The Police Officers Wives Association (POWA) has announced that it will mobilise 100,000 women to reinforce value chains by increasing the agricultural workforce.
POWA’s President and wife of the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mrs Elizabeth Egbetokun, announced this in Abuja, saying that the project was in line with President Bola Tinubu’s agenda for food security.
Mrs Egbetokun said, “As the wife of the Inspector General of Police, I am committed to enhancing security through non-kinetic approaches. Addressing food scarcity directly contributes to the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goal 2 (SDG2) – zero hunger. As President of POWA, I am mobilising 100,000 women to boost the agricultural workforce, strengthening the agricultural value chain.”
She stressed that national security was connected to food security, adding that the linking nature of the two elements was key to the stability of the country.
She further said she was committed to enhancing security through participatory approaches, her being a national advocate of the Young Women in Agriculture (YWA) under the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation’s (UNESCO’s), initiative named Strategic Intervention Programme-ALPHA (SIP-ALPHA) to address the shortcomings in food supplies in the country.
Alhaji Tanko Adamu, Chairman of the House of Reps Committee on Diaspora, stated that his committee was utilising any available structure such as POWA to make it easy for patriotic Nigerians abroad to significantly contribute to the current administration’s national development effort.
He noted that the country was blessed with enormous human resources abroad whom he categorised into three: Nigerians working in leadership positions at international institutions, experts in various fields and Nigerians looking for ways to improve the country’s development.
The legislator stated that POWA already had structures across the country, making it simpler for Nigerians living abroad to intervene through such structures.
The President of UNESCO REF, Abdulsalami Ladigbolu, said partnerships between the bodies would further strengthen the president’s strategic goal of enhancing food security and the country’s sustainable agro-economy that would create millions of jobs for young people.
