From Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Abuja
Wife of the President, Mrs. Aisha Buhari, on Monday commenced moves to restructure the Governors Wives’ Forum. The restructured forum would now serve as a platform for wives of the political office holders to support their husbands as they struggle to bring about the much-needed change.‎
The president’s wife has also identified areas of concern the forum will focus on to include widowhood rites, female inheritance rights, female genital mutilation, early marriages, violence against women and children, high maternal mortality as well as women economic empowerment.
Mrs. Buhari said this when she presided over a meeting of wives of state governors at the First Lady’s Conference Hall inside the Presidential Villa, Abuja yesterday. As wives of political office holders, we must continue to do our best in contributing to the success of our husbands.
“I believe in our little ways, we can assist them to bring succour to the populace, especially those in need such as victims of insurgency in the North-East and other forms of violence, physically challenged and other vulnerable groups.
“It is on this note, I felt it is important for us to come together to strengthen our unity and extend our solidarity to each other under a common platform.”
“Therefore, we need to develop strong leadership structures in the two regions, not only in one as the case with the already known Northern Governors Wives Forum of the country,” she said.
Mrs. Buhari said the need for the restructuring of the two regional forums would encourage networking, cooperation and constructive partnership.
She explained that as women, they have the capacity of turning around the socio-economic and political potentials to generally improve the lives of the people.