Aisha Buhari announces
Aisha Buhari announces new women radio station while
receiving Woman of the Year award
First Lady, Federal Republic of Nigeria, Dr. Mrs. Aisha
Muhammadu Buhari has been honoured as Woman of the Year 2019 at the
4th Edition of Voice of Women (VOW) Conference on Tuesday 19th
November, 2019 at the NAF Conference Center, Abuja. The event was
organized by Women Radio in conjunction with the Voice of Women
Foundation.
In her acceptance speech, Mrs. Buhari said the award will spur
her to do more to protect, advocate for and defend Nigerian women
and girls at all levels.
Earlier, while declaring the conference open, Mrs. Buhari noted
that Nigerian women are still far from where they want to be, but
are also not where they used to be. She informed the conference
that, Nigerian women and girls have more access to education
opportunities as shown by the increase in enrolments of young girls
in schools across the country.
She drew attention to the rampant cases of abuse especially in
institutions of learning as exposed by a recent BBC documentary,
and called for a thorough investigation of all reported cases and
overhauling of codes of conduct in Nigerian Institutions to
accommodate stiffer consequences on offenders.
She noted the importance of advocacy and commended the founder
of Women Radio, Lagos, for giving women a voice, promising to
support the advocacy by announcing the establishment of a new
women-focused radio station in Abuja that will focus on
developmental issues as a whole, the new radio is expected to
commence test transmission in a few weeks.
Convener of VOW 2019 and founder of Women Radio, Toun
Okewale-Sonaiya, in her welcome address said the conference has
become an annual cornerstone event where key stakeholders
congregate to reflect, deliberate and re-strategize a comprehensive
action plan to advance the women agenda in Nigeria.
She noted that 2019 will be remembered “as the year Nigeria
women and girls collectively started speaking above whispers
challenging the culture of silence and the institutionalized
commodification of our body as a means to an end throughout our
lives” and hoped that conversations from the event will set the
collective agenda for socio-economic and political advancement of
Nigerian women moving forward.
Wife of the Vice President, Mrs. Dolapo Osinbajo in her remarks
called on women to elevate their thoughts, words, ideas and actions
in order to elevate Nigeria.
An award was also presented to the Governor of Kwara state
Alhaji Adulrahman Abdulrazaq for his support in elevating women in
his State.
The event was attended by wife of the Vice President, wife of
the Senate President and wife of the Speaker, House of
Representatives. Also at the event were wives of present and former
governors.
Aliyu Abdullahi
Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity