Chairman of Nigeria Social Insurance Fund (NSITF), Dr Ngozi Olejeme, has said that the womenfolk had never had it so good in the annals of the country in term of representation the way they are being represented in all spheres of the country in the President Goodluck Jonathan led administration.
She appealed to Nigerians to stop using the slightest opportunity to discredit President Goodluck Jonathan, saying rather than distracting him, the president’s transformation agenda should be given the chance to be implemented perfectly.
Speaking at a fundraising dinner in honour of the wife of the Belizean Prime Minister, Kim Simplis Barrow who visited Nigeria to raise funds and sensitise Nigerians about her programme for the needy in her country, Olejeme noted that it would not be an exaggeration to say that not less than 37 women presently head various government parastatals and bodies, adding that, while 14 of them are ministers, many more are ambassadors or heads of foreign missions.
According to her, all these appointments were part of the transformation agenda that the president promised Nigerians and that the same transformation is being pursued rigorously in the oil sector where a female minister is making giant strides.
Speaking on the efforts of the Belizan First lady, Kim Simplis Barrow to establish a centre in her country where women would learn to trade and also help orphans, Olejeme said that the Belizan Prime Minister had a lot in common with the Nigerian First lady, Dame Patience Jonathan who has over the last four years pursued the interest and wellbeing of women and chidlren in the country through various programmes.
She noted that, because both women as spouses of leaders of their countries have set out to ameliorate the suffering of their people and give women and other less privileged a voice in the society, the people would ever be grateful as empowering women is a key to fighting poverty and developing a nation. The NSITF Chairman added that there was need for Nigerians to continue to support the Government of President Goodluck Jonathan so that all the good things he has begun could yield dividends, even as she pointed out that there was so much decay in the infrastructural system of the country before this adminstration.
Recounted the several decades of neglect of the second Niger bridge as well as the Lagos -Ibadan expressway by successive administrations despite the country’s population explosion as an instance, Olejeme stressed that it was during the current administration that many of these projects are being taken on headlong.
