Category: New Woman

Eniola Sheri Dada resigned as an Assistant General Manager (AGM) in an insurance firm 12 years ago. Since then, she has been into consultancy and civil society organisation work. In this interview with Yetunde Oladeinde, she shares some of her passions, especially working with women in cross border trade. 

WHAT does gender mean to you? There is a standard definition of gender that includes men and women. My personal definition is simply seeing how we can empower women in every facet of life, whether it’s business, development, entrepreneurship or self sufficiency and their social obligations. I have been in the area for over a decade now and what I have found out is that from the very beginning there was never a level playing field and all the institutions are male-dominated in structure. So, from that premise, women have a lot of catchment to do. That is not to say that there aren’t advancements over the years but there is still so much to be done. It is important that women are properly positioned to be able to fulfil their own destiny. You cannot disable half of the population and expect Nigerians to make any significant advancement.

Are there some significant changes?

In Nigeria, we still need to do a lot. We need to disabuse the mind of the society that reinforces the dummy that has been sold that women are the weaker sex; they are not good for anything. That is a paradox because women bear life and we ensure the sustenance of generations. A lot has been done but we still need to take it further and by September, at the UN, all the heads of state and presidents will converge to validate the SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) to take over from the MDGs in 2016. The MDGs did a lot because, at the centre, the thread that bound all the issues together related to women. It was at the centre and it was said that any country that was able to achieve the goals, the women would be better from all perspectives.

The Violence against Persons Bill has just been passed into law. Do you think this would also make things better?

I think that it is a welcome development and we are happy. However, in terms of sensitisation, information and more importantly, implementation has always been the problem that we have. There are some good laws in the books but implementation is the problem. Lagos State is an excellent example of what should be obtainable at the national level. The ministry of women affairs and social development is very active. They have a unit that is able to respond. Then there is also the office of public prosecution. If a woman’s life is threatened, they are able to evacuate her. Lagos State is one of the few states that also have a shelter in a hidden place, where they move the woman and her children if her life is threatened. We also need a structure, especially at the state, that is where the problem is.

What are some of the things you have done working with UN women?

ECOWAS and UN women Nigeria initiated an idea of coming up with a documentary on women’s cross border trade. That is my area of strength at the moment. Unfortunately, these women are not as glamorous as our women in business. They are further down the economic ladder, they are semi illiterate. They do not know what the ECOWAS trade protocols are. However, for me, they are the ones sustaining the sub regional economy. They bandy about twelve to thirteen per cent but I disagree. Women are under the radar and no institution including ECOWAS is capturing what these women are doing.

 So by the time we are capturing the extent of trade along the sub region, I believe that it would be considerably higher. For the documentary, a team came to Nigeria and they were asked to do this. ECOWAS then told them that there was someone working in women and cross border trade. They found that I was not part of the team and they insisted that I had to be and I was brought in. I became a researcher to support the team and in the process I took them to a place they had not heard about – a place where women from all over West Africa came to book for goats and other items from Nigeria. The day we went, you won’t believe the amount of trailers put on the road for this. Sometimes, they go on water; you can’t imagine what was going on. We also went to Badagry and Seme as well to talk to them as well as find out what the issues were.

The main bodies in charge are the Customs, Immigration, the joint border patrol which is managed by the Nigeria Police on our side. Those are the ones that the women come across and there is always an issue because they do not have documents. For ECOWAS countries, you do not need a visa but they ask for some sort of travelling document. ECOWAS is trying to put in place an ECOWAS I.D. card and if any trader is holding that, she doesn’t need to be harassed. I have done two projects supported by DFID and in 2012; one of the components was to have sensitisation workshops for the customs, immigration and joint border police. A lot of these women are widows and single mothers, they are the bread winners. For cross border trade, the entry is easy; they do not need any formal qualification and the women have also devised a system of making use of daily contribution. As long as you are in the group, access to credit, which is an issue for women in business, would be taken care of. As educated as I am, you find that there is always policy somersault and I get confused not to talk of these women.

Then DFID was supporting the presidential task force on trade facilitation and I got to travel with them because of my projects. We need to look at the women differently, instead of vilifying and treating them like dirt. There is also the issue of exchange because they travel with cash and when they get to the next country they change the money. Ecobank which is the sub regional bank needs to work on this because the women are moving to and fro with money. Instead, they can load the money on a card and even help to pay the supplier from here. The women are unbanked, outside the serious banking system. It is also taxes going out of the window. They are robbed, raped, cheated and harassed. The 2012 project was adjudged to be very successful and last year DFID approached me again, they wanted to scale it up to the West African region and we had raising voices. We had the Nigerian review and we also went to Ghana where we made some interesting discoveries. The Ghana Export Promotion Council is working with the women traders, which is what I would like to advocate should happen in Nigeria.

What about the problems facing women in business generally?

For them, there is the issue of access to credit. I am the national secretary for the Nigerian chapter of a pan Africa organisation founded by Gracia Machel, Mandela’s widow. One of the critical concerns is access to finance and presently we are engaging with government at different levels to see how they can support them. There are funds earmarked for this; 60 per cent of the funds available for SMEs have been earmarked for women entrepreneurs but the only people that have accessed most of the funds are men.

What are some of your memorable moments?

I have done a number of projects and I have been invited to come and speak outside Nigeria. There was a meeting in Rwanda and they invited me to Ghana, an African roundtable to talk about women traders. In Rwanda, I had to give account of what I had done. In attendance, you had people from Africa, Europe as well and it was a humbling experience for me. They also wanted to know how I got into women and cross border trade and I had to share a personal experience. My late mother had always been a wife of a diplomat but when my father went into retirement, she went into this trading.

