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| Zuriel Oduwole, |
Eleven year old Nigerian – Mauritian girl; Zuriel Oduwole, who
was listed in New Africa Magazine last December as one of Africa’s 100 Most
Influential people of 2013, last week held her maiden First Lady’s Colloquy on
Girls Education at the newly opened Eko Signature Hotel in Lagos. Among her
invited guest speakers were the First Lady of Lagos State, the First Lady of
Tanzania and the First Lady of Osun State
In recognition of her incredible and highly remarkable
accomplishments and unparalleled achievements at the age of 11, she was invited
to visit the State Department by the Assistant Secretary of State for African
Affairs – Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield. All 54 US Ambassadors in Africa,
report to the Assistant Secretary of State for Africa.
Yesterday, Zuriel honored the invitation on her way from the
First Lady’s event she hosted in Lagos. She was welcomed by the Deputy Director
for Public Affairs – Naomi Fellows, who commended her efforts in keeping the
issues of Girl Education in Africa on the front burner. She was later received
by the Assistant Secretary State For African Affairs herself – Ambassador
Thomas-Greenfield, who was thrilled to meet this young lady in person for the
first time.
She was full of praise for Zuriel, her remarkable vision and
various projects to benefit Africas Girls, and suggested she might want to
visit Rwanda and Burundi in the future to use her platform to help with the
healing process of those two conflict bruised countries, who were involved in a
deadly genocide encounter 20 years ago.
Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield then mentioned to Zuriel that she
might want to consider a career in the State Department since she once headed
its HR department , though she believed Zuriel was already too far ahead in her
accomplishments that most new entrants into the foreign service, especially
since she had on her own met and interviewed more than a dozen current World
leaders, and also interviewed 1 in 6 African heads of government.
Zuriel was then presented with an autographed picture of the
Secretary, which she confessed was the first one she was ever giving out, an
indication of how much she admired the young lady’s accomplishments.
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