It is no longer news that Governor Fayemi has been announced as the new Governor of Ekiti State however, it is often said that behind a successful man, is a great woman. Here is a brief biography of his wife, the Ekiti State First Lady in waiting
Feminist/activist, writer and policy advocate, Bisi Adeleye-Fayemi was born June 11, 1963.
The British-Nigerian social entrepreneur co-founded the African Women’s Development Fund, (AWDF), the first pan-African grant-making organisation.
She has many years of experience as a gender specialist, social entrepreneur, policy advocate, and social change philanthropy practitioner. She co-founded the African Women’s Development Fund, (AWDF) – the first Africa-wide grant-making fund, and served as the first Executive Director from 2001-2010. AWDF has played a key role in the promotion of feminist movement building in Africa.
She is currently Principal Partner, Amandla Consulting , specializing in leadership development for women, and she runs an online community called Abovewhispers.com.
She is a UN Women Nigeria Senior Advisor, and was recently appointed as a Visiting Senior Research Fellow at King’s College, University of London.
When her husband Dr Kayode Fayemi took office as Governor of Ekiti State, Nigeria, October 16th 2010-2014, Bisi became actively involved in a range of policy advocacy, grassroots empowerment and social inclusion programs in Ekiti State. She led the campaign to enact a Gender Based Violence Prohibition Law (2011) an Equal Opportunities Bill (2013) and a HIV Anti-Stigma Bill (2014).
She serves on the Executive Boards of the African Women’s Development Fund, and the Global Fund for Women USA. She is Chair of the Advisory Council of the Nigerian Women’s Trust Fund and also serves on the Governing Council of Elizade University, Nigeria. Bisi is the author of ‘Speaking for Myself’: Perspectives on Social, Political and Feminist Activism in Africa (2013), ‘ Speaking above a Whisper’ , (2013) an autobiography and ‘ Loud Whispers’ (2017) She also co-edited ‘ Voice, Power and Soul’, with Jessica Horn (2008) a compilation of images and stories of African Feminists.
Future Project: Assuming office as the wife of the governor of Ekiti, some of the issues that she would probably be addressing among women in Ekiti state would include Gender Based Violence Prohibition Bill, Ekiti State Equal Opportunities Bill as well as HIV & AIDS Anti-Stigmatization among others.
