Striving To Build A Legacy

However, though the NGO is yet to be presented to the public, the past one year has indeed been a very busy period for Hajiya Turai Yar’Adua in the area of humanitarian and philanthropic services. While her husband has remained encased in his Aso Rock Presidential Villa office, the first lady has been touring different parts of the country launching one project or the other. Two weeks ago, she was in the South-West part of the country to inaugurate the National Women Coalition on HIV/AIDS, NAWOCA, a project she is doing in conjunction with National Agency for Control of AIDS, NACA.

The aim of the project is to involve wives of governors and local government chairmen, religious leaders, traditional rulers and the media in the spread of information about HIV, its prevention and treatment to the grassroots. Already, about 26 states and the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, have launched chapters of the programme. From 28 to 30 April, 2008, Turai, in collaboration with United Nations Population Fund, UNFPA, also gathered the governors’ wives for a two-day workshop on infant and maternal health. At the event, she advocated free maternal and infant health care for the underprivileged across the federation. She also called on the governors’ wives to embark on projects that will improve girl-child education, zero tolerance for all forms of violence against women and eradication of traditional practices that are harmful to women’s reproductive health as well as stringent punishment as deterrent to rape.

The first lady has on her own been carrying out projects that will alleviate sufferings of the needy and the underprivileged. Such projects include the rehabilitation of the Katsina Vesico Vaginal Fistula, VVF Centre and donation of tools to the workshop. Hajiya Turai surprised the inhabitants of Sarkin Pawa, a village in Bwari Area Council of Abuja, when she paid them an unscheduled visit some months ago. During the visit, she gave a grinding machine and some funds as working capital to people of the village to enable them begin petty businesses for self-reliance. In the past one year she has also visited Yangoji Leprosy Village in Kwali, Abuja, where she presented the inhabitants with a grinding machine and a bus to alleviate their problem of transportation.

The President’s wife’s benevolence has also extended to Suleja Prison, where she recently commissioned a block of two cells she built for the female inmates. She also helped to equip the prison workshop with working tools, to make inmates useful to themselves and the society when they are discharged. Turai has visited almost a dozen orphanages in Abuja, donating assorted foods and other essential items.

Hajiya Turai’s benevolence transcends the shores of Nigeria. Whenever she is out of the country, either on her own or as part of her husband’s entourage, she always takes time out to visit children’s homes and orphanages. For instance, during her visit to Houston, Texas , she presented gifts to inmates of one of such homes. And recently, when she accompanied her husband on a state visit to South Africa, she visited a ‘Children Protection Home’ on the outskirts of Cape Town, where she presented the children, aged 8 to18 years, with foodstuffs, toiletries and school materials.

Madam Yar’Adua’s humanitarian services and passion for a better deal for children and women is already being recognised with various awards. On 18 January 2008, for example, the Federal Ministry of Health named her as the National Goodwill Ambassador for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health. She is also a recipient of an award from M.D. Anderson Cancer Foundation in Houston, among others. Engr. Darma told this magazine that the launch of her pet project will not prevent Turai Yar’Adua from continuing with these kind of activities under the auspices of the Office of the First Lady. But are these mere public relations stunts?