Ooni, Wife Advocate Women Leadership Roles In Nigeria

In a bid to encourage more women in leadership positions and mentor them on sustainability, the Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi and Olori Aderonke Ogunwusi have commenced the 7th edition of Queen Moremi Ajasoro (QMA) initiative.

The Queen Moremi Ajasoro initiative named after the legendary Queen Moremi aims to celebrate women in leadership, support the rights of the girl child and to encourage female education in Nigeria and Africa.

Addressing a press conference yesterday at the NUJ correspondents’ chapel, Osogbo, Osun State capital, Olori Aderonke hinted that 27 ladies were selected out of the hundreds of applicants for the programme.

She stated that this year’s edition includes an entrepreneurship programme; ‘Say no to trafficking of young women’ programme; Mentorship programme; Grant for small-scale businesses programme; also, a Leadership and cultural pageant.

“The QMA leadership and cultural pageant is totally different, while we gather beautiful ladies, we look at their intelligence. They have to possess leadership skills. Every year, we have hundreds of women who register to participate in this cultural pageant, we do auditions and select the best.

“This year, we selected the best 27. They came into camp on the 27th of November, 2022 and will remain in camp until the 4th of December, 2022. Our grand finale is on the 3rd of December, 2022. While in camp, they will be taught and mentored on several aspects especially leadership, culture and sustainability,” her majesty said.

Speaking on the essence of sustainability in the society, Queen Aderonke said knowledge on climate change and sustainability will help rid our environment of harmful substances, reduce flooding and other environment-related disasters.

“A lot of people don’t know that the plastic baskets and bottles used, when not reused, it takes about a thousand or million years for it to go back into the earth. But the ones made with natural fibre and other natural things are easily absorbed by the earth. God created this planet, we have to make sure we support His creation.

“We see so many things like flooding, global climate change, if we don’t take care of the planet, the planet will not take care of us as well and it will not be sustainable for generations to come and that is why we are here in Osogbo today and that is what we are teaching the young ladies as part of their activities in the camp. We also taught them how to make Adire using recycled fabrics and other products,” said.

In her remarks, a United Nations Ambassador, Amb. Yemi Olapeju who is tutoring the ladies on sustainability, lauded Ooni and Olori Aderonke for the initiative saying the United Nations will look into supporting the rich programme.

“Lately, the world has been having problem on climate change and this awareness is not well spread in Nigeria and I think that as a Nigerian, I should be able to come home and spread this awareness on climate change and this awareness begins from the grassroots not the government.

“I am highly impressed with what the Ooni of Ife Oba Ogunwusi and Queen Aderonke Ogunwusi are doing. Her Majesty equally promotes Adire fashion made with indigenous materials. I witnessed this yesterday and we are looking at how the United Nations will support this beautiful initiative,” Amb. Olapeju said.