Nigerian women Tuesday gave a standing ovation to Kwara state governor 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, 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 on behalf of the Government, pledging to do more to support the women and girl child and charged Women to deliver.
Attended by various international organisations, First Ladies from across the states and prominent Nigerians, First Lady Aisha Buhari also received the Woman of the Year award in honour of her Future Assured innovative which speaks ups 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).
