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Opinion: Many More Women Wanted

M.O. ENE

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Women are reemerging worldwide as strong leaders. Germany’s Angela Markel wowed. Jacinda Ardern of New Zealand rocks. Croatia, Taiwan, Finland, Tanzania, Denmark, etc. have successful and young female leaders. Nigeria is not so lucky. No state has a female governor. No state has the 35% female affirmative threshold of political appointments. Lagos comes close with 30%. Governor Soludo just posted 25% in Anambra. Enugu State has no female county chairperson, after Barrister Nkechi Ugwu-Oju of Igbo-Etiti, but Nkanụ West Chairman Uche Ejim has posted 22% females in his cabinet. Impressive: many have near-zero.

In observance of International Women’s Day 2022 (IWD), I lamented in “Gender Gap: Breaking the Bias” that many women had not protested the defeat of commonsensical constitutional amendments to promote gender equity. Some women groups later protested at the entrance of the National Assembly (NASS). On Saturday, March 26, during the ruling party’s convention in Abuja, some women blocked the motorcade of some VIPS. Alas, the country’s continued crawl to yet another precipice keeps many women, the millions of breadwinners, focused more on making basic ends meet.

In 2005, I attended the Commonwealth conference on women participation in politics at Abuja Transcorp Hilton. It attracted the crème de la crème of women in the political sphere. I posited that women could solve the situation not by agonizing but by organizing and running for offices to reduce the number of Talibaneque legislators in NASS. It is difficult but doable. Progress has since surfaced, albeit at snail-speed.

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Small streams sire seas. During the last county elections in Enugu State, Senator Chimaroke Nnamani, a staunch supporter of gender equity and the indisputable male champion of woman affairs in the Ninth Senate, backed four women councilors in his Enugu East senatorial district. They won. A certain Ifeoma Amadi Isienyi ran in Egede/Ụmụọka ward of Udi LGA under APGA. Publicity was poor. Finance was probably tight. She lost. Imagine what a drive-by support from APGA’s Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu could have done for her and thousands of women voters!

Some women are not helping matters; once they get up there, they kick off the ladder. Anambra State has made tremendous leaps in political representation. Not only has the state produced the only Nigerian female governor and a female speaker of the house, but it also nearly sent an all-female senate slate to the Ninth Senate, if not for the failure of APGA to bequeath Bianca, the widow of the party’s political patron saint, with the ticket for Anambra South.

Anambra may present again a strong female representation in 2023. Senator Uche Ekwunife may face Oby Ezekwesili. Both Bianca and Ebele Obiano, immediate-past first lady, may contest in different senatorial districts. Bianca deserves kudos for running from Anambra instead of driving down the road to her native Enugu. She did not follow the footsteps of Daisy Danjuma in returning to her native Edo for a senate seat, or Stella Oduah in returning to Anambra, where she is a princess of Ogbaru. First Lady of Ondo Betty Anyanwu-Akeredolu also wants to go to NASS to represent her native Imo East Senatorial District, and Mrs. Ginika Tor Williams is returning to Enugu for another gubernatorial trial.

In Enugu, three women have noticeably stepped into the ring for elective offices. An ex-appointee of Governor Sullivan Chime, Dr. Amaka Oduh, is running for the House of Representatives (Udi/Ezeagu), as is another lady from Igbo-Etiti/Uzo Uwani. Dr. IfeSinachi Ugwuonye-Okechukwu has not only indicated interest for the Enugu West senatorial district, to replace ex-DSP Ike Ekweremadu, but she has also obtained the expensive PDP forms. These women follow in the footsteps of Loretta Aniagolu, Peace Nnaji, Stella Ngwu, Ethel Nebo-Ezeabasili, Juliet Ibekaku Nwagwu, etc.

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The fire is lit. Nigeria’s NASS has stirred a nest of hornets, and the gate of big-boy bastions is about to get some serious knocks. Watch out for other regions beyond Aladimma, the southeast of Nigeria. No matter the outcome of current efforts, women are breaking the bias by answering the call for many more women wanted to step out and onto political platforms.

©MOE, 4.4.22
@aladimma