The Senior Legislative Aide to the Senate President on Stakeholders’ Engagement and Mobilization Hon. Femi Odere has encouraged widows not to lose hope in the Tinubu administration because his Renewed Hope Agenda is real.
Odere gave this advise at “The Mighty One Empowerment Foundation” where the NGO distributed raw food packs and cash to an estimated 2000 widows in Nyanya, Nassarawa State to commemorate the United Nations International Widow’s Day on Sunday, June 23, 2024.
In his speech, Akpabio’s Aide said the tough times that everyone is currently going through will definitely not last. He said it is a result of the tough decisions that previous governments should have taken to set the country on the “right and sustainable trajectory,” but failed to take that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is now “courageously but painstakingly” taking.
He said “Our situation is akin to a household whose roof has been leaking seriously for a very long time. Rather than subsequent leaders of the household have taken the hard decision of replacing the entire roof with new and durable planks and roofing sheets when ey had the resources they continued to do patch-patch work out of fear that other members of the household would be very angry at them because of the discomfort it would cause. A new head now comes, takes the bull by the horns, and says, I will fix not only the roof but the dilapidated portions of the house. Expectedly, there would be some discomfort. But it’s going to be a short-lived discomfort. This is what President Tinubu is doing.”
“I cannot stand before you and tell you that your worries about tomorrow are misplaced because they’re not. It is bad enough that you have lost your husbands, who were heads of your homes. But you continue to strive to survive because you believe that tomorrow offers new hope. It is this hope that I want you to hold on to as exemplified by the Tinubu Renewed Hope Agenda,” Odere said.
Odere said it was important to remind the widows about the president’s policy of Student Loans which would make it possible for Nigerians to access this fund for their educational pursuits.
“I know that as mothers, your two most cherished prayers are that your children not only outlive you but also live better lives than you. Education is the only pursuit by which your children will live better lives. And the Student Loans are what will guarantee your children’s education. As widows, this is a major burden that President Tinubu has lifted off your shoulders going forward.”
Laying more emphasis on the student loans, the Senate President’s Aide added that a lot of Nigerians who schooled abroad and are in higher heights today, including “the president and my humble self” would probably not have been able to access higher education if not for the governments of their host countries that made education accessible through the establishments of Student Loans and Grants in these advanced countries. He said this is what the president has replicated in Nigeria.
The Senior Legislative Aide commended the founder of “The Mighty One Empowerment Foundation” Prof. Barika Dominic Saro-Laka who is also the Grand Patron of the National Association of Nigerian Widows (NANIWO) because as he puts it, “it takes an extraordinary human being to extend himself beyond his nuclear family to others he doesn’t know and spending his material resources on them when he’s not under any obligation to do so. It takes someone with a large heart to do this.”
He said it is this large-heartedness he sees in the founder which his principal His Excellency Senator Godswill Akpabio, the President of the Senate, has in abundance in the way he’s been helping Nigerians and the underprivileged which made him return to Abuja to attend the program as a show of support despite the short notice. Odere said representing the Senate President in this type of event makes him happy because he’s a Nigerian leader with a very large heart.
Also at the event was the Hon. Minister of State of Police Affairs, Hon. Imaan Suleiman-Ibrahim who was ably represented by her Special Adviser Mrs. Olayori Folami among others.
