Senator says Southern Governors’ wives forum will promote womenfolk

Sen. Theodore Orji, representing Abia Central Senatorial District, has given kudos to Southern Governors’ Wives Forum, saying it will further the cause of womenfolk in Nigeria.

Orji stated this on Friday in an interview with journalists in Umuahia at the unveiling and fund raising for Vicar Hope Foundation, a pet project of the Abia Governor’s wife, Mrs Nkechi Ikpeazu.

He appealed to governors to lend their support to the forum and assist the women in realising their noble objectives of empowering women and care for the girl-child.

“The governors’ wives forum is a noble idea because it will help to give women a voice,” he said, but urged the body to remain focused in the pursuit of its objectives.

He said that it would be out of place to presume that the forum might turn out to become too powerful to control, just as the governors’ forum.

Orji, the immediate-past governor of Abia, lauded Mrs Ikpeazu for her pet project aimed at providing succour to the underprivileged in the society.

Speaking in a separate interview, Sen. Mao Ohuabunwa, representing Abia North Senatorial District, also hailed Ikpeazu’s initiative.

Ohuabunwa, the Chairman, Senate Committee on Primary Health Care, promised that his committee would partner with the foundation toward the realisation of its programme on health care.

He said the Senate had initiated steps to ensure that all primary healthcare centres (PHCs) across the federation were not only renovated, but made functional to serve the rural populace.

The Senator, however, expressed concern over inadequacies and poor state of the PHCs, which he said made people in the rural areas resorting to secondary and tertiary health institutions for healthcare services.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the fund raising was part of the activities slated for the two-day meeting of the governors’ wives forum, slated for Thursday at the International Conference Centre, Umuahia.

The Chairperson of the forum, Mrs Nkechinyere Okorocha, paid special tribute to Ikpeazu for showing love and care to the vulnerable and indigent women in the state through her foundation.