Wife of the President, Mrs. Aisha Buhari, on Monday presided over a meeting aimed at restructuring the Governors’ Wives’ Forum.
At the meeting held inside the First Lady’s Conference Hall, Presidential Villa, Abuja, Mrs. Buhari said the fact that the constitution did not expressly provide any role for wives of the presidents, governors and other office holders did not mean they couldn’t make a difference in the lives of those who needed it.
She said the forum served as a platform for the women to support their husbands as they strove to bring about the promised change.
She said, “As wives of political office holders, we must continue to do our best in contributing to the success.
“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.
“There, 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.”
Mrs. Buhari said the need for the restructuring of the two regional forums would encourage networking, cooperation and constructive partnership.
She said since as wives and mothers, their roles had always been supportive, their private efforts must be geared towards programmes that would impact positively on the lives of citizens particularly the less privileged members of the society.
She explained that as women, they have the capacity of turning around the socio-economic and political potential to generally improve the lives of the people.
The President’s wife identified areas of concern 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 also noted the pathetic situation in the Internally Displaced Persons camps housing children whose parents were killed by insurgents.
She also stressed the need for the governors’ wives to mobilise people towards understanding and supporting government programmes so that there would be positive changes in the country.
