Women politicians face new, violent threat
On Thursday, March 10, Hajiya Halima Aminu Tijjani, the senatorial aspirant of Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), received a call from someone, asking her to go to the state secretariat. Expectedly, the aspirant wanted to know who was calling and what she would do at the party office, but the caller did not reveal his […]
On Thursday, March 10, Hajiya Halima Aminu Tijjani, the senatorial aspirant of Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), received a call from someone, asking her to go to the state secretariat. Expectedly, the aspirant wanted to know who was calling and what she would do at the party office, but the caller did not reveal his identity. Instead, he told her that the presidential flag-off would hold the next day, and as an aspirant, she should go and help in the planning and coordination of activities. Reluctantly, Halima went with a friend and headed straight upstairs, where the planning committee was meeting. The aspirant asked for the programme of events and what was expected of her at the flag-off but she was directed to the chairman’s office. Barrister Muhammad Musa Soba, the state chairman, was meeting with about 10 people in the office, Halima told Weekly Trust.
When she presented her demand, Soba allegedly flared up, saying she had no business with the programme of event as she wasn’t the party’s candidate. “He said that I don’t have money, I can’t win the election and that I refused to step down for another aspirant,” she says.
Before she could answer, someone hit her from behind and before long, slaps and blows were rained on her. Her friend rushed downstairs, informed Halima’s police detail and policemen of Kaduna’s special security programme called ‘Operation Yaki’. Around 1pm, the policemen came in two vans and rescued Halima, whisked her to police headquarters and took her to a hospital afterwards. She is now in a private clinic, badly bruised and battered.
In his defense, Soba says Halima stormed his office in the middle of a meeting, calling him names. “I was surprised but before I could even answer her, she sprayed me with a substance which made me unconscious,” Soba told Weekly Trust. After regaining consciousness, the chairman said that he went to an eye clinic for examination.
But a question still remains unanswered: Was he the one who ordered thugs to beat her senseless or the thugs just happened from nowhere? This unanswered question forms a disturbing pattern of what have become attacks targeted specifically at female politicians in states across Nigeria as the April polls draw nearer.
Halima’s plight is shared by Mrs Herbetha Okonufua also another ACN candidate in Edo State who got beaten by thugs whom she alleges were sent to assassinate her last Saturday. A party official in the state, a woman, Mrs Marcelina Okoduwa sustained a deep machete cut on her neck when she was attacked by thugs at a campaign tour. In a petition written to the police, Mrs Okonufua alleged she was targeted because some people in the party were not happy she was declared winner in the recent party primaries in the state where she picked the ACN ticket for Edo Central Senatorial district. She alleged in the petition that she has received threats from one Comrade Irabor who warned her against holding campaign rally at the venue where she was later attacked.
Significantly, just like Mrs Okoduwa and Irabor, Halima and Soba from the Kaduna ACN had crossed swords in the past. The chairman, according to Halima, had petitioned the national headquarters, alleging that her credentials are fake. The party wrote her and the aspirant went to Abuja to defend her certificates but not without an incident. Around 8pm, after meeting with party officials, she boarded a taxi but instead of taking her home, the driver took her to a secluded place where she was beaten and robbed. Thereafter, owing to this attack and constant harassment, she complained to the police and she was given a police escort. The aspirant says her campaign meeting was once disrupted by thugs at the Women Multi-purpose Hall and “because of this kind of harassment, I have decided to be doing face-to-face campaigns at market places.”
As things stand, Halima insists that she is the party’s candidate because her name is with INEC. Soba, on the other hand, said that she has been replaced because her certificates were allegedly bought from Yaba, Lagos “and I have evidence to back what I’m saying.”
While Halima’s face-off with members of her party bent on stopping her from standing for election continues, the police have yet to prosecute anyone in connection with the beating meted out on her at the ACN secretariat in Kaduna, something which leaves the likelihood that another attack may be coming again anytime soon as she still refused to back down from standing for elections.
Just like the two female politicians in the ACN, Hajiya Balaraba Lawal Bello is one among the women politicians that face challenges in Bauchi State. She told Weekly Trust: “I joined politics in order to fight discrimination against women in Nigeria.” But once she became actively involved in politics, Balaraba realized the discrimination she must first fight against is the one against letting women vie for political office even after winning the ticket of their parties.
