Gender roles are no longer confined. In the corporate and business spheres, women are writing their names in gold. However, one crucial area where women are still underrepresented in Nigeria is politics and governance.
Only one of the 18 presidential contenders running in next year’s election is a woman. The independent national electoral commission’s final list of presidential and national assembly candidates for the 2023 general election also revealed a lack of representation for women.
Speaking on TVC Breakfast, National Women leader of the All Progressive Congress Betta Edu said the journey to becoming the Women National Leader of the party was not an easy one and it didn’t start today.
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According to her, the political space is not so used to having young people at that level but the narrative has changed.
She stated that as a woman going into politics, it is ironic that you still have to contend with men before you are able to mobilise the woman.
In trying to find her own as a politician, the APC women leader said
one of the key things was understanding the different roles that the various genders bring to the table and trying to respect and accommodate and then create the right narrative, that it’s not a competition but a complementary role, working together to build a nation.
“It’s more like a professional system where more men are in leadership positions and then women are stereotyped once there is any single error of a woman who is in leadership.
“Women should be mainstreamed and it’s important that women are taking on their merits rather than being judged as being a woman and so not able to participate in leadership.
Speaking further, Betta Edu said it has been a very rough ride growing to this point especially when you have core values,which you must not break, which also includes your own beliefs and upbringing and your covenant belief with God spiritually which you don’t want to go against.
” There are places where you actually have to massage the ego of men, you have to just make them feel comfortable working under you. You have to make them feel comfortable working with you as team partners. And it’s been really, really a very tough one.
“There are situations where we’ve out rightly as women, gone against policies, gone against push back by society stereotypes that have said, we are not fit for purpose. We cannot be at leadership.
“I remember clearly situations where when I was the director General and CEO of the Controversy primary health care Development agency, and I was asking for more inclusion of women health workers in our health workforce and also the primary health care under one roof. And I was told at the meeting, that, as a woman, i should not be talking like this. So they felt for cultural reasons or other reasons, you should not sound authoritative, you should not sound strong and firm. You should be able to shift ground, but you have to put it direct to them that, look, for us to get this thing to work and work well, we’re not competing, We’re only saying that this is the right step to take. And I was happy. At the end of the day, they all came around back to the same table.
“Sometimes you have to go an extra mile to lobby them.
” I remember carrying different proposals to the executive council at the state level, and you have to go through one colleague after the other to explain the reason why it should be so, to explain why women should be protected, to explain why programs should be gender sensitive. If not, they will be excluded. To explain why women are part of the vulnerable. These are things which we had to push on on a day to day basis.
“It’s been a tough one growing as a woman and a young woman in the political space, in the entire environment. But I think one thing that has been very encouraging is that we’ve had very strong he for she and we’ve also had very strong she for she’s, women who support women, women who come all out to stand behind other women and push for their rights. And I believe the more women we have in the political space, the more women we have in Nigerian growth and development, stable decision making positions, it will really help our country travel at the speed of light”. She added
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