‘We should move beyond affirmative action’

Friday March 8 marked the International Women’s Day. How do you feel about the day?This year’s celebration for the Nigerian woman came just at the time of unprecedented kidnap of the girl child of a Unity College in Yobe. We are still grappling with the shadow and pains. The day also came in a climate […]

Friday March 8 marked the International Women’s Day. How do you feel about the day?
This year’s celebration for the Nigerian woman came just at the time of unprecedented kidnap of the girl child of a Unity College in Yobe. We are still grappling with the shadow and pains. The day also came in a climate of women in massive numbers being rendered homeless. These are the issues that beclouded this year’s celebration. We are living in times when you see armed men enter an arena,  all they came for is to kill and maim our women. It also came in a climate of unprecedented number of paedophiles. It is a rude awakening for the Nigerian mother, for the Nigerian woman and girl that that gateman, driver, uncle, brother is actually a sex predator – just out there to capture your young ones and maim your daughter. So these are the climate and environment that shrouded the Nigerian woman in this year’s Women’s Day celebration.
Concerning the issue of insecurity, what do you think the relevant authorities should do to address it?
First of all, I believe strongly that the level of outrage is insufficient. In a situation where 30 girls were abducted from a school and women in that state have not shut down every institution of government, then something is wrong. Something is fundamentally wrong.  If the women there show sufficient outrage,  all of us shall join them.
Though everybody is afraid for their lives; they care more about what to eat, but at what point are we going to halt this lethargy? At what point are we going to wake up and say enough is enough? Our children, our daughters are becoming the victims of this political imbroglio. Now is the best time. The elite should not be too comfortable that it won’t get to them because it will get to them.
So the authorities have a lot to do in terms of engaging in sensitising the people. We need the National Orientation Agency (NOA) to be sensitising the people about this because this is not just a North East problem but a national problem; an African problem. Beyond therapy for victims and families, who is educating that young man or woman from the North East on what to do? When they eventually find their way to Abuja and are picked up by the Environmental Protection Board, they feel the state is against them. There is a huge gap and nobody is filling it.
Looking at the struggle for gender equality, how far have you gone in attaining your goals?
There is a long way to go but we are not doing badly. People like me raise their voices on issues that pertain to women; the President has given us 35 per cent affirmative action. And we are now saying beyond affirmative action, the Nigerian woman should not be marginalised because we are so powerful. In this era we need to teach the girl-child that she is not a powerless being. Marginalisation does not mean women lack power to effect or cause changes in the polity. No. There are things that have made them minorities – one of which is the level of information available. The moral pillars of the society – Islamic and Christian religion – have been used in perception for the female gender that one believes to be successful it must be the will of God. We have to concentrate more on advocacy to educate the girl-child. You can expect to be president not necessarily first lady.
It is time women begin to enter a memorandum of understanding with political office aspirants on our agenda based on our numerical strength. We have to move away from the politics of maggi, salt and wrapper and begin to demand specific changes in government policy. For them to represent us in the assembly, we have to give them our agenda. Power is never conceded, it is taken.
Several people have called for forms for political offices to be made available to women on a subsidised rate?
What we say is that political parties should have as part of their constitution, 50 percent of all their positions ceded to women. Now if that is done it will be easier for women to emerge from the political parties as flag bearers.
If you look at the Scandinavian countries that have high index of human development it is from positive legislation. It should be a matter of law, because the Clifford Constitution of 1912 granted males the right to vote. It was in 1979 that Nigeria attained universal adult suffrage – 77 years after. So we cannot wait for another 77 years.
But some are of the view that giving women so much independence could undermine the society?
Implicit in that position is the assumption that women are fools. Under the Common Law for instance, women were not supposed to enter contract because they were believed to lack the mental capacity for that. That is where we are coming from.

So the position the conservatives have been arguing that giving women enough power will undermine the society is not correct. It makes more economic sense to empower a woman because eventually it affects her offspring. Chinweizu in his Anatomy of Woman Power argued that women are very powerful. ‘The hand that rocks the cradle..’, and I agree with him. Imagine what would happen in a state if women for a particular candidate refuse to vote
What is the level of violence against women now?
We don’t have statistics in this country. But one thing that is certain is that it’s on the increase. How do you know? By media reports. And this is because people go unpunished. People who commit the act also have the audacity to broadcast it in the social media. And that is why we are advocating that this country needs DNA centres attached to police station so that any woman that complains of sexual violations, her samples can be taken there and then. It would help us identify serial rapists and profile sex offenders. These things are going on because the system is very porous.

What about the rape of minors?
It is alarming and the unregulated sale of aphrodisiac is one factor. Another is the exposure to internet and pornography. The social media in Nigeria came upon us unprepared, it is not regulated as well.
What advice do you have for women?
I want to tell women that the notion that we need empowerment is not appropriate. We should unite and with our strength, we can negotiate. Fredrick Douglas said that ‘power concedes nothing unless there is a demand’. The recent confab that has shunned women with less than 10 per cent represented when we are about to renegotiate Nigeria, shows the marginalisation of women.