By Joy Baba-Yesufu
Nigeria’s first lady, Senator Oluremi Tinubu has assured Nigerian women of more appointments and opportunities under this current administration adding that her Renewed Hope initiative will lift more families from poverty.
She said Nigerian women will live their dreams, ambitions and aspirations to the best they can as a way of appreciating them for voting the All-Progressive Congress (APC) for another tenure.
Mrs Tinubu gave the assurance recently in Abuja at a dinner in her honor to celebrate her being inducted into the Nigerian Women Hall of Fame, a second time within five years and the renaming of the National Centre for Women Development after late Dr. Mrs Maryam Babangida.
She said inducting women who have excelled in their various fields of endeavor into the Nigerian Women Hall of Fame is a way of defining the great contribution women make to national development.
Earlier in her address, the Director General of the centre, Dr Asabe Vilita-Bashir said late Mrs Babangida was a visionary woman with a strong passion for the upliftment of Nigerian women adding that her commitment towards the attainment of gender equality knew no bounds.
Bashir further said this deep commitment by late Babangida is what has led to the construction of this development centre that has led to empowerment of millions of Nigerian women noting that the legacies she left behind has greatly reduced the suffering of the rural poor women.
She said “the centre will stand as a symbolic gesture that acknowledges and honours the tremendous effort and contributions of Maryam Babangida in promoting women’s rights and empowerment in Nigeria which forms the basis for our continuous advocacy”.
In his response, son of the late former first lady, Mohammed Babangida said his mother knew women play very vital role in the development of any country hence her decision to build this edifice where women will be empowered to contribute their quota to the development of their home front and the country at large.
“Any country that is desirous of genuine development must factor and carry women along. This was the dream of our dear mother who worked tirelessly with dogged commitment in ensuring that every girl child had a voice, every woman had an opportunity and in particular, every rural woman had a better life. There is no force more powerful than a woman that is determined to rise. We hope that all the women will continue to rise for the development of this great nation of ours, Nigeria” he added
