A government-organised empowerment programme in Port Harcourt descended into protest on Friday, May 2, after hundreds of women walked out, upset that neither Nigeria’s First Lady, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, nor the Rivers State First Lady, Lady Valerie Sim-Fubara, was present.
The event, hosted at the EUI Event Centre in GRA, was part of the Renewed Hope Initiative, a nationwide project from the First Lady’s office aimed at supporting women with empowerment items. In Rivers, 500 women were expected to benefit.
Dressed in their best traditional attire, many of the women had arrived with high hopes of seeing Senator Tinubu in person. But disappointment set in when Dr Theresa Ibas, wife of the state’s sole administrator, was introduced to speak on her behalf.
The crowd quickly grew restless. Chants of “We want SIM!” and “We want Valerie Fubara!” echoed through the hall, a reference to Governor Siminalayi Fubara and his wife, whom the women recognised as the legitimate First Lady of the state.
“We don’t know Ibas. Tinubu is our President, and our governor is Sim Fubara,” many shouted in unison.
One attendee told journalists, “We were told the First Lady of Nigeria 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.”
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Another participant, Favour Ekpeye, stressed that their protest was not directed against Senator Tinubu, but at the decision to have someone they didn’t recognise speak on her behalf.
“The propaganda that we rejected the wife of the president is not true,” she said. “We were told to come and welcome Her Excellency Senator Remi Tinubu, and we dressed up. See me with my double wrapper.”
She added, “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.”
Ekpeye also said, “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.”
Despite attempts by organisers to calm the situation, the women refused to be pacified and began exiting the venue in large numbers, bringing the event to a halt.