Nigerian women on Tuesday gave a standing ovation to Kwara State
Governor, Mallam Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq as his administration was
announced winner of the 2019 Voice of Women (VOW) Award in the capital
city Abuja.
The award followed the Governor’s recent nomination of nine women as
members of his cabinet and another woman, Mrs Folashade Omoniyi, as
chairperson of the Kwara State Internal Revenue Service (KWIRS), among
others.
The Kwara State Government won the ‘Government Agency Supporting Women
and their Families’ category of the prestigious award at the 4th VOW
Conference held at the Nigerian Air Force Conference Centre Abuja.
Abdulrazaq received the award, pledging to do more to support the
women and girl-child.
Attended by various international organisations, First Ladies from
across the states and prominent Nigerians, the First Lady Aisha Buhari
also received the Woman of the Year award in honour of her Future
Assured Innovative which speaks up for and empowers women and
girl-child.
The late Stella Ameyo Adadevoh, who saved many lives during the
Nigerian Ebola outbreak, bagged a posthumous Lifetime Achievement
award while Allen Onyema, chairman of the Air Peace, got a Lifetime
Achievement for evacuating hundreds of Nigerians from South Africa
during the recent xenophobic attacks in Pretoria.
The award organisers cited AbdulRazaq as a “living example of every
woman’s aspiration who has done what no other public servant has done
for women in Nigeria”.
First Lady Aisha Buhari and wife of the Ekiti State Governor Erelu
Bisi Fayemi got the audience to give the Governor a standing ovation
for his courage and support to the women and child.
“We urge development agencies and the international community to
support the Governor to further empower women, the girl child and
develop Kwara,” said Toun Okewale Sonaiya, Managing Director of Women
Radio 91.7, organisers of the 4th VOW conference and awards.
The award is the latest in the series of countrywide acknowledgment of
AbdulRazaq as a great supporter of women empowerment and gender parity
— a key focus of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
