She said, “The women are protesting. They asked me to pass their wishes to have a woman as their commissioner for women affairs.”
Wife of the President, Hajiya Aisha Buhari, on Friday called on Governor Muhammed Bindow Jibrilla of Adamawa State to swap his male Commissioner for Women Affairs, Alhaji Aliyu Tola, with a woman.
Hajiya Buhari made the call in Yola, the capital, while inaugurating a free medical check-up for 2,000 women in the state under her pet project, the Aisha Buhari Women Health Initiative.
She said women in the state were protesting the appointment of a man as commissioner and appealed to the governor to appoint a woman in that office instead.
She said, “The women are protesting. They asked me to pass their wishes to have a woman as their commissioner for women affairs.”
Tola, who was asked to deliver his speech before that of the wife of the president, seemed to have sensed the women’s countenance, tactically uttering a few words before inviting the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Hajiya Maisaratu Bello, a woman, to address the gathering.
The appointment of Tola as the first male Commissioner of Women Affairs in Adamawa has sparked debate in the state with some criticising it and others supporting it.
Those against it argued that the ministry was meant to carry women along hence the need to make it exclusively for them, while those in support said the full name of the ministry is Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development making it open for male and female to be made commissioners.
There are four female commissioners in Adamawa. They are Dr. Fatima Atiku Abubakar (Health), Barrister Lilian Kayode (Works), Mrs. Victoria Sashi (Mineral Resources) and Dr. Kaleptawa Farauta (Education).