Women need enlightment on political participation–Binta Bello

What is your committee doing about laws that will regulate girl-child education, rape, and child labour and abuse?We have quite a number of bills addressing issues relating to child abuse and rape. On the girl-child education, we are trying to approach it from the state level because we all know that each state has its […]

What is your committee doing about laws that will regulate girl-child education, rape, and child labour and abuse?
We have quite a number of bills addressing issues relating to child abuse and rape. On the girl-child education, we are trying to approach it from the state level because we all know that each state has its peculiarity. Some states may want to bring the issue of religion and culture to it. So we are working with the state assemblies and encouraging them to see different declarations from the United Nations especially as they affect the rights of minors and girl child.
It will be good if they look at what soothes their respective states and domesticate some of these declarations. While I was the Commissioner for Women Affairs in Gombe State, we had similar experiences as we were able to move fast enough and domesticate some of these laws we found compatible with our culture and do away with those we consider incompatible. And at the end of the day, we were able to achieve what we set to achieve.
There are fears that some women may run into crisis with their spouses especially when aspiring for political offices, what are you doing to address that?
Well, personally, I have not heard of a woman who want to contest and her husband dissuaded her from doing so. We know our men are always behind us and I know that no woman will be willing to contest for any political office without settling the issue with her husband. It will be an embarrassment for any woman to come out and contest without the consent of her husband. And I’m therefore appealing to our women to avoid such embarrassment.
How will you appraise the two-day women in parliament summit?
Well, first and foremost we started by examining what caused the failure of women in the past elections, especially during the 2011 elections. After identifying the failures, we deliberated on how these failures can be tackled so as to forestall recurrence. Now we have all agreed that a lot of re-orientation has to be carried out for our women especially those aspiring for one position or the other in 2015.
We realize the need to step up enlightenment and orientation campaigns such that even before we start asking for the enforcement of the 35 percent affirmative action at different levels of government, we would have gone far ahead on our own.
But there are doubts about the possible implementation of the Affirmative Action in every state of the country?
Why can’t it be implemented in every part of the country? Nigeria is one country and so the implementation is expected to cut across. For instance in the North-East region where I hail from, we have four female representatives at the lower house of the National Assembly and one female Senator. So, I don’t see any part of the country where the Affirmative Action can be excluded or made unenforceable.
But like I said earlier, we have to start making waves on our own before we demand the implementation of the Affirmative Action. It is actually a gradual process and we want to start with the 2015 elections by ensuring that we improve beyond the 6.5 percent women in parliament ratio which we currently have at the National Assembly to something higher. From there we can start pressing for the 35 percent affirmation across all level of governance.
Religion and culture among others have been identified as stumbling blocks to women empowerment and political upliftment, how do you intend to tackle this?
Well, that has not affected me in anyway because where I hail from about 80 percent of the population are Christians and I am a Muslim with about 20 percent population. After the post election violence of 2011 and all of that, our election was held and I still won. So for me, it is about trust and conviction and whom you are voting for. So, in my state, the issue of religion doesn’t work. The issue of tribalism neither works there. What people are after is who is to be trusted. It is about the leadership that is trustworthy and will deliver.
Some people have suggested that women politicians should adopt mentorship as a strategy to assist young female politicians, are you looking into this?
Of course, the issue of mentorship has become a very important factor that cannot be ignored and I can say that is why we are here. We are so much interested on how to spread the mentorship to the younger female politicians who are aspiring for one position or the other in 2015. For all those who have one experience or the other, we are looking at even going to schools because most of these things start with unionism in schools.
The truth is that we can’t remain where we are, we have to continue moving. And when we are leaving where we are we need the younger ones to come in and fill the space and continue what we started. So, by and large, mentoring is topmost in our agenda in making more women participate in politics and occupy leadership positions in the country.
Don’t you think the expensive nature of Nigerian politics is capable of discouraging aspiring female politicians?
My brother, let’s not even go there because if you start raising the issue of money as a criteria for women to participate in election, you will discover that not many of us will turn up. But like I said, what we are focusing our attention on now is to let the women populace realize their strength, that we have a larger percentage in the Nigerian voting population.
And you know there is no way I will be a mother and I will instruct my child who is grown up to vote for a particular candidate that he or she won’t oblige? The child knows my value so he or she will do what I ask him to do. Likewise for myself, at least about 20 of my friends are women and each of these friends also have many other friends. So there is no way I will appeal to my friends to vote for a particular person that such won’t be done and these people will  as well spread the gospel to a larger number of people.
 So, it is a matter of time before we achieve what we want to achieve. Many of these big men you see out there don’t vote for themselves. It is the women that do go out to vote. So if we can do it for the men, why can’t we do it for fellow women like us? So it is not about money.
Those who collect money to vote won’t have it beyond that time and you will never see the person you voted for until another four years when they will be asking you to vote for them again. Our strategy now is to start dissuading the mindset of our people from money politics. We want people to start focusing on credibility.
How do you hope to drive this crusade to women at the grassroots level so as to ensure maximum participation?
We actually have a plan B of our strategy. Already, we are still working on the constitutional amendment process and as we all know that the issue of 35 percent affirmative action is one effort that must be included in the constitution. When that is effected at the National Assembly, it still has to go through the State Assemblies.
But we really don’t want to wait for that long because we don’t know when the process will be completed. So, if that is not working, we have our plan that will surely reach people at the grass root level and insha Allah, the plan B will surely work out.
What is this plan B that will reach women at the grassroot all about?
Already we have identified certain women vocalists at the grass root in each states of the federation. These women vocalists will be saddled with the responsibility of meeting with state governors and party leaders and get their commitments on issues pertaining to women in their states. These women vocalists will also serve as contact persons in those states and they will be the ones taking the campaign to those at the grassroot level.
Are Nigerian women really ready for this crusade?
If they are not ready, then we shouldn’t be here talking about the way forward. Everybody is ready. In fact in 2011 election, about 25 women came out to participate in the State House of Assembly election in my state but none of them succeeded even at the party primary level. This is very devastating. We plan to meet with the party leaders to ask them questions why they continue to fail women at their primaries.
After all if a woman scales party primary, the main election wouldn’t be too difficult because she will know how to go about it. I remember that during my election, an old woman who could not see was asking: “Where is Binta’s party? She is the one I’m voting for.” She was not asking of PDP but asking for me who was a female candidate. There is no woman that would see her female colleague at the poll and will choose not to vote for her. So, we are engaging political party leaders and hopefully, we can change the tide.
When are you launching the campaign?
From now till 2015. We are already planning ahead of 2015. From here, we will return to our respective constituencies and start raising our voices. We have started from now.