Rivers Women, Chanting ‘We Want Fubara,’ Walk Out On Ibas’ Wife

A CROWD of Rivers State women, on Friday, May 2, staged a walkout during an empowerment programme in Port Harcourt, demanding to be addressed by either the First Lady, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, or wife of Governor Similanayi Fubara, Valerie, and not wife of the Sole Administrator, Dr. Theresa Ibas.
The event, held at the EUI Event Centre in GRA, Port Harcourt, and part of the Renewed Hope Initiative empowerment programme organised by the office of the First Lady, was meant to benefit 500 women in the state with various empowerment items.
Expecting the physical presence of the First Lady, the women, many of them dressed in traditional double wrappers, had gathered in anticipation of the arrival of Mrs. Tinubu or Mrs Fubara, but were disappointed when Mrs. Ibas was invited to address them in place of the First Lady.
Rather than welcome her to the podium, the women started chanting, “Tinubu is our President and our governor is Fubara,” “We want SIM,” “We don’t know Ibas,” “We want Valerie Fubara,” who they identified as the legitimate one to address them.
One of the women told The Punch: “We were told the First Lady would be here. If not her, then the wife of our governor, Lady Valerie Sim-Fubara, should speak to us; not someone representing someone who doesn’t represent us.”
Another protester clarified that the women’s action was not a rejection of the President’s wife, but rather a protest against the substitution, explaining that they staged a walkout because they were expecting the wife of the President to address them and not the wife of the sole administrator.
She added: “The propaganda that we rejected the wife of the President is not true. We were told to come and welcome Her Excellency, Senator Remi Tinubu, and we dressed up. See me with my double wrapper.
“We were so happy to welcome Her Excellency because we appreciate her good deeds to us with the empowerment programmes. So we stood up and left because Rivers women, we are not fragile. We have a governor that we love and we support our governor.
“We have a President that we support and we have our mummy of the nation that we support for empowering women in the nation that we so love that we support.”
Efforts by the organisers to pacify the crowd were unsuccessful, as the women continued chanting and gradually exited the venue, to the surprise of many dignitaries.