Titi Ajanaku, one of Nigeria’s foremost female politicians bares her mind to Senior Reporter, ANTHONIA SOYINGBE, on issues pertaining to women in politics.
Ajanaku
It seems the role of Nigerian women in politics does not exceed entertaining men by singing and dancing at political gatherings. As an experienced female politician, what should be the roles of women in partisan politics?
Politics is about governance. Though it is a discipline, I will not describe it as a calling. But, any woman going into politics must have a cogent reason she is going into it. You don’t just join a political party with the sole aim of clapping and dancing. I always tell women who I mentor to define their reasons for coming into politics before they venture into it. If they are going into politics to look for boyfriends, they will surely get it the moment they get there. It is quite unfortunate that many people are in politics without even thinking why they are there. Some look at it as the easiest way to get money, the money that will stick in their throat. A woman in politics, I believe, must have an idea of what she is there for. It is quite unfortunate that due to poverty and other issues, women go there for a wrong purpose.
If you have an ambition, if you have the feeling of wanting to better the lot of people, you go there with that purpose and you better the lots of people with that purpose in mind. It is not an easy terrain as you rightly know; but, anything that is good and worth having can’t be gotten on a platter of gold. When you move in there, nobody will give you what you want on a platter of gold. Women are mobilisers; but, it is unfortunate that they don’t get the worth for their efforts. They know all they need is crumb and all they ever give them are crumbs from the table and this is very unfortunate. For those who have focus, there is always a kind of resistance from the male politician; but it depends on the woman. If you as a woman want to go into politics, make sure you get your bearings correct.
For those whose children are still very young, I plead with them not to abandon their children because of political outings; you can stand by being nice to your neighbours so that at the appropriate time, you will be recommended for political office. Start by setting your name on the heart of the people. The system doesn’t help much and unfortunately, there is no room for independent candidature. For you to get nominated for anything in your party, your lots depend on the kind of party executive you have and if you look at the executives of the parties at various level, the only one that is pronounced there is Woman Leader.
They won’t offer them key posts and women won’t even fight for it. Women are not part of principal officers that takes the day-to-day decisions of running the party. This is so because women are not pushing enough and they lack the financial muscle to contest for elections. We also find it difficult to take risks; a good number of men will not think twice before they put up all their properties for sale before they contest election. A woman will not do that because we are managers of men and resources. Women generally are very prudent. Some of our men are so chauvinistic that they don’t even give space for women. In some area where you have men who are women-friendly, they try to give space and finally, quite often, women are their own problem. We chit chat on unnecessary things that do not bring any fruit and when we see one climbing up rather than we helping our fellow women, we push them down.
Why is it that women are best seen as entertainers at political gatherings?
Political parties are all about people, while election is about numbers. When you put together women from villages who are more than women in urban centres, when they all come together, they will only behave according to the mentality that they have. Illiteracy is also a factor. If you look at some women, the total capital they use for their businesses often is not more than N2,000. How do you expect such woman to act when someone willingly offers N10,000? She doesn’t really have to know the person, all she needs is peasant mobilisation fee and she goes ahead with the hope that when such person gets into power she will be compensated. Quite often, these men deliberately forget the women when they get into power. Take for instance women who campaigned rigorously for a particular candidate for months, at times with their children strap to their back, with noting in their stomach and all they get after the election are insults and humiliations from the man.
Honestly, once we collect money before election, we have no moral justification to ask them to do something for us. That was why Nigerian women joined other women across the globe to impress on each government on the need for affirmative action. We clicked glasses when former President Obasanjo signed the National Policy on Women, we clicked glasses, because, we thought we had arrived. By the time we mobilised women to contest elections, things were turned upside down by party leaders and there was nobody to fight for them.
When people are blaming women for not voting for Sarah Jubril, I often tell people that she failed before she left her base. In the convention of the party, to choose presidential candidate, you have to have delegates who often are loyal to the party. She didn’t have the wherewithal to finance it because the stage was dominated by men. Until it is possible for women to hold party offices that are relevant to their own vision, it will be difficult.
Former Minister of Women Affairs, Josephine Anenih, when asked why women didn’t vote for Sarah Jubril at the PDP’s presidential primaries said, women didn’t vote for her because they had a man who could do for women, what a woman could do for women. Was that also the case with you then?
I don’t understand the basis for her (Anenih’s) argument. This is just part of women’s attitude to women. She didn’t have a vote aside her vote because she didn’t have delegate. How many Local Governments did she visit and how many states did she equally visit? Until women change their attitude to their fellow women, things will continue like this. I am an optimist and I believe that with time we will get there, because, I am also looking forward to the day when we will have a woman president.
Any hope for more women representatives in Nigeria’s polity?
There is hope. But, are we determined? I believe there are some serious minded women that can come out and at least confront men. My prayer is that we have more women in power. Women are surely the answer to Nigeria’s socio-economy crisis. There are some women who have the capacity and the clout to withstand any obstacle.
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