Buhari’s wife begins restructuring of Governors Wives’ Forum

The wife of the President, Hajia Aisha Buhari, on Monday commenced a move to restructure the Governors Wives’ Forum.
Hajia Buhari presided over a meeting of wives of state governors held at the First Lady’s Conference Hall inside the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
The President’s wife said the restructured forum would serve as a platform for the wives of political office holders to support their husbands as they struggle to bring about the much-needed 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.”
Hajia 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.
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.
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 will be positive changes in the country.
She said: “”As wives of chief executives, we have a huge responsibility to impact on our people by using our privilege positions.
“The fact that the constitution does not expressly provide any role for wives of the presidents, governors and other office holders does not mean we cannot make a difference on the lives of those who need it.
“At this point, it is my hope that at the end of this meeting, both the Northern Governors Wives Forum as well as the Southern Governors Wives Forum will merge with distinct programmes of activities that will address the peculiar and numerous issues of the two regions.
“It will also create better opportunity for us to compliment each other’s efforts in solving those common national issues.”