When Kano ‘First Lady’ celebrates Women’s Day with a difference


For six uninterrupted years in Kano, the International Women’s Day is celebrated in occasions that give priority to initiatives that enhance the welfare of the womenfolk in the state.  
The event, one of the United Nations days that is observed every March 8 to commemorate the cultural, political and socio-economic achievements of women, is being put in place by the wife of the state governor, Professor Hafsat Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, bereft of splendour and spectacle but with programs that sway on the life of an average woman in the state. 


Her gait on this is largely because of her personal choice to remain down-to-earth and her thoughtful snub to join the unseemly clamber for self-recognition, often pigeon-holed by a numerous fund-wasting publicity exploits. Mrs Ganduje’s enormous admiration and appeal in the eyes of women had been obvious, most especially in places she visited during programs that mostly aimed at women empowerment in the state, considering the number of ladies, young and old who escorted her convoy. In fact, for her magnanimity, which knows no bound, her family name-Gwaggo, which is used for father’s sister or paternal aunt, is used by non-family members, as she is addressed as ‘Gwaggon Kanawa,’ literally meaning the paternal aunt of Kanawa.  
She was also instrumental in the implementation of the National Policy on Women that reserves 30 per cent for women under the affirmative action guidelines and also in pursuit of her husband’s policy to empower and promote the cause of women in the state as part reform agenda of the state civil service.
Professor Hafsat see the sweeping reform in both civil and public service as a win for women in Kano state. The reform saw the appointment of the first female head of service in the state. Also, of the 36 oermanent secretaries appointed, 12 are women, in addition to the appointment of women special advisers, senior pecial assistants, special assistants and 44 female supervisory councilors and five female special advisers in all the 44 local government areas in the state.


Her life radiates astonishing self-effacement, total excellence, complete dedication and an admirable predilection for service to humanity in view of the spectacular pace with which she carried them along through series of empowerment initiatives. In fact, her modest achievements can be judged and are supported by pragmatic evidence.


Apart from initiatives she often evolve to better the lots of women and children, each year, during the Women’s Day celebrations or the International Day of the Girl-Child, Mrs Ganduje introduces programmes targeted at women and child welfare.  
Generally, little is heard or known in the wider world of the life-enhancing activities of Professor Hafsat, through her husband’s project, the Ganduje Foundation. Due to the demanding nature of his office, she now chairs the foundation and ensure its smooth running.
Through the foundation, Prof. Hafsat has been able to touch many lives of the good people of Kano in various ways. Under her motherly guidance, she has been involved in many programmes carefully designed to give the people, women and children in particular, that seemingly elusive and exclusive sense of belonging. 


Under the medical outreach programme of the foundation termed: Health camp, which comprises a team of medical doctors, nurses and other auxiliary staff that go round the local governments, more than 480, 000 people have benefited. During the conduct of the exercise, beneficiaries with minor health problems are attended to and given medication, while those with serious complications are referred to Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital or Muhammadu Abdullahi Wase Specialist (Nassarawa) Hospital with which the foundation is maintaining a retainership for further medical diagnosis and treatment.        The foundation is also keying into the maternal and natal health care services for pregnant women and children under five. Under the programme, the foundation has distributed hundreds of thousands of delivery kits to expectant mothers particularly in the rural areas, while it has been instrumental in the establishment of two counselling centres to address stigma and enhance psychosocial support to rape victims by providing counselling services for at least two weeks with a view to reducing emotional trauma caused by sexual assault.


And as part of effort to ensure rapid improvements in health and nutrition, the foundation takes statistics of the needy and are given food items such as rice, beans and millet.
The foundation’s Free Eye Treatment Programme for various eye ailments has so far seen the handling of more 287, 000 patients with glaucoma and provision of eye glasses in the 44 local government areas in the state; 25, 000 others with Trachoma, the leading preventable cause of blindness worldwide have been cured, while 157 others with impaired vision have also been treated.     With the zeal to hit the ground running on empowering women, she believes that the rise of women in a society is not the fall of men in that society but a means of ensuring that the society benefits from the strength and weaknesses of each other. 


She unveiled various plans to institute more measures aimed at improving the participation of women on societal development across the state which has, successfully, brought smiles on the faces of many women, especially in the rural areas through various empowerment initiatives. 
Under the foundation’s initiatives, thousands of women have been trained in areas of trades or occupation and supported with capital both in cash and materials to establish small businesses for self-reliance. The most recent intervention was the empowerment 1, 600 women who were given N10, 000 each during this year’s International Women’s Day Celebration. Just before the celebration, another 1,000 women were trained and given bags of flour, spaghetti making machine, wrapper, school bags and exercise books for their kids and working capital of N5, 000 each.
The foundation has been able to conduct various skill acquisition training for thousands of women from the 44 local governments on various trades that include tailoring, perfume making and other cosmetics production, video and photography, event management, tomato preservation, and empowerment of women in various agricultural value chain technology as well as many small scale businesses.
The training and empowerment programme has been conducted in 75 per cent of the local governments in the state. In each local government, 300 women are selected from each of the local governments where they are given empowerment kits and a working capital of N20, 000 each at the end of the training.     The development strides in Kano state as funneled by the Ganduje administration leaves no one in doubt. The secret behind the trailblazing performance is that the very spouts of this government are supported by a very strong repository-his affable wife. As the popular saying goes thus: behind every successful man is a woman.
Garba is the commissioner, Information, Kano state

Leave a Reply