Her story is one of sustained endurance even after repeated disappointments from various political parties. She joined the PDP and contested for election in 2003 but she says her ambition was scuttled when party leaders, who are all men, told her to forget her ambition. Not daunted, she again tried contesting for the ticket of the PDP for the House of Representatives in 2010 but was stopped when thugs were sent to her parents’ home to beat her up. While she managed to escape, the house was attacked and vandalized. “The discrimination against me angered my supporters who after consultations we decided and dumped PDP for CPC, a place where we think we can get justice because of General Buhari. In fact I was the first contestant for the House of Representatives office in Bauchi.”
But even this move proved to be fraught with dangers. While in the CPC, Balaraba’s ordeal intensified somewhat. A Bauchi cleric with ties to the party advised Muslims not to vote for a woman as a leader to any elective office in Nigeria. She reported the matter to the party leadership who promised they would investigate her claims and she continued with her campaign. She says even though she faces financial constraints in her campaigns and lacks the money to win the support of followers as is the norm in the country, the door-to-door campaign she adopted where she visited every party delegate in person helped her win the CPC primary election with the highest votes of 7,000 against her male contestants.
After winning the primaries, more attacks followed. She says: “My political opponents sponsored thugs who attacked me during General Buhari’s last visit to Bauchi. They attacked our vehicles; my supporters had to cover me with blankets, wrappers and veils to rescue me.”
Balaraba says: “The thugs came in large number with arms and dangerous weapons, chanting slogans and threatening to kill me and my supporters. They blocked our convoy during Buhari’s visit last Saturday; they were looking for me and didn’t see me at first because I was using a private car. They destroyed the car and injured two people. I reported the matter to the State Security Services, SSS.” In a telephone interview with Weekly Trust, State Director, SSS, says: “The woman had reported to me that her political opponents wrongly substituted her name and they are victimizing her, there was threat against her life she alleged. We are investigation the matter. ”
Balaraba’s alleged substitution was with the name of her opponent in the primary, Aliyu Gebi whom she accused of doing so many things to frustrate her. Reacting to Balaraba’s allegations, media aide to Aliyu Gebi, Mohammed T. Abdullahi says: “All the allegations against Gebi by Balaraba are false. Gebi always preached for peace and stability. There is no way he can sponsor thugs, even if anybody attacked her in the name of supporting Gebi. Initially, Gebi won the primary with 2,999 votes; Balaraba came fourth with 776 votes. She maneuvered her way to Abuja where some national officers sent her name to INEC. Balaraba has problems with party supporters in the state because they are not happy with her, the way she snatched votes from the winner Gebi.”
The ordeal the women face in their aspiration for political office is a probable reason why women in Nigeria who hope to win political offices ride on the backs of their influential husbands or the men in their lives. Almost without exception, the few women in the state and federal legislators and those holding ministerial appointments and keys positions in the country are the wives and daughters of men who still call the shots in their parties or men who had held influential offices in the past. In the Senate for example, it is now becoming a fashion that the wives of former governors and party leaders are the ones getting the opportunity to represent the women bloc. While the practice is sneered at, it is probably the safest chance the women have to aspire to public office.
“The analysis differs when it comes to some women,” says Dr. Usman Mohammed of the University of Abuja Political Science department. “These women that were assaulted in Bauchi and Kaduna could be termed as women with grassroots support and mobilization strategies and that was why they set some nerves jittery. People with such pedigree could pull surprises. But also in the same society, there are women that are untouchable. These are women with family connections and godfathers. Have you ever heard any case of such women being assaulted? This is unhealthy for our democracy. Women are to be encouraged.”
Little encouragement has come by way of parties pledging to reserve some slots in political offices for women. But Dr. Istifanus A. Yawe, a political commentator and consultant on legislative matters scoffs at the idea. “With this, how would the government achieve their charade of giving women 35 percent representative slots if at this level they cannot be protected?”
But why are the women perceived as threats? Dr. Mohammed says: “They know that the level of political awareness is getting high and if these women are allowed to keep advancing, the other women who are hitherto uninterested would begin to generate interest and try to occupy some space as well. Meanwhile, women have serious voter strength, numerically. They are also more committed to vote during elections than men. So if such women are allowed to keep up the pace, other women might come out to support them.” The saying that power is taken, not given comes to mind. Clearly, men are saying women in politics should not expect power to be given to them. But how do they take it, with the men running the show and showing no sign of bringing them on board? Maybe they still have to keep riding on the back of men.