Mrs Akeredolu calls for reorientation of Nigerians’ mindset about FEDAN

..as members seek her intervention to surmount challenges

The wife of the Governor of Ondo State, Chief Betty Anyanwu-Akeredolu, has again, called on women to support their fellow women who are vying for positions of authority.

According to her, only by doing this would issues bothering on womanhood would be given prompt and adequate attention at the decision-making tables.

She said this earlier today, while playing host to members of the Female Drivers Association of Nigeria, FEDAN, in her office at government house ground, Alagbaka Akure the State capital.

Having listened to challenges they face in the course of their duty, mostly associated with their gender status, the Ondo First Lady, hinted that with enough female representatives in states’ Houses of Assembly, bills would be sponsored to make laws that would be implemented for the betterment of women.

She advocated the need for female drivers to be provided with tools to aid their work, rather than being treated as ones intruding in a profession alien to their gender.

While lauding the State’s President of the National Council of Women Society, NCWS, Mrs Jumoke Aborode, for bringing FEDAN down to the state, the Ondo First Lady said: ” It’s an amazing intervention to reduce poverty in homes, to reduce gender based violence and to increase a sense of security, because if a woman is driving a Keke you would rather have her driving your children to school”.

Mrs Akeredolu, who admonished women to vote female candidates into the House of Assembly come 2023, affirmed that, if policy was made to change people’s orientation about female drivers, there would be a paradigm shift in the mindset of men towards them on the road.

Her words: “What I’m saying now is that, during election time, vote for your type because your type will promote your interest and support things that will be for the betterment of all womenfolk.

“We must engage and have conversations with those male drivers because most of them, their behaviour could be due to ignorance that it’s a man’s world; we need to rewire their understanding that women have capacity to perform those tasks and I hope we’ll once get there”. She asserted.

Commending FEDAN members for contributing to the economic development of their families and the society at large, the Ondo First Lady assured of her support at all times and readiness to engage drivers’ unions on the need for them to give FEDAN, a conducive environment to operate and make a living, just like their counterparts in the developed nations.

Earlier in her address, the State Coordinator of FEDAN, Mrs Yinka Odedele, had noted that the association, which was driven by passion to promote value re-orientation and wealth creation, had as members, female commercial drivers and women in transportation business.

According to her, “FEDAN works earnestly with all organisations in Nigeria to curtail human trafficking. The association also works in the area of human capacity development and skill rejuvenation among women and youths in Nigeria”.

Some members of the association, took turns to narrate their ordeals on the road, which include lack of recognition by male drivers, exorbitant purchase price of Keke NAPEP, threat to live on the road among others.

In her contribution to how the challenges could be surmounted, the Special Adviser to the Governor on Gender, Mrs. Olamide Falana, emphasised the need for Lawmakers and other philanthropists to include women in their major empowerment programmes. She particularly, mentioned empowerment items like cars, Keke and motorcycles that could generate more income for women, and not only usual grinding machines and kitchen utensils.

Also speaking, the State’s President of the National Council of Women Society, Mrs Jumoke Aborode, who brought FEDAN to the state, also lamented how male drivers forbid female counterparts from patronizing the Airport and appealed to Her Excellency to rescue them from such mistreatment.