First Lady of Nigeria, Senator Oluremi Tinubu has rallied wives of State Governors to take bold, independent action in tackling social vices and economic challenges.
She spoke at the 1st quarterly meeting of Wives of State Governors for year 2026.
Senator Oluremi Tinubu urged them to prioritise youth empowerment, women’s skills, and grassroots interventions tailored to their regions.
Drawing from her tenure as Lagos First Lady, she shared how initiatives like Spelling Bee competition kept children to stay in public schools, complementing government efforts.
She noted that her past projects—Musical Fiesta, Leadership Academy for girls starting with 20 participants—served as models, with a push for similar self-reliance drives despite national support.
“It’s like giving birth to a baby — the teething stage and learning how to walk. After a while, the baby is supposed to walk unaided, and that is what I want to see. I expect them (wives of state governors) to do what they are supposed to do,” she said.
She praised state-specific efforts, such as Ekiti’s adire fabric hub and calls for large-scale cassava production or smoked fish processing in riverine areas, while encouraging boy child mentoring programmes like Lagos’ ongoing initiative to reshape mindsets.
“Encouraging women to produce cassava on a large scale… those in the Riverine area, we want to see them doing smoked fish,” she said.
The meeting featured progress updates from Wives of State Governors and mapped out 2026 programmes, including a National Community Food Bank launch in April across six geopolitical zones.
Linked to Primary Health Care centers, the food bank will supply nutritional supplements for malnourished children aged 0-6 and pregnant women, backed by a new trust fund.
Senator Oluremi Tinubu stressed child nutrition as non-negotiable,
“We are going to start on child nutrition. We are going to go at it aggressively… It is sad for a nation like ours to still be talking about child malnutrition at this level.”
Environmental action also drew attention at the meeting, with the First Lady of Nigeria appealing to the Governors Wives to immediately launch state environment clubs and urging youth groups to plant trees and combat plastic waste by July 15, 2026.
She applauded the robust response she got for National Library Fund driven by the wives of governors, describing it as a generational legacy and every Nigerian should take pride in contributing to.
The First Lady also touched on RHI National Scholarship Programme coming up in September, requiring early result submissions; Elderly Support Scheme in December, challenging states to surpass the RHI target of 250 beneficiaries per State with N100,000 grants, medical screenings, and more; and launches on Disability Day for Person with Disability Support and Business Recapitalization Grants which include distribution of books, pencils, crayons, and other materials to schools.
