Bukunmi Abraham has emerged as the overall winner of the Akin Fadeyi Foundation 2022 ‘What Women Can Do’ Virtual Competition.
The competition was organised by the Akin Fadeyi Foundation, which culminated with the commemoration of the International Day of the Girl Child, 2022.
The competition, which was keenly contested by 15 female finalists drawn from various geo-political zones of Nigeria, saw them pitching their ideas to judges who are also partners in the cause of sustainable development. The five-person panel of judges comprised, Mr. Odeh Friday, Country Director of Accountability Lab; Adeola Fayehun, a journalist and sociopolitical satirist; Mrs. Ramatu Umar-Bako an equality and diversity Champion; and Ms. Yemi Adamolekun, The Executive Director of Enough is Enough.
At the end of the debate, six winners emerged, among whom were, Oreoluwa Aladejuyigbe as first runner up, Mariam Dauda Longe as second runner up, Chimdalu Nnenne as the third runner up, while two contestants, Salawudeen Rafat and Oloye Rachael Aina, both clinched the position of the fourth runner up.
Besides being awarded the prizes they won, the Akin Fadeyi Foundation also gave all the contestants honoraria as tokens to encourage their various efforts and endeavours in pushing for a more gender inclusive country across all levels and spheres of national life.
In her celebratory remarks, Bukunmi Abraham, a law student at Babcock University thanked the Akin Fadeyi Foundation for the platform she was given for the amplification of her voice in the cause for gender inclusive governance. She promised not to relent until the seeming impossible task of having more women in governance is achieved. She also thanked her fellow contenders and enjoined them all to keep the conversations alive in their respective corners.
The Akin Fadeyi Foundation, a MacArthur Foundation grantee, is a communication for change centre focused on human rights, sustainable political, socio-economic, and environmental transformation.
According to the Executive Director, Mr. Akin Fadeyi, the ‘What Women Can Do’ competition” by the Foundation was aimed at showcasing the ability of women to proffer solutions to issues of governance as a bolster to the quest for a more gender inclusive governance in Nigeria.
For him, the campaign became imperative following the statistics that women make up “47% of the electorates that put men in office, yet the representation of women in elected offices has been on the decline. Therefore, Akin Fadeyi Foundation chose to create this platform to raise public consciousness about this imbalance and to introduce new voices in the narrative for a more gender inclusive governance.”
In her closing remark, the Head of Programmes at Akin Fadeyi Foundation, Mrs. Oluwatomi Okeowo promised that the Foundation has taken up the baton to push for good governance and this can only be attainable when there is fairness in the level of gender representation in Nigeria’s governance structure. She therefore promised that until this cause is won, the Akin Fadeyi Foundation would continue to champion efforts like this.
She thanked all those present, including representatives of the media for their continuous support of the Akin Fadeyi Foundation’s work.
