Migrant Dialogue and Cooperation, International Centre for Migration Policy Development, (ICAP), Vienna, Austria; Ms Monica Zinette, Head, ICMPD Pan Africa Initiative, Ms Iulia Socea, Project Manager, ICMPD, Ghana and ACG Ada J. Umanah, Training and Staff Development, NIS. 

As part of the ongoing ICMPD-inspired collaboration event, participating partners are to evolve policies aimed at gender mainstreaming to mark the 2024 UN International Women’s Day event.

Comprising officers of the Nigeria Immigration Services, NIS, and their Ghanaian counterparts, the participants will also deliberate on the year's topic, ‘Inspire Inclusion’, an initiative geared towards investing in women, with a view to inspiring their inclusion in all facets of human endeavours.

They will also strive to provide insights into how recommendations from the 2021 exchange programme between the two national services were integrated into, for instance, the NIS; and among others, determine what specific initiative, outlined in the gender mainstreaming policy, better integrates gender perspectives across planning, implementing and monitoring frameworks of the NIS.  

According to the organizers,

“Beyond the discussions and deliberations on this year’s theme for the women’s day, what implementation plans and policies are in place to ensure sustainability when it comes to women inclusively, in your organization?”