By Stephen Adeleye
Lokoja – The First Lady, Mrs Aisha Buhari, through her pet project, ”Future Assured”, has empowered farmers and women in Kogi, to cushion the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on them.
News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the first lady distributed several Hair Dryer Machines to some less privileged women and Water Pumping Machines to farmers for irrigation.
This, she said, would boost their farming activities during the dry season and alleviate the effects of flood disaster.
NAN reports that the wife of the Kogi State Governor, Hajia Rashida Bello, distributed the empowerment items to the beneficiaries in Lokoja on behalf of the first lady.
The governor’s wife commended the first lady for using her pet project ‘Future Assured’, to reach out to the less privileged and the vulnerable citizens of Kogi and Nigeria.
She noted that the beneficiaries had been trained in their various fields, while assuring that the gesture would go a long way in alleviating their sufferings and those of their dependants.
She, therefore, urged the beneficiaries to count themselves the luckiest to have benefitted from the first lady’s gesture.
The governor’s wife advised the beneficiaries to make judicious use of the opportunity for their benefits and those of their dependants, so as to make the first lady and Kogi proud.
”We are saying big thank you to the Future Assured and to our mother, Her Excellency, Mrs Aisha Buhari”, Bello said.
The state Chairman of All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN), Kogi chapter, Muhammed Suleiman, who spoke on behalf of the beneficiaries, thanked the First Lady for the gesture.
According to Suleiman, the gesture would go a long way in boosting their farm produce especially during the dry season.
One of the beneficiaries, Fatima Ibrahim, from Ofu Local Government Area, who received hair dryer machine, thanked the first lady for putting smiles on their faces and prayed God to bless her.
NAN reports that the first lady had on Wednesday donated medical consumables to Kogi Specialist Hospital.
Other donations she made were relief items to victims of flood disaster in some communities at the IDPs’ camps in Kotonkarfe and Lokoja Local Government Areas.
NAN also reports that the Commissioner for Environment, Mr Adewale Omofaiye; and Commissioner for Health, Dr Saka Audu, in their separate comment thanked the first lady for the medical equipment and for the relief materials.
(NAN)
