The Wife of Governor Adegboyega Oyetola of Osun, Kafayat, on Thursday night, received a Global Exemplary Leadership Award from a United Kingdom-based Non-governmental Organization, Global Women Inventors and Innovators Network (GLOBALWIIN).
The award, according to the NGO, is in recognition of her humanitarian services and commitment to impacting the lives of the masses, including her consistent efforts in advocating maternal, child and adolescent sexual and reproductive health, enhancing the standard of living of women and children as well as creating gender equality.
Mrs. Oyetola was the only Nigerian awarded out of the 32 awardees selected across the globe for the award in October 2021.
Her interventions and quick response towards championing the betterment of women and girls; advancing their quality healthcare service delivery; vigorous campaign against rape, sexual violence, abuse and gender-based violence (GBV) in general and indeed, leading a public campaign in the elimination of open defecation in the State were part of the yardsticks with which she was considered for the award.
Presenting the award to the First Lady in the presence of the Governor at the Government House, Osogbo, the representative of the Global Women Initiators and Innovators Network (GLOBALWIIN) in Nigeria, Engr. David Abu Osigi, said the nomination of Mrs. Oyetola followed rigorous selection and highly-competitive process.
He noted that the nomination and selection were in reciprocation of the various advocacy intervention programmes executed by Mrs. Oyetola that were targeted at advancing the cause of women and children, particularly the vulnerable citizens as far back as year 2004.
“This is in recognition of her outstanding tenacity and commitment to impacting lives particularly in Osun State Nigeria. It is a little way of recognising and celebrating her tenacity, innovative contribution and inspirational qualities.
“The award is further based on her demonstration of knowledge, competence and application to the service of humanity.
“In the course of the evaluation process, her nomination had undergone and passed our rigorous selection stages leading to her being formally recognised at the Award ceremony and presented with a Special Recognition Award.
“The assessment process included an evaluation carried out by independent panel of international judges led by Mr. Mark Sheahan, President, IPI and in residence at the British Library as part of the validation process, the outcome of which led to her consideration for the Global Exemplary Award”, he added.
In her short acceptance speech, Mrs. Oyetola appreciated the kind gesture of the organisation for finding her worthy of the award, describing it as motivation to do more.
“This will serve as a powerful stimulant for us to do more. It will help us to forge ahead to do more. We are very grateful that you have been tracking our activities.
“I thank you for finding our modest contributions to the development of women and children worthy of this award. I want to apologise that we couldn’t attend the official presentation of this award in London in July this year. We thank you for this worthy recognition and we look forward for more of this in the future,” she said.
In his remarks, Governor Oyetola congratulated his wife and lauded the Organisation for considering her for the noble award.
“I congratulate you for this wonderful award. I am always proud of you. I am not surprised because this is actually what you have in your blood. I could recollect when you also started the NGO that is taking care of persons with mental challenges, even when we never dreamt of being in Government. I thank the organisation for taking the struggle to come to Osun . I want you to continue to recognise and reward such outstanding performances,” the governor said.
