The foremost northern women association in Nigeria, The Jamiyar Matan Arewa has commended Vice President Yemi Osinbajo’s initiative for orphaned and vulnerable children in the north-east region of Nigeria.
The association, led by its president, Rabi Saulawa, visited the vice president on Friday at the Presidential Villa, Abuja and gave him an award for the work he is doing through the North-East Children’s Trust.
Mrs. Saulawa said: “We are here to actually visit the vice president because we have seen the wonderful work he has been doing with our orphans in the north east region, where he has an initiative, the North East Children Trust.
“They recently had the fifth anniversary, which I actually attended, and I was really amazed at the way the children were looked after.”
Mrs. Saulawa urged other well-to-do Nigerians to join in giving succor to children orphaned by the Boko Haram insurgency.
“It is a very laudable initiative because when you come to think of it, the vice president is for everybody.
“We’ve seen it. He is not from that region; he is not a northerner.
“But he saw what was happening to the children in the north east that were being orphaned by the Boko Haram insurgency and he felt it was the right thing to do.
“So, we actually applaud him and we are also hoping that our other well-to-do Nigerians can also do the same because there is a lot of work to be done in the north.”
Saulawa said that the vice president was “pleased and excited that we could come and give him an award for what he has done because he is a very modest human being.”
She said that Osinbajo really deserved the award given to him by the association and added that they would continue to pray for him.
According to Saulawa, the Jammiya Matan Arewa Orphanage is the oldest orphanage in Northern Nigeria, having been established in 1963 by northern women.