Raphael Ede, Enugu
Dame Virginia Ngozi Etiaba is a former governor of Anambra State and the first female governor in Nigeria.
In this interview, she says if women are given opportunity in politics they would change the leadership perceptions of Nigeria. She also painted a picture of how men have held down the female politicians. Excerpts:
What is your take on the level of women participation in politics in Nigeria and what do you think is militating against their chances?
As you know women have always cried out that we are being marginalized and that we are not given equal opportunity as the males. Really what is happening in this dispensation is nothing to write home about; women are demoralized, we are disgusted as things are going on and it will not take a long time before we rise if only the males, the politicians can give us the opportunity. There are many obstacles which women have to dismantle, especially when it comes to finance we are handicapped and finance is actually the backbone of politics, it’s the backbone of campaign and election in the country and women are not lucky to have such money that is why I said that our male politicians and the government must have to do something about it; to lay the standard of financing politics so that we can make headway; apart from that we are going nowhere. This heavy burden is on us women and we have to plead and ask God because I believe that if a woman is given the opportunity, she will perform better than most of the male folks we find in politics today. I have been on it so, I have the experience of what is going on and being a woman I know how I handled the state because women have the motherly feelings, we have more sympathy for our children than the male politicians. A woman caters for the homes, caters for the children even the husband; so, with all the experiences being acquired by women if we get on top we will apply such to douse what we are having this day; unemployment everywhere, children are roaming the street, behaving as if they are not from homes and this is not what the Lord has bargained for us.
How would you describe the militarization of the 2019 general election and the attended human destruction that followed?
A lot of killings, maiming and frustration have really been witnessed in this dispensation and that was more pronounced during the elections, and calling for electronic voting will lead us into education. We really need education because you cannot talk of electronic voting without first of all educating the populace. So, what we need is conventional education to get our children and ourselves educated. We need political education. We need actually to be convinced that the country needs to be overhauled, decentralized because it’s so wide that controlling the zones is difficult, but if we can restructure the country and then, we talk of electronic voting, we talk of education then we say that we are now coming. But as far as this position in which we are remains, electronic voting will not help us unless we improve on our educational system, training our children from the home, train our children academically, train our children to be computer literate; all these are the things we must first of all talk before we talk of electronic voting because people who will manage, control it must be educated.
What do you have to tell the new generation of Nigerian politicians from your experience in politics and as a mother?
The message I have for the new crop of politicians is first of all to have that vision; the vision of knowing actually what they want, it’s not question of every year you come out to promise the illiterate what you will do in order to get them to the moon. No, the politicians are deceiving the populace, the people at the grassroots are uninformed; therefore, this politician or anybody aspiring to go into politics must first of all be educated, be a professional or have a handiwork so that if the vision fails or not elected you will then fallback to his profession rather than causing confusion in the society, and creating problems.
Some people have called for a part-time legislature in Nigeria because of the cost of running our presidential system. Do share that view?
Money that is voted is too much and I’m all out for ad-hoc; that is number of days that they will appear and then collect their stipend. Most times you look at the hall, it is virtually empty with dotted few, but at the end they will collect their big salary and that goes to drain the budget of the country. I am saying that there has to be a new dimension to it; let them look for another system that will pay us and reduce the amount we spend on campaign and winning or not winning; vote-buying or not vote-buying, deceiving the grassroots. Because you know there is lots of poverty, there is lots of hunger and that is why any amount you give to these illiterate folks they will accept it from you and then sell their votes not knowing that N1,000; N2,000 or even N5,000 has nothing to do with long suffering that awaits them.
How can you score INEC, considering that we spend over N200 billion to organize this 2019 general elections?
The truth is out there, let the people judge from what they saw.
Don’t you think that our family value has been eroded and as a result we have these ills in the society today?
Like the Bible has said, train up a child in the way he should grow and when he grows up he will not depart from it, but how many of us, parents are found in their various home with their children. That is what you should ask yourself; is it not the child you see that you will educate? Is it not the mother that is supposed to make sure that these children are brought up from the early stage of their life because the mother is the closest and if the home is not happy no one will be happy? If the home is not happy how can you train your child? So, if you don’t train your child and he grows up, he finds himself with miscreants in the society; he becomes an armed robber, stealing, prostitution and all these are the things that are found in the society and can go to derail our hard-earned habit.