Ayodele Olalere
Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, Oyo State governor, Seyi Makinde, his Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and Bauchi State counterpart, Bala Mohammed have been chosen as the Special Guests of Honour at the opening ceremony of this year’s Committee of Wives of Lagos State Officials, COWLSO, National Women’s Conference.
COWLSO is an annual gathering of women organised by Lagos State government, an All Progressives Congress Party state.
It is recalled the immediate past PDP governor of Rivers State now Minster of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Nyesom Wike was the Special Guest of Honour at the conference in 2022.
Nigeria’s First Lady, Senator Oluremi Tinubu CON, OON is the Mother of the Day and Special Guest of Honour of the 2023 conference.
While announcing on Thursday at a briefing activities earmarked ahead of the conference which comes up from October 17 to 19 at the Eko Convention Center, Victoria Island, Lagos, the Chairman of COWLSO and First Lady of Lagos State, Ibijoke Sanwo-Olu said the two PDP governors were chosen to demonstrate non-partisanship of the organisers of the conference.
She said the theme for this year’s conference is ‘Unleashing Your Potentials’ was chosen to encourage women ‘to take bold steps, face their fears, and push past their comfort zones and when they do, they can “unleash their potential” and discover what they are truly capable of achieving.’
Sanwo-Olu added that topics such as“Homestead Farming: A positive step towards sustainable national food security; ‘Making Eco-Friendly choices for sustainable development; “Unleashing Potential through healthy choices; “Challenges of Out-of-Pocket payment: The role of health insurance,’ among others would be discussed.
Others are ‘Education: A catalyst to socio-economic development, ‘Maximizing the prospects of the 21st Century Youth, ‘The Power of Storytelling: Enabling narratives for social change and cultural exchange,’ and Understanding cyber security fundamentals in the digital Age: Vulnerabilities, Hackers, Data Breaches and Digital identity.”
According to the First Lady, the 2022 COWLSO conference had 2,459 physical attendees while 813 joined virtually, adding 3,000 participants are expected this year.
“This year, we are expecting up to 3,000 participants physically and 1500 virtually from various Ministries, Departments and Agencies, MDAs, of the Lagos State government, other state government delegates, political groups, civil society, and other organisations,” she said.
Ahead of the conference, an awareness walk themed ‘Let Go! Let You!” has been scheduled for October 7 in Epe.
The Chairperson, National Working Committee, NWC, for this year’s conference, Olufunke Adeyeye, said seven plenary sessions and five break out sessions are parts of the programmes for the event.
