Why my book is guide to rookie politicians – Ayisha Osori

Bookshelf: Your debut book, ‘Love Does Not Win Elections’ chronicles your experience when you contested in the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) primaries in 2014 for the Federal House of Representatives seat for the AMAC/Bwari constituency in Abuja. Why was it important for you to document this experience? Ayisha Osori: I documented it for several reasons, […]

Bookshelf: Your debut book, ‘Love Does Not Win Elections’ chronicles your experience when you contested in the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) primaries in 2014 for the Federal House of Representatives seat for the AMAC/Bwari constituency in Abuja. Why was it important for you to document this experience?

Ayisha Osori: I documented it for several reasons, one of which is because when I decided to contest and went through the process, I found out that information has always been used as a weapon to keep people out and make things difficult, to exact control and extort money. One of the reasons why I wrote is to democratize what I know and share it widely, so anyone who is running for the first time will at least have some guide. I wrote the book and documented it because I also think it is useful for people who wonder why our political process fails to recruit and put forward the type of leadership we think we deserve. Everybody talks about how leadership is the problem in the Nigerian government. You will like to think that our political process is designed to bring out the best type of leadership, but it is not.

Again the book is useful for those who are curious about our leadership recruitment process. This book will provide some of the answers. Thirdly, for our friends around the world who meet lots of bright, intelligent, energetic and smart Nigerians and wonder why we can’t fix our country, the book will also help them to understand.

Bookshelf: Why did you choose to represent AMAC /Bwari constituency when you are from Kogi State, and was there any backlash?

Osori: I chose to represent AMAC/Bwari constituency because it is where I live./ I have lived in Abuja since 1996 after my mother moved from CBN Lagos to CBN Abuja. It has been home since then, and as a Nigerian and someone who has worked with gender organizations, many of the opportunities that we had to put forward our thoughts in terms of constitutional amendment, women have always talked about the fact that indigene ship is being used as a weapon against women, especially when it comes to political aspiration. So I think Nigerians should run from where they live. We have seen many good examples, in the past there was a Hausa man who contested in Enugu State and won, and Lagos State that has a lot of people in their constituency who are none indigenes in their executive council, and even lately from the 2015 election, we have seen Igbos who won in Lagos. That’s where we are going, that Nigerians, after so many years of inter marriage, interdependence and going to school together, working together, it will become less about where you are from and where your parents were born, to where you live, pay taxes and invested your life and energy. I did not get any backlash, even if I did it wasn’t obvious. The few indigenes who were in politics did try to make a point with where I am from and I only told them I am from Wuse and there is nothing in the Nigerian constitution where qualification for running for the  House of Representatives include where you are from.

Bookshelf: Women are sometimes said to be the detractors of other women, whether in politics or elsewhere. What has your experience taught you?

Osori: My experience has taught me that human beings can be very supportive when they find people that represent their views, values, beliefs, class, religion and ethnicity and I think that is very important. In my experience, both in the private and public sector, I have worked with women who were my bosses and those who reported to me. Women are professional and hardworking, they respond to discipline the same way men do, so I find no value in that statement. Women have supported me and my career. 

In the development world, many of my first mentors when I moved from the private sector into development sector in 2012 were women. I worked for the Nigerian Women Trust Fund and while the advisory board and board of directors had both genders on board, most of the support came from the women who mentored me and made sure they tutored me on how the development world works. I also find that humans can be cruel and loving to each other, depending on how they are designed and wired and not because of their gender.

Bookshelf: How would you describe the lessons you learned as a woman in politics?

Osori: The lessons I learnt are not particular to women. I would say that running made me asked questions about some of the popular assumptions, tactics and strategies that female politicians use. For example, I talked about free forms for women in the book. We need to look at it critically and see if it’s not a Trojan horse or a good gift because it’s given with one hand and taken away with the other, although I benefited from it and took advantage of it. Another thing that running made me realize is the role of the first Ladies and woman leaders in the process. How useful and valid they are within the party and if there is any room to enrich that kind of a relationship. These are the few reasons that particularly made me think about female politicians and the strategies they use to get ahead.

 I did not get any resentment from any woman, not from my delegates or ward chairman. In fact, they were full of praise for the one female legislature that FCT had, Senator Khairat Gwadabe, many people remember her for the good work she did and which they are still enjoying. I keep hearing that women politicians keep to their promises

Bookshelf: Did your work in an NGO have any impact in your politicking?

Osori: The NGO I worked for focused on trying to get more women into office. That is the Nigerian Women Trust Fund, where I was once a CEO and now a board member. We have not really done much in the FCT. We have done a few studies and programs in terms of creating awareness around voting and trying to get women registered, to also join political parties and contest. I would not say that my work impacted on my campaign, but because of the work that I do, it made me look at my process from an academic development perspective.

