Wife of the former governor of Lagos State and former Chairman of the Committee of Wives of Lagos State Officials (COWLSO), Bolanle Ambode has urged the wife of the governor-elect, Ibijoke Sanwo-Olu, to take COWLSO to greater heights. She said this while handing over the leadership of the committee to Sanwo-olu at a brief ceremony at the Lagos House, Alausa, Ikeja,
recently.
Ambode hailed the vision of the founding mothers of the committee, which is to complement the efforts of the government in critical areas that are women and children-friendly. She said the committee, under successive chairmen, had continued to walk in that great vision, leading to remarkable improvement in the lives of women, girls and children, in vital areas of health, empowerment, education and others.
“My lovely women, with all sense of modesty, we happily recall some of our collective achievements in the health , by way of interventions in maternal and child health, year after year,” Ambode said. Explaining more on the achievement she said the
phases of intervention led to the sponsorship of goitre surgeries for 30 women, free hearing aids for 15 children, three women and two men; as well as the upgrading of the ENT Department of the General Hospital, Odan, Lagos.
She said that COWLSO under her leadership purchased and installed state-of-the-art audiology equipment, including Otoread OAE capable of detecting hearing defects in new-borns. “Other phases of intervention saw the procurement and donation of two Transport Incubator Ambulance to the Gbagada General Hospital and Island Maternity Hospital, coupled with the donation of 32 neo-natal incubators to 13 General Hospitals and six fully fitted Birthing Suites for Amuwo-Odofin Maternal and Child Centre, Epe General Hospital and Island Maternity Hospital, Lagos, among others,” Ambode added.
She thanked members of the committee for supporting her and the Ambode administration over the past four years, and appreciated her predecessors for their advice and words of wisdom. Meanwhile, Sanwo-Olu praised her predecessor for taking COWLSO to a remarkable height, promising that she would not deviate from nthe founding ideals of the committee.
“I thank my big sister, Her Excellency, Bolanle Ambode, for the great steps she has taken to move the committee to its current level. I thank her for the words of encouragement that I should not be scared about the challenges of that office. I will do my best, God helping me, to move COWLSO to the next level,” she said. Sanwo-Olu, who also commended Governor Akinwunmi Ambode for his attention to the committee, noted that governance was a continuum
