The First Lady of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, has called on the wives of governors to remain steadfast and supportive of one another.
She was speaking during the meeting she had with them at the State House Abuja under the umbrella of the Renewed Hope Initiative.
The First Lady, while commending them for their efforts in their various states, especially to ameliorate the hardships occasioned by the removal of the fuel subsidy, appealed to them to intensify their efforts.
“As we all know, the Mission of the Renewed Hope Initiative, which is driven by my office, to complement the efforts of the administration of our President and Commander-in-Chief, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, is “Towards a Better Life for Families”.
She disclosed that there would be the launch of the “We Are Equal? We Are the Same” Campaign, an initiative of the Organization of African First Ladies for Development (OAFLAD), geared towards women’s empowerment, promoting economic growth, and advancing gender equity.
A raffle was conducted, and Osun State was picked as the place where the campaign would be flagged off. “I will be reintroducing the Alternative High School for Girls. It will interest you to know that some States already have similar programs named ‘second chance schools’. We are going to reach out to the Federal Ministry of Education to help us harmonize and restructure these special intervention schools”.
The school, Senator Oluremi Tinubu explained, will give girls who had dropped out of school due to pregnancy, domestic violence, child trafficking, drug addiction, and other reasons the opportunity to return to the classroom and eke out a living for themselves.
At the meeting, it was also disclosed that the Renewed Hope Initiative (RHI) will be distributing One Million, Nine Hundred and Fifty Thousand (1,950,000) Exercise Books to Public Primary and Junior Secondary Schools across the nation.
The exercise books, which are already being produced, will be given to each State through the RHI Coordinator/First Lady of the state to the SUBEB Chairmen for distribution to the students through the Local Government Education Authority.
Lagos and Kano will each be getting 100,000 exercise books, while 50,000 exercise books will be given to other States and the FCT.
Senator Oluremi Tinubu stated that the RHI will flag off the “Renewed Hope Initiative Women Agricultural Support Programmes (WASP) in Imo State on the 28th of February, 2024.
The First Lady explained that women farmers would get N500,000.00 each, and a total draft of Ten Million Naira (N10,000,000) will be given to five (5) RHI State Coordinators/First Ladies as the case may be.
In addition, the National Agricultural Land Development Authority (NALDA), in partnership with the Renewed Hope Initiative (RHI), will support an additional eighty (80) women farmers from each State with the provision of training and capacity building, agricultural inputs, and buy off all produce from the farms after harvest.
The highlight of the meeting was the unveiling of the proposed Young Farmers Club for Public Schools in each state of the Federation with the proposed uniforms for members.
She pointed out that this will encourage food production among the youth tagged #Food on Every Table.
She appealed to each of the Governors’ wives to take ownership of this scheme and encourage it as much as possible.
This is the first meeting of the First Lady of the Federal Republic of Nigeria with the wives of State Governors in 2024.
There were over 25 of them in attendance.
