By Henry Ojelu
LAGOS — FOUNDER of the Women Empowerment and Legal Aid, WELA, Mrs Funmi Falana, SAN, and human rights activist, Mr Omoyele Sowore, have identified economic empowerment as the foundation of women’s freedom, dignity and protection from abuse in Nigeria.
They spoke at the 2025 graduation ceremony of the WELA Vocational Training College, where 17 beneficiaries completed the ninth edition of the organization’s skills acquisition programme in Lagos.
The event, held to mark International Human Rights Day, was themed ‘Building Lives, Restoring Hope.’
In her address, Falana said WELA’s long years of advocacy and litigation had revealed that access to justice means little when victims lack the economic strength to assert their rights.
“Many women suffer oppression and domestic violence because they are economically dependent. Fear of losing financial support keeps them silent,” she said.
Speaking at the event, Sowore criticised what he described as government failure in delivering basic services, arguing that non-governmental organisations had been forced to fill the gap.
“In a country where government has failed, NGOs are now the ones providing food, water, electricity and sanitation,” he said, describing moves to tax NGOs as misplaced.
In her keynote address, child rights advocate and founder of CEE-HOPE Foundation, Ms Betty Abah, said economic empowerment remains the most practical response to poverty, abuse and systemic failure.
“Advocacy without empowerment does not change lives,” she said, describing WELA’s vocational programme as a real, measurable intervention.
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