Bookshelf: You wrote how you learned the hard way that money is important in winning a political position in Nigeria and then the importance of women changing that. Can you narrate some of those experiences that taught you this hard lesson and how you think Nigerians can approach politics with a different and perhaps, better tool?

Osori: When I was CEO of the Women Trust Fund, I had the pleasure and honour of engaging a lot of female politicians, and they always said that their number one challenge is money. Being somebody who had never run in an election, I only read books and articles and had a somewhat loose sense of how the political process works. When I had to get my forms and pay for them, I realized the Party PDP had hidden charges. The zonal office will say you are supposed to bring N200, 000 and the FCT office will say we are supposed to bring a different amount and nobody tells you about that. You have to get your expression of interest nomination form filled, which is not free. For the House of Representative, you should have at least 30 members of PDP sign and nominate me that I am worthy. All these involve money, the screening exercise also takes money, the posters and meeting the award chairman for the first time, meeting your delegates. All these involved spending money. 

So I definitely understood that no Nigerian can contest without spending money. Elections are expensive all over the world irrespective of your gender. If you want to run you should have money, at least to buy your forms and kick off your campaign. I think for women what is important is if you cannot raise the money yourself, if you don’t have the social support from friends and family to help you buy your forms, then maybe you have no business running. The men will not take you serious if you don’t have money for your forms, which is a way the party uses to raise money.

Secondly, I think money is important because sometimes you can be popular among the people and not the party, which is where the name of my book came from, ‘Love Does Not Win Elections’. When you get to the general elections, money helps, but in the primaries it is not about your money. I want women who will act differently. I was pleasantly surprised when I went to meet Onyeka Onwenu and she said she will not accept anything from me and will only help me because of her belief in me. That is a role both women and men can play. Some people spend lots of money buying gifts to give the chairman of a party and party officials. How many people can compete with that?

Bookshelf: You were discouraged to contest, on the grounds that incumbents within the PDP were expected to continue. How do you view this practice, especially after President Muhammadu Buhari’s victory in 2015?   

Osori: It makes sense for parties to want stability, for legislatures to stay and build expertise and experience, if they are popular and the people want them. I don’t see anything wrong with it when it is based on the popularity of the incumbent. Some people will not even try to run.

However, where a party finds that there is a lot of interest in that position, they should not be trying to manipulate behind the scene and make things difficult for the other person. Their own role is to create an enabling environment and make sure that the primaries go well, and as freely and fairly as possible. I think that is what will deepen our democracy. If we have this case where incumbents can stay on regardless of how the people feel about them, then it continues to stifle the development of our country.

Bookshelf: You felt strongly about the incumbency factor within the PDP, so much you wrote a letter to the then president, Goodluck Jonathan, to intervene. A letter you also published in the last pages of your book. Did the president respond to your letter? What action did you take afterwards? 

Osori: I thought that it made it very difficult to have fair primaries and secondly, make it difficult for women to come in. If you have a National Assembly where less than eight per cent are women and everybody keeps their seats, then basically we are not going to increase the number of women in the next election. That was where I was coming from.

The then president never responded to my letter. I’m not sure if he ever got it, so I couldn’t really blame him. I know that my FCT chairman got the letter because I got feedback and he called me and said people don’t write to the president, that it is a party issue, so I should not take it to the president. I could see his point, but for me it was more like a warning to the president and giving him a view that maybe the people around him were not telling him, and that maybe he is so bent on his own second term that he was bargaining, making compromises and giving so many promises that was going to damage the party. PDP did not only lose the election, but they were in factions for a very long time until recently.

In the end I published the letter in the newspapers and now it’s in my book. 

Bookshelf: How did you feel when you lost the primaries with only 14 votes to the incumbent, Zephaniah Jisalo?

Osori: I always thought it was a long shot, but I definitely did not think the margin will be so wide. We were strategizing and knew where all our votes will come from. I didn’t think I would win, I would have been very surprised if I did. I would say now, in hindsight, I think it’s one of the best things that happened, because somebody said if I had won, would I have written the book? I can’t answer that question, but I would say the book is more valuable to our collective democratic development and understanding them, than me winning the election for one term. In the end thank God I lost.

Bookshelf: Do you intend to contest again?

Osori: I tell my friends I don’t think any party will accept me after what I wrote in the book (laughs).

Bookshelf: What are you working on at the moment?

Osori: Right now I’m in the last stage of another book in collaboration with another person. It’s a very exciting story about Nigerian politics. It’s much deeper because it looks back and forward to Nigerian history in terms of our politics and speaks of where we are today. We should start being more deliberate in how we make our choices and who we align our thoughts with. It’s creative nonfiction and is like a short story. I want it to attract people. I am personally interested in politics so I want to write a book that will interest everybody.