First Lady to Governors’ Wives: We Need to Pray, Work for Nigeria’s Peace, Stability

•To launch alternative high schools for girls 

•Distribute N1.95m worth of exercise books to public schools nationwide

Deji Elumoye in Abuja
 

The Wife of the President, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, has called on wives of the 36 governors of the federation to continue to pray for peace and stability of the Nigerian nation.

According to her, this was necessary in view of the security challenges facing the country, just as she emphasised the need for them to remain steadfast and supportive of one another.

Speaking yesterday, at a meeting she had with the governors’ wives at the State House, Abuja, under the umbrella of the Renewed Hope Initiative (RHI), the First Lady while commending them for their efforts in their various states especially to ameliorate the hardships as occasioned by the removal of the fuel subsidy appealed to them to intensify efforts.

“As we all know, the mission of the RHI which is driven by my office, to complement the efforts of the administration of our President and Commander-in-Chief, Bola Tinubu, is “Towards a Better Life for Families”

She disclosed that there would be the launch in Osun State of the ‘We Are Equal, We Are the Same’ campaign, an initiative of the Organisation of African First ladies for Development (OAFLAD) geared towards women empowerment, promoting economic growth and advance gender equity.

“I will be re-introducing the Alternative High School for Girls. It will interest you to know that some States already have similar programmes named ‘second chance schools’. We are going to reach out to the Federal Ministry of Education to help us harmonise and restructure these special intervention schools,” she explained.

The school, Mrs. Tinubu said, would 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 a living for themselves.

At the meeting, it was also disclosed that the RHI would be distributing N1,950,000 worth of exercise books to public primary and junior secondary schools across the nation.

The exercise books which were already being produced would 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 would be getting 100,000 exercise books each, while 50,000 exercise books would be given to each of the other States and the FCT.

The First Lady stated that the RHI would flag off the “Renewed Hope Initiative Women Agricultural Support Programmes (WASP) in Imo State on the 28th of February, 2024.

According to her, women farmers would get N500,000.00 each and a total draft of N10 million would be given to five RHI State Coordinators/First Ladies as the case may be.

In addition, the National Agricultural Land Development Authority, (NALDA) in partnership with the RHI would support additional 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.

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.

Mrs Tinubu pointed out that the RHI would encourage food production among the youth tagged #Food on Every table and appealed to each of the Governors’ wives to take ownership of this scheme and encourage it as much as possible.