FEATURE: Harnessing gains of COWLSO’s National Women’s Conference

By Kazeem Ugbodaga

For three days, women of substance from all walks of life throng the Eko Convention Centre of the Eko Hotels and Suits, Victoria Island area of Lagos to jaw-jaw and brainstorm on how to strengthen the collective impact they had garnered over the years and chat a new way forward. For three days, women took over the Eko Hotel, their presence could never go unnoticed, as they swarm everywhere-lift, car parks, reception and the rest. Certainly, the hotel had never witnessed such large number of guests all through the year.

The event was the 18^th National Women’s Conference, with the theme: ‘Strengthening our Collective Impact.” The great event was packaged by the Committee of Wives of Lagos State Officials, COWLSO. COWLSO is a community based gender organisation working to complement the effort of the Lagos State Government to promote child healthcare, empower women to discover their hidden treasures and protect the environment. COWLSO was founded in 1974 by the wife of the first Military Governor of Lagos State, Mrs. Funmilayo Johnson. Apart from its humanitarian gesture and intervention in the health sector across Lagos State, COWLSO ensured it held its national conference on yearly basis, which had attracted the ‘big guns’ in the society, such as governors, captains of industries, philanthropists, politicians, traditional rulers, among many others.

In the last four years, COWLSO had been under the leadership of Mrs Bolanle Ambode, wife of the incumbent governor of Lagos State as chairman. She has taken the committee to another level in terms of impacting on lives of the less privileged and downtrodden in the society. With lots of achievements in its kitty, COWLSO’s staging of the 2018 National Women’s Conference represented a landmark.

Thus, the 2018 National Women’s Conference was meticulously packaged for women to harness the gains of the conference in the last four years and strengthened the collective impact of collaboration. The conference afforded women opportunity to examine issues that pertained to them and the society at large. To ensure the success of the conference, seasoned and motivational speakers were carefully selected to imbued and ginger participants to dream and effect changes in the society.

The conference which held between 23 and 25 October 2018 was graced by several dignitaries, some of which were the Governors of Lagos, Edo and Kebbi States, Akinwunmi Ambode; Godwin Obaseki and Atiku Bagudu respectively; Deputy Governor of Lagos, Dr. Oluranti Adebule; former Deputy Governors of Lagos, Princess Sarah Adebisi and Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire; Oba of Lagos, Rilwan Akiolu’ APC Women’s leader, Southwest, Kemi Nelson; Mrs. Olufunso Amosu and Mrs. Florence Ajimobi.

The rendering of the Nigeria’s National Anthem and that of COWLSO kick-started three days of explosive and scintillating conference.

“Without being immodest, women all over the world are pillars of growth and development of their countries. In many ways, women have continued to play roles that demonstrate how important they are to the progress of their countries economically, politically, socially and in all other areas that matter. Women in Nigeria are no different, and we are happy that women in Lagos State are setting the pace.” With the above words, Mrs Ambode set the agenda for what to expect from the conference.

In her view, COWLSO’s quest to continually improve the welfare of women and sustain the vintage position of Lagos state in the federation, were key objectives behind coming together annually, to discuss the way forward. The First Lady was view that when women come together and collaborate, either in government establishments, privately owned businesses, N.G.Os or wherever, they tend to achieve significant and lasting social change that would be beneficial to all since women had the unique ability of looking at problems and coming up with solutions, that would transform lives and make the world a better place.

Mrs Ambode had words of advice for women. The advice was that women should learn to come together, support each other and discard unproductive habits, as there is advantage in numerical strength.

The governor’s wife did not fail to list the numerous achievements of COWLSO in the last three years, which had recorded impressive impact on the health of babies, children, youths, women and the aged ones. such achievements included the upgrade of the Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) Department of the Lagos Island General Hospital, Odan while also sponsoring goiter operation for some women and donating portable Otoread OAEs equipment to four general hospitals-Badagry, Ifako-Ijaiye, Ikorodu and Gbagada General Hospital.

Also, the committee donated an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) to the Lagos Island Maternity, while this year, it donated portable Otoread OAEs equipment to Shomolu and Alimosho General Hospitals, as well as two Transport Incubator Ambulance, to Gbagada General Hospital and Lagos Island Maternity Hospital.

