‘What grassroots women want from Jonathan’

Despite sustained efforts to bring women into public offices, not many women are in. Why? The men, whenever they want to appoint, they don’t appoint women of high integrity. You can see what has happened to the few they appointed these days. They don’t last [in office]. And they know where to get the right […]

Despite sustained efforts to bring women into public offices, not many women are in. Why?

The men, whenever they want to appoint, they don’t appoint women of high integrity. You can see what has happened to the few they appointed these days. They don’t last [in office]. And they know where to get the right ones and where to get the bad ones. Anything you see a woman do on her table, it is as a result of a man telling her, “do this, it is good for you—you will enjoy it.” But at the end, the woman will be sacked.

All we ask government to do is appoint these women from the grassroots so they can help fellow women. Not to appoint women who will come, look only at themselves and their immediate families. In Nigeria, how many women who have the opportunity to be minister help fellow women? They don’t do that. Whenever they are there, they think of helping themselves.

You worked very closely with former First Ladies Mariam Babangida and Stella Obasanjo. What would you say was striking about these two women that women in leadership positions should learn from?

These two women were wonderful especially Mariam Babangida that brought out women from the grassroots. I’m one of the products. I started politicking in 1978 when I had my second son. I named him Shehu Shagari because of the love I had for politics. When Mariam Babangida heard about me, she invited me.  She asked Abike Dabri—then she was reporting in the State House to interview me on rural women. I gave her light on how we should go about helping the rural woman.

When transition [from military to civil rule] came, I vied for the deputy governor of Plateau State then. There was no Nasarawa State. I almost won. But I was asked to drop that and go for the National Assembly seat. During our time, there was no money politics.

When I won the election, I was taken to court. Mariam Babangida called on all the women lawyer, without giving them a kobo that they should go and defend me—in Plateau State then. And we won that case!

Our problem in Nigeria is continuation. If this woman starts her programme, another will come and start her own, the next woman will come and start her own instead of building on what the first left.

Stella came. We spent several days with her in Nicon [Hotel] under the leadership of Laila Dogonyaro. She [Stella] had a meeting with her where she said she wanted to found an organisation. Then this issue of women opinion leader came. I think she decided to look at what happened to Mrs Babangida. She formed her own Child Care Trust Fund. We went to Bwari. The Emir of Bwari gave us land where she established a school.

On the issue of calling women into politics—I always say we don’t have money to play the modern politics because money is involved in politics of today. How many women have the money? Like in my area, I don’t think you could get a single woman who has N500,000 on her own not to talk of her spending hundreds of thousands or millions of naira in the name of running for the office of counsellor, council chairman or senate.

When we were in Plateau State, Nasarawa senatorial district used to produce women. We were the first women to be elected. When I was elected into the National Assembly, I made sure two women equally entered the state assembly. One is late; one is still alive.

What is her name?

Hon Rhoda Albarka. She beat the former governor’s first son who ran under SDP. If many women are like us, that is whenever we are going up, we make sure others follow, it will be better. But most of our women don’t do this.

And men will not empower us because they feel we are rubbing shoulders with them. We are partners in progress. Even in the creation of the world, God created Adam before Eve. We can’t say we will be like them. Government should give us the 30 percent we are asking.

You can see Sarah Jibrin. It is maybe out of sympathy that President Goodluck Jonathan made her Advisor on Ethics. That is what he thought he could give her. But we thank him. The woman has been in the field fighting to become the president of this country.

You know the current Minister of Women Affairs, Hajia Zainab Maina very well. What do you think she should do to help women?

The present Minister of Women Affairs happens to be a friend. I knew her many years—right from when she was president of NCWS [National Council of Women Societies]. She knows what happens if government wants women to go into political positions. She headed NCWS. She knows what to do.

She should pay more attention to women getting appointed into positions now that elections are over so they prepare themselves for the coming the elections. She should remember those that helped her to get to that position because time doesn’t wait. There are so many things going on. It seems as if the time for us getting involved is limited. But I know what she can do because she was once an administrator. She knows what politics is all about. If they fail to appoint women into boards, they may not get what they need to sponsor themselves into elective positions.

My problem with some women is that whenever they are in position they don’t help fellow women. I heard that the minister of petroleum is doing well. The minister of environment is doing well. In Housing, Ama Pepple is one of the women we are proud of. She transformed the civil service. She helped many people. I have not visited her office but I’m proud of her. Because she knows where she is coming from and where she is going in terms of women liberation.

I’m a stakeholder in my state. I’m one of the north-central zonal co-ordinators of Jonathan/Sambo 2011. I told women that we would go with Jonathan because Jonathan is a child of circumstances. I told Nigeria’s High Commissioner to the UK [Tafida Dalhatu] that I had so many reasons to go with Goodluck Jonathan, abandoning my former boss, Turakin Adamawa [Abubakar Atiku].

You have been with the women of Wamba. What specifically would you want government to do for them?

Actually, there is poverty and the poverty is growing very fast. Hospitals are not equipped. We don’t have water, we don’t have good roads, we don’t have constant electricity. Schools are bad! If I tell you what my eyes see where I come from, you might be shocked. Women die with pregnancy because of long distance they have to cover to access medicare. So many things are lacking.

The Wamba community road is under construction. We want that road tarred. Vehicles don’t go far. Many are forced to move on bikes because the road is bad.

The other thing is poor condition of schools. I can’t talk about the teachers because once the environment is not conducive for the teacher to teach, what would you expect them to produce? Children of Wamba are expected to sit for the same public examinations as other children and pass! I don’t know whether they follow the syllabus. A teacher cannot speak good English. A child cannot write a good sentence. A child that has finished primary six cannot write a letter.

Government should put in more in education and health! Because education is the backbone of every country. If they are not well educated—that is what breeds all this secret cult thing. A child will go to the university and cannot perform. At the end, they see the fault of the lecturer.

What is your advice to Jonathan to help the Nigerian woman?

Now that subsidy removal has come to stay, he should look at the plight of the rural person. In my village, not one person owns a car. They don’t buy petrol so they don’t know anything about subsidy. Last month, I granted interview to Radio Nigeria. I said I was in support of the removal subsidy because I was told that the money that was meant for both local and state governments was frittered away as subsidy. That is why government cannot do much in the rural areas. Jonathan should look at the rural areas where the population is. And the issue of Joint Account, let the local councils come and collect their money so they can go and work.

Abuja is being overloaded with people running away from the rural areas thinking there is money in Abuja—they see electricity, roads, that is why they come. If there is rural development, these people will go back.

Jonathan should give women 35 percent of the appointment so these women can help their people in the local areas.