Where’s Kwara First Lady?
The office of the First Lady is not addressed in our constitution. It is not an elective post. It is only morally desirable for a governor to be married. Behind every successful governor is a wonderfully supportive first lady. The wives of the governors, though unelected, are powerful and respected representatives of the government in Nigeria political context. The First Lady’s activeness and participation tells positively on the state. They perform quasi- roles which if purposefully planned and designed, could be as beneficial as some of the policies of the governor.
Since the return of democracy in Nigeria in 1999, several states have been blessed with as many First Lady as the Governors. Several have been so demure and inactive yet we have seen more achieving and hardworking. If there is anything undeniable, the positive involvement of a governor’s wife accord benefits to a given state.
The First Lady is a wife and mother of the state. She spends compassion and empathy; identify with the women folks, press for rights and equality, preaches love and respect, provide support and encouragement whenever necessary. She is a social advocate and champion of social causes. An up and doing wife of the governor appears at public events, coordinates women wings and leads and runs majestically project (s) of immeasurable values.
This is why inactiveness of the Kwara State’s First Lady, Mrs. Folake AbdulRazak should worry people, most especially the women folks. Folake, a diplomat extra ordinaire, was the Minister/Head of Consular, Education and Welfare, Nigeria High Commission in London before her husband electoral victory. She was also the Minister/Deputy Head Industry, Trade and Investment, Nigeria High Commission, London in 2015. Her Linkedin account still reads so, in addition to inside scoop lending credence to talks that she has not taken leave of service and in fact, continues her job as a diplomat.
Aside on few occasions she graced events as the First Lady, activities have been few and far between. In fact, the ritual press release of the First Lady on the occasion of her husband’s 100days in office celebrations paraded smattering exploits as against her husband packed list of achievements. The highlight of her reign remain intervention in a rape case involving a 60year-old man and a 4year-old which she promptly intervened through the State Ministry of Women Affairs. Her indolence becomes even more evident when national dailies have little or nothing to report about her dealings. I challenge people to make independent findings.
While I do not wish to draw comparisons, Governor AbdulRazak’s wife inactivity would make the womenfolk miss immediate past First Lady, Mrs. Omolewa Ahmed. The latter’s devotion to religion, advocacy for social causes; health, breast cancer in particular, welfarism in orphanage, exemplary relations with all and sundry make her a Model kwara first lady. Her LEAH Charity Foundation was or is still a household name in advocating for women welfare. If AbdulRazak have continued to demystify the office of the governor, his wife on the other hand, seems hellbent on lowering the bar.
More than three months into the administration, all what Mrs. AbdulRazak could point at as pet project is a dormant, idle and nonfunctional Ajike Peoples’ Support Center. For you to punch my lies, Google is your friend and oracle. When you check and check and get tired of your own First Lady’s indolence, kindly surf through for news about Ekiti, Kaduna, Lagos’s respectively. Something becomes more evident that your Mama has been ungraciously absconding duties or her media department deserves high- sounding knock in the forehead for ineffectiveness.
Whether in America or anywhere democracy thrives, the First Lady or Wife of the Governor is who she is – or wants to be. It is a matter of choice to be useful, productive and supportive or away, quiet, inaccessible and indifferent. What is incontrovertible is that, achievements or lack of it, shall be recorded. Posterity, they say, shall not forget a queen whose kingdom became an unmistaken land of sick, abandoned girls and women.
For I am tired of wondering, I would have joined you in imagining how wonderful it would have been if Kwara had a Mother in the last three months as AbdulRazak had been trying to be fatherly. When you look at the exploits of Ekiti First Lady in caring for the aged, and others in their state, you are bound to count the numbers of the aged that could have been offered succor in Kwara; girls picked from the streets, middle women empowered, patients rescued from the jaws of death and more possible interventions.
In lieu of that, what we might have gotten could be an irremediable career woman who cannot let anything affect her ambitions. Or succinctly put, unavailable Mother of the state. I wouldn’t know how harsh it sounded if I had said Kwara had a forced lady instead of First Lady. Thank God I didn’t say that, it was just a wish. The fear of Sowore’s debacle is the beginning of wisdom in today’s Nigeria. But except an underperforming one, no willing, active and performing First lady would have no news item of her meaningful exploits on a reputable national daily.
Yet everyone is quiet. Stakeholders look the other way. The women dare not talk too. It is not making the news. They are making it a secret. Where’s Kwara First Lady? When would she start performing her roles? Why is Ajike Peoples’ Support Centre only existing on paper? When shall the state feel her care and compassion? When will Folake serve the state with her brain and experience. If I have asked too many questions, pardon me. Do not report me to my father again. My own mummy is alive and active, only Kwara has a forced lady.
