By Chuka Nnabuife

In Early 2024, some leaders of women’s groups and widows from Anambra State returned from an event organised to honour the First Lady of Nigeria, Sen. Oluremi Tinubu, in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, with an impressive report of the conduct of the wife of Anambra State’s governor. According to the women, Nonye, the wife of Gov. Chukwuma Charles Soludo of Anambra State, swept them off their feet with her disarming humility.

“You needed to see Dr. Mrs. Nonye Soludo at the event, so humble and dressed in a very simple and natural way. She was the only wife of a state governor there without a long entourage. Though we didn’t go as a delegation from Anambra State, we were happy that she made our state very proud,” the Lagos-based Anambra woman said.

There are some strengths of character and depth of smart power that the wife of the governor of Anambra State, Nonye Soludo, brings quietly to the ‘Solution Government’ of her husband. It takes keen observation to notice her persuasive influence on the system and mobilisation faculties.

October 15, 2024, was the International Day of Rural Women (IDRW). The theme for IDRW that year was ‘Rural Women Confront the Global Cost-of-living Crisis’. Through it, issues like the impact of economic challenges on rural women’s livelihoods and well-being were highlighted and discussed globally. The theme emphasised the crucial roles rural women play in food systems, sustainable development, and climate resilience, amid their daunting challenges, which comprise limited access to resources, economic inequality, and climate-related disruptions.

In Anambra State, the wife of the governor, Dr. Nonye Soludo, initiated her pet project, ‘Healthy Living with Nonye Soludo’, on November 2, 2024. Through the project, Dr. Nonye Soludo evolved a gender-specific and masses-oriented empowerment and capacity-building scheme. The program’s goal is to promote healthy living, sustainable organic farming, and economic empowerment among Ndi Anambra – citizens and residents.

During the program’s unveiling, Mrs. Soludo distributed seedlings and buds of cash crops for community gardens and spoke eloquently on the importance of nutrition, regular physical exercises, farming, and sustainable agriculture practices. ‘Healthy Living with Nonye Soludo’, as the name suggests, prioritises healthy ways of living, such as regular exercises and walk-out sessions, cottage organic farming for food security, and economic empowerment through profitable agricultural practices and periodic entrepreneurial training for Anambra women.

Through this social vehicle, Dr. Nonye has directly touched the lives of mostly indigent women and children, as well as widows in the state. Apart from farming, exercises, entrepreneurship, and empowerment, Healthy Living Clubs now exist in some secondary schools in Anambra State. Through these clubs, female students, in particular, are enlightened on the benefits of healthy living practices, from personal habits to nutrition, as well as managing themselves, their homes, and businesses. The platform also equips the girls with skills to make informed decisions about their health.

There are also community gardens, vegetable market programs, and other pro-rural women ventures being shouldered by ‘Healthy Living with Nonye Soludo’. However, the biggest plus of the program is how the governor’s wife ‘runs’ it – seamlessly and without the noise usually associated with such ventures. Dr. Nonye makes the project go on like a non-establishment initiative, and she does not engage in politics, at least not overtly. In her natural warm-hearted demeanor, she beams her bright smile and wins the hearts of the Anambra rural folks – women, children, and even men.