Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers has donated N200million to the Foundation for Wives of Ondo State Officials (FOWOSO).
Wike said the donation was to assist the association in empowering women.
The governor, represented by his Head of Service, Mr. Rufus Godwins, announced the donation at the 4th FOWOSO Summit held in Akure, the Ondo State capital.
Wike said the money was to encourage gender advocates to mobilise the womenfolk across Nigeria to request the National Assembly to revisit the four gender equality bills rejected during the recent alteration process of the Nigerian constitution.
He urged women to mobilise their votes for credible female candidates in the coming 2023 general election.
The Rivers governor said drastic action must be taken to change the current scenario.
He said: “With good education and economic empowerment, women can fully and equally compete for available political opportunities with men and triumph, rather than waiting to be patronised, based on sheer sympathy and pity.
“Beyond this is to reconstruct the constitutional, legal and policy framework to accommodate equitable guarantee and an allocation of at least 30 per cent quota for the candidates of political parties to be women.
“This is more so in our situation where there is lack of equality of political arms between men and women due to age long neglect and denial of the social, economic and political rights of women.
“As I opposed and spoke against the rejection of those bills by the National Assembly, so I’m ready and willing to support our women in advancing their fundamental rights of a robust and equitable political representation of all levels of governance.”
The founder of FOWOSO and wife of Ondo State Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, Mrs. Betty Anyanwu-Akeredolu, said there was need to do more in collective strife to elevate the status of women across the states.