These facilities aptly described as ‘womb on wheels’, were to be deployed to convey preterm babies, also known as ‘premature babies’, to government facilities equipped with neo-natal ICU, to save their lives. The ‘Transport Incubator’ is fully equipped with life-support gadgets and other conveniences, making it a womb-like environment for the baby, to enhance its chances of survival while being evacuated to the ICU.

“Those special ambulance buses can also be used to convey infants with severe post birth complications, and others in serious emergency situations. The women of COWLSO reckon that with this intervention, many more newborns, infants and children in Lagos State, will be saved from avoidable deaths with attendant happiness to their parents,” Mrs Ambode said.

Lagos State Governor, Akinwunmi Ambode was on ground to celebrate and exalt the women. In his submission, the theme of the conference was very apt and a call for unity of purpose and action among women in order to achieve their collective goals. He recognised the noble achievements of COWLSO in working ceaselessly to complement the efforts of their spouses in government.

Ambode’s counterpart in Edo, Obaseki was full of praise for the committee for its intervention in the health sector through donations of health equipment to hospitals as well as making significant contributions for the health being of the less privileged in the society, and by serving as inspiration to many states, with its ideas being replicated in many states of the federation.

At COWLSO 2018, diverse and expert speakers spoke on different subject matters, all for the benefits of the women. For Mrs ‘Funmi Oyetunji, Chairperson, LASAL Foundation, who spoke on the subject matter, “Living a Life of Purpose,” women must acquire skills to inhabit their desired life and be excellent in all things, urging women to avoid common weaknesses that held people back, such as lack of clarity and focus; mistaken hope for strategy, fear of failure and procrastination.

Espousing her view on the topic, “Successful Marriage needs, Passion and Perseverance,” Mrs Bridget Itsueli, Chairperson, Relate Africa Organisation, wanted women to define their preferences in life and ensure that the partners they chose shared much of their personal perspective and worldview, stressing that perseverance, interaction and communication, played vital roles in the success of marriages.

As for Mrs Mayowa Ogunwemimo, who spoke on “Planning for Retirement,” nobody was immune from bankruptcy, saying that “no matter how much you earn now, if you fail to plan, you should prepare to fail. It is never too late to start planning for your retirement.”

According to Mrs Omotola Rotimi, Director, Lagos State Citizen’s Mediation Centre, CMC, who spoke on “Vulnerable but not Defenceless,” women should not keep quiet but speak out and seek help when they were abused and battered by their spouses, as such move might be the only chance to save their lives and that of their children. The second speaker on “Vulnerable but not Defenceless,” Mrs Folasade Adetiba, Managing Partner nd lead Consultant of Folasade Adetiba & Co, said the Lagos State Government had instituted the Child Rights Law to deal with cases bordering on violation of the rights of children.

Speaking on “Digital Family Connections-Parenting Digital Kids,” Charity Babatunde, Pioneer DQ Ambassador in Africa, delved into how parents could protect their children from the harmful side-effects of technology and how they could insulate them from digital explosion, so that they could make responsible choices in life. She was quick to point out the fact that while the goal of parenting remained the same, methods and approaches of training children must change; thus, entirely disconnecting children from the digital world might be counter-productive, and that giving them unfettered access to every digital content might also be counter-productive. She was of the view that there was need to ensure that children acquire relevant skills, so as to make balanced adjustments; noting further that there had been a major erosion of core values and therefore encouraged participants to stick to enduring values and identity.

More so, Dr. Veronica Iwayemi, speaking on “Children having Children-The Hazards of Teenage Pregnancy,” was of the view that women should prevent children from becoming mothers by putting machinery in place for continuous sensitisation and advocacy, to address and eliminate the root-causes and consequences; as government must put in place structures and policies to address the issues, while government, policy makers and others must rise and resolve to eliminate the menace by enacting a policy for a reduction in the minimum age in rendering family planning services from 13 to 15 years.

