Women walkout on Rivers Sole Administrator's wife at Remi Tinubu's programme

• The Event Successfully Held – State Govt

Some women, on Friday, who attended the Renewed Hope Empowerment Programme billed for 500 women in Rivers State staged a walkout during the event. They walked out when the wife of the state Sole Administrator, Ibok Ette Ibas, mounted the stage to deliver a speech.

The Guardian gathered that the women who had trooped out with the hope to welcome the president’s wife, Remi Tinubu, the initiator of the empowerment scheme, felt disappointed about the president’s wife’s absence.

The women, chanting “We want Sim”, “Give us Sim”, “We want Valery”, “We want Remi Tinubu to speak to us”, said that they did not understand the capacity on which lady Ete-Ibas was to address them, saying his husband is illegally occupying the Government House, Port Harcourt.

One of the women, Salome Chinda, said: “We came out happily to receive Remi Tinubu but surprisingly and embarrassingly, we saw Mrs. Ibas. The sole administrator is on an illegal assignment. So, his wife acting as first lady is an aberration.”

Also, Ekpeye Favour shared the same sentiment with Chinda, condemning the wife of the sole administrator wanting to talk to them.

However, the state government has insisted that the event was successfully held. A statement by the Senior Special Adviser on Media to the Rivers State Government, Hector Igbikiowubo, said the empowerment event, held at the EUI Event Centre in Port Harcourt on Friday, saw beneficiaries receive deep freezers, gas cookers with ovens, grinding machines, and generators.

The statement said the wife of the President, represented by the wife of the Rivers State Administrator, Dr. Theresa Ibas, addressed the women, noting that the initiative is part of a broader national programme targeting 18,500 women across Nigeria’s six geopolitical zones.

According to the statement, the initiative was aimed at enhancing livelihoods and fostering national development. It noted that it was carried out by the Renewed Hope Initiative (RHI) in partnership with the office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), adding that the scheme has already been completed in the North Central zone, with the Rivers State event marking its conclusion in the South-South region.