President Muhammadu Buhari’s wife, Hajiya Aisha Buhari, on Friday appealed to the Adamawa State Governor, Alh. Bindow Jibrilla, to swap his male Commissioner for Women Affairs, Alhaji Aliyu Tola, with a woman.
The president’s wife made the plea in Yola, the Adamawa State capital, while inaugurating a free medical check-up for over 2,000 women in the state under her pet project, the Aisha Buhari Women Health Initiative.
She said women in the state were against the appointment of a man as commissioner and appealed to the governor to appoint a woman into the position instead.
“The women are protesting. They asked me to pass their wishes to have a woman as their commissioner for women affairs”, Mrs. Buhari said.
Earlier, the commissioner in question, 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, generated heated debate in the state with some criticizing the move while others supported 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 to both male and female commissioners.
Adamawa State has only four female commissioners in the present dispensation. They are Dr. Fatima Atiku Abubakar (Health), Barrister Lilian Kayode (Works), Mrs. Victoria Sashi (Mineral Resources) and Dr. Kaleptawa Farauta (Education).
