By Justina Auta
Mrs Uju Kennedy-Ohanenye, the Minister of Women Affairs, has emerged the winner of the maiden edition of an online poll put together by an Ireland based newspaper, The Street Journal.
Mr Osondu Joseph, Special Assistant on Media to the minister, disclosed this in a statement on Sunday in Abuja.
Joseph said the award was formally presented to the minister in her office by management of the media outfit led by the Publisher, Mogaji Arisekola, who described the award as deserving in view of the initiatives made by the minister to promote the interest of women and vulnerable children.
“She tops in the keenly contested poll, which had four other Ministers contending for the ‘Super Minister’ of the month award.
“She polled 190,848 votes (45.74%) to emerge the clear winner with Senator Dave Umahi, a former Governor of Ebonyi State, now Minister for Works, trailing closely behind by polling 171,137 votes (41.02%).
“Other Ministers who were part of the poll are Dr Betta Edu, the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation who came third. She polled 22,505 votes (5.39%), and Bunmi Ojo, Minister of Interior, who polled 21,204 votes (5.08%).
Explaining the result of the poll, Arisekola stated that the exercise would be sustained to spur others to perform their duties effectively towards achieving national development.
“The poll is credible, cannot be manipulated or influenced. The poll was designed in such a way that the votes counted, and one can see how the votes were cast.
“There was transparency and your emergence as winner cannot be far-fetched especially in view of some bold steps you took recently to fight the cause of women. Nigerians voted massively for you,” he said.
Responding, the minister expressed appreciation to the organisers for the initiative of using the poll as yardstick to measure and engender service delivery among the serving ministers.
She urged the media to continue to partner in the on-going drive to change the status of Nigerian women and vulnerable children.
“I want you to join us in the fight to ensure that majority of the funds that come from donors do not go into advocacy and travels.
“But to make positive impact on those women and children they are meant for like 30 per cent and 70 per cent to advocacy and women, respectively,” she said.
According to ther, the award will spur her to do more to justify the opportunity given to her by President Bola Tinubu to change the narrative concerning the present status of Nigerian women and vulnerable children. (NAN)