Source: Leadership
The dynamics of modern development weigh heavily on empowerment of the womenfolk. Gone are the days when development is measured by income alone.
Gone with those days too are the stereotypical classification of women as the 'property' of men suitable only for the kitchen and procreation.
There is a new thinking that if you train a man, you train an individual, while training a woman is considered training a nation. Empirical evidence also abounds to buttress the fact that the few women who have been saddled with public trusts execute them better than their male counterparts.
That's why of all the sing-songs of the last electioneering process in the President Goodluck Jonathan to actualize the affirmative action globally pegged at minimum of 30 per cent representation for women in leadership and governance.
No doubt, as women politicians enter the political arena in greater and greater numbers, and more and more female candidates are elected for the first time to public offices, the changing face of leadership is growing more female globally. For instance, 49 per cent of the face lawmakers in Rwandu parliament are women. Jacob Zuma's cabinet in South Africa is also replete with women. The developments in these nations are far incomparable with Nigeria's.
However, from the list being churned out as ministerial nominees, it remains to be seen how the president would not be labeled a liar on his 35 per cent representation in his government. Already, his quest to get a female speaker for the House of Representatives in Mulikat Adeola was badly thwarted by poor strategic thinking by his party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
The women he has on his list are also old wines in new bottles; nothing has changed, except he wants to confirm the limits of his intelligence in providing new solutions to Nigeria's old challenges. There are quality women out there.
That's why it is surprising that of all the PDP-elected state chief executives, Dr. Mu'azu Babangida Aliyu stirred my nerve in his presentation of a cabinet list last month containing four women. Going by his devil-may-care mien and combustible outbursts, Governor Babangida Aliyu, who prefers to be called the Chief Servant, cuts the picture of a stormy petrel.
Prior to releasing the list, I learnt he had rejected a list submitted to him by party stalwarts for local government caretaker committees. According to my source, his grouse was that women were underrepresented. The sturdy ex-bureaucrat stunned his kitchen cabinet when he insisted on having at least a female in each of the six member caretaker committees for 25 LGAs in the state.
More astounding is the fact that at the height of the electioneering campaigns when most politicians played to the gallery and made empty promises to sway women voters who were clearly in the majority, Governor Aliyu would rather make none. Indeed, not many were familiar with his manifesto and road map. He carried on as if he was keeping a business success to his chest to outsmart his competitors in the marketplace.
No one read his blueprint. Many consigned him to the notoriety of regaling Nigerians with why his party should forget clinching the Lagos State gubernatorial race. Some would say he was blunt to a fault and never vacillates on issues that are as clear as daylight. But that is not politically correct. As a PDP flag bearer, his statement lauding Gov. Babatunde Raji Fashola cast him in the mould of an anti-party activist.
Now, Aliyu has scored a bull's eye by nominating Hassana Adamu Ciroma (Borgu), Hadiza Abdullahi (Chanchaga), Susan Gana (Katcha) and Victoria Jiya (Lavun) to his cabinet, demystifying the old order in the largely conservative, Muslim-dominated Niger State. It behoves on Aliyu's appointees to justify their inclusion in the team.
The governor, in my estimation, also scored a religious point by choosing equal number of women from the two dominant religious groups in the country – two Muslims and two Christians – into his cabinet. The message is not lost on us that Babangida Aliyu is rooting for something beyond what meets the eye.
These women need to learn very fast as ambassadors of Beijing '85. The woman who chaired the conference that midwifed the 'affirmative action', Gro Harlem Brundtland, successfully led a cabinet of 50 per cent women in her native Norway and today, Norway is better for her 'risk'. Niger State would rely on these women to justify why the womenfolk should mainstreamed, empowered and be given a chance in our polity. Lessons abound in history where women went beyond the calls of duty to become icons.
In the 1st century, Boudicaa inspirational leadership made Britain. She led several tribes in revolt against the Roman occupation. Her army of 100,000 sacked Colchester and then London.
Between 1122 and 1204 when she lived, Eleanor of Aquitaine, the first queen of France, trained her two sons Richard and John who went on to become kings of England. Educated, beautiful and highly articulate, Eleanor influenced the politics of Western Europe through her alliances and influence over her sons.
So was Elizabeth 1, Queen of England during a time of great economic and social change. She saw England cemented as a Protestant country. During her reign, she witnessed the defeat of the Spanish Armada, leaving Britain to later become one of the world's dominant superpowers. Catherine the Great played an important role in improving the lot of the Russian serfs. She placed great emphasis on the arts and helped to cement Russia as one of the dominant countries in Europe.
In contemporary times, the exploits, selfless services and influence of Mother Teresa, Dorothy Hodgkin (who discovered both penicillin and later insulin) changed the health care world. Rosa Parks, who died in 2005, refused to give up her bus seat to a white man, thus indirectly effecting the most significant civil rights legislation in American history. Indra Ghandi, the first female prime minister of India, left her footprint in the sands of time. Margaret Thatcher, the first female prime minister of Great Britain, defined a decade.
She is remembered for her emphasis on individual responsibility and belief in free markets. Benazir Bhutto was the first female prime minister of a Muslim country. She helped to move Pakistan from a dictatorship to democracy in 1977. She sought to implement social reforms, in particular helping the women and the poor.
Make no mistakes about it, Africa has her own heroines too: Ellen Sirleaf (Liberia), Agathe Uwillingiyimana (Rwanda) Elizabeth Domitien (CAR), Sylvie Kinigie (Burundi), Mame Madior Boye (Senegal), Rose Rogombe (Gabon), Luisa Diogo (Mosambique) and the Marias (Sousa and Silveria) of Sao Tome and Principe shaped their societies by challenging the status quo. And Mathai Wangari of Kenya influenced thoughts.
At every time, in every place, women have always mattered. In Nigeria, the Fumilayo Ransome-Kutis, Gambo Sawabas, Margaret Ekpos in the colonial days are reference points. Similar stories surround the mythical Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Oby Ezekwesili and Dora Akunyili's inspired leadership. That's the challenge before Aliyu Babangida's women.