A couple, Dr. Gregory Ohihoin and Dr. Ngozi Ohihoin delved on “Preventing Significant Health Challenges of the Midlife and Beyond.” According to them, women should take their health seriously, especially from age 40 by ensuring reduction in dietary salt and increasing intake of fruits and vegetables; as well as maintain an ideal body weight and engage in regular physical exercise to keep them fit.

The three days conference reached its denouement on Thursday, October 25. Governor of Kebbi State, Atiku Bagudu was the special guest of honour to declare the great event closed. Having reflected events of the last three days, Mrs Ambode charged women to reflect the knowledge acquired in all personal endeavours, and also try to pass on the knowledge to achieve desired impact on society.

She said in one of the papers, titled “Successful Marriage needs, Passion and Perseverance,” women were told to define their preferences in life and ensure that the partners they chose shared much of their personal perspective and worldview, adding that perseverance, interaction and communication, played vital roles in the success of marriages. She further said in another topic on “Strengthening our Collective Impact: Parenting Digital Kids,” the speaker addressed how parents could protect their children from the harmful side-effects of technology and how they could insulate them from digital explosion, so that they could make responsible choices in life.

According to her, the speaker was quick to point out the fact that while the goal of parenting remained the same, methods and approaches of training children must change, stressing that entirely disconnecting children from the digital world might be counter-productive, and giving them unfettered access to every digital content might also be counter-productive.

“There is the need to ensure that our children acquire relevant skills, so as to make balanced adjustments. The speaker noted further that there has been a major erosion of core values and therefore encouraged participants, to stick to enduring values and identity,” she said.

However, a communiqué issued at the end of the three-day conference and read by the wife of the Secretary to the State Government, SSG, Prof. Ibiyemi Olatunji-Bello, said the conference resolved that women should acquire necessary skills to live desired life; be brave, conquer fear of failure; have the ability to recover from issues of life; choose their priorities for success; acquire propelling purpose needed for success; be passionate about what they were convinced about and have the right attitude for a successful marriage, the choice of man and family and by defining their goals which should be shared by their partners. The communique also noted the need to establish process of communication and interaction in marriage and develop perseverance by uniquely developing one’s will power; while women should begin to plan for their retirement by assessing the situation, as well as seek advice from professionals.

The communiqué further charged women to invest and save on regular basis but that they should never put their eggs in one basket, while encouraging them to speak out and seek help when in abusive relationship or see others being abused, as well as know their rights under the law. The conference charged women to prevent children from becoming mothers by putting machinery in place for continuous sensitization and advocacy to address and eliminate the root-causes and consequences, urging government to put in place structures and policies to address the issues of teenage mothers. It added that government at all levels, policy makers, health sector both state and local level, family, society, NGO, among others, must all rise and resolve to eliminate the menace by enacting a policy for a reduction in the minimum age of rendering family planning services from 13 to 15 years.

Lagos Governor, Ambode was full of praise for COWLSO for organizing the annual event, saying that his wife, Bolanle had been able to take the committee to a higher level than she met it. He said from testimonies, the conference was yet another rewarding two days of networking, eye-opening, educative and inspiring experiences, adding that it now behooved participants to spread the knowledge gained.

He said the opportunity to be part of a conference such as this is a privilege which also comes with a corresponding responsibility, noting that women “have a responsibility to share this experience with other women and men around you. “This is the only way that the impact of the knowledge gained at this conference can be widened and deepened. It is a burden each and everyone has to discharge to the best of your abilities. The government, no doubt, also has its own responsibility in terms of giving due and deserving consideration to the recommendations contained in your communiqué,” he said.

Several highlights at the conference included the presentation of the Inspirational Woman Award to Mrs Toyin Sokefun-Bello, popularly known as ‘T.Y. Bello’ for her outstanding work in photography and creative art. On the gala night, seven women had their lives changed as they were presented with keys of brand new cars after a raffle draw. The cars were donated by Governor Ambode. Two other women won tickets to spend five days in Dubai and London. Other consolation prizes won through the draw included brand new motorcycle, gas cookers, washing machines, bed, phones and so on. It was in deed a night of joy for women as the hall was filled to capacity by participants anxiously hoping that their numbers be picked for prizes. All through the programme, there was never a dull moment, expectations were met and the women could go home proudly that they have been able to harness their potentials at the conference.