That inspired me and it was quite touching speaking to distinguished audience that included ministers. Also, there was a time somebody was invited to NECA and she asked me to represent her on violence and women cross border trade. She told them that I was the one that would do justice to the topic and I sat there, it was very exciting for me. I also did a two-part course in South Africa. Gender was at the centre of it; that was in 2013 and it ended last year. You go have three weeks interaction in South Africa and then come back and six months later you come back again. I just got my certificate and I am proud of it. It is called training for transformation. I was the only one from Nigeria and West Africa. I am also interested in leadership training for women and the trade investment and competitiveness commission.

The Country Women’s Association of Nigeria (COWAN) is one of the few women organisations with chapters across the country. Founded by Chief Bisi Ogunleye, it empowers women with credit facilities. The organisation is a beneficiary of the central bank’s N220 billion micro credit loans for women. Ogunleye went to sign the documents for the loan a few days before her death last year. The Centre for International Private Enterprise (CIPE) and the Association of Nigeria Women Business Network (ANWBN) came together recently in Ondo State to give COWAN a new direction. At that meeting, Princess Adesola Ogunleye emerged as the organisation’s new leader. In this interview with Yetunde Oladeinde, she talks about her plans to take women out of poverty and the last moments of COWAN’s initiator.

WHAT were some of the initial challenges? After the demise of mama, Chief Mrs Bisi Ogunleye, I faced a little challenge. Let me call it a little challenge because God intervened in the middle of the storm. When I took over the seat, there were some leaders that did not want to accept me as the national president of the organisation. There were some things that happened in the month that I was inaugurated as President and Executive Director of COWAN. Some leaders gathered together and said ‘no, this is not real.’ Then after some weeks, they came together again and said, it’s Princess that we want, we want you on the seat. The other challenge that we are faced with now is financial because when you are invited for a programme there are lots of financial implications but we also thank God. We are happy that COWAN’s programmes are going on within and outside Nigeria.

How did you emerge as the leader?

I emerged as the leader before the demise of Mama COWAN. I have been controlling some local governments in Ondo West. Afterwards, she took me as a daughter and started mentoring me, telling me about COWAN; this is how I want you to go about COWAN. So I had to be a good listener and the Lord gave me the grace to stand the difficulties in the race. Then there was a day, she called me and said Princess, I want you to open your Bible to this chapter and read the words in it for me. I read it and it was about Elijah and Elisha.

After reading, she said, ‘do you know what I want to pick out from this? It is how Elisha got the authority from Elijah.’ I told her some of the things I have heard about these men over the years and mama said: ‘You are now my Elisha, the focus of COWAN in the future. Are you going to wait till the time God takes your Elijah away from you?’ I told mama that I would and prayed that the Lord would show me the day my Elijah is going. She was talking in parables. She never called me to say ‘Princess, you would take over from me when I die.’ Instead she kept saying so many things in parables.

However, through the mentoring, through the initiatives of COWAN, telling me the vision and mission of the organisation, I was encouraged to focus on COWAN. Then one day, she asked me, ‘Princess, are you sure you are going to stay with me?’ When I said yes, she was very happy and her face brightened immediately. Then she said, ‘do you know that you are my happiness.’ I asked her why she said so and she replied that whenever I was with her she forgets all the things that caused her sadness or sorrow in life. That I was putting joy in her heart and she was sure that COWAN would not die in future. I was not told directly that I would be the president of COWAN.

 All I know is that I have passion for the woman, the initiator of the organisation. Just before I met her, I had an organisation that I was running. It is called Princess HADE, formed from my names, Helen Adesola. I was introduced to her by one of my sisters, Olori Ronke Akindoju, the Olori Bankeemo, a village in Ile-Oluji, Okeegbo.

The community is called Bankeemo. She came to my meeting, which I organised some years back. Then I empowered women with microcredit facilities to boost their businesses. She was the one who advised me to join COWAN, learn the ropes and touch women in other parts of the country, which was the focus of the organisation. Just before I met mama, I was into trading. I sold clothes, shoes, bags and other accessories. Then I was travelling to Dubai, London and I brought in imported lace and had a lot of customers for this. Later, I went into land speculation. I used my capital to buy land and sell. I have some of them in Lagos, Ibadan and Ondo.

Where do you get the energy for all this?

I emulate my grandmother, the Oba obirin of Ondo kingdom, where my mother comes from. She was very hardworking. She took me from my mother when I was aged six months. I have been with her through my childhood till I got married. After my marriage, the lord gave me the man of my choice, who has been supporting me. He has been good to me and the pillar of my success in COWAN, Prince Ade Ogunleye.

Could this be because he is married to a beautiful woman?

No, it is because I am hardworking and he knows the type of woman that he is married to. Beauty alone cannot allow a man to be at your side. You have to be hard working and when you tell your husband or anybody that you are going to the market, let it be market. Be trustworthy; be loyal to your husband and everybody around you.

Where did you learn these values?

I learnt them from my grandmother and I learnt from mama COWAN. The first time that I attended the COWAN meeting, I didn’t have much time and immediately after the meeting I took off. The next meeting I attended, I came voluntarily and they had sent me my membership number.  When I got the message, I told my husband that they had COWAN meeting in Ondo and I had to be there in Akure. It was a memorable meeting, but by the third meeting, I realised that when the meeting ended, everyone would go and they left her behind on the chair.

She would now be looking for someone who would take her home. Sometimes, her driver may have left or her vehicle was not okay. So I asked her, “Mama, can I take you home?” She said, “I would appreciate it”, and I did this a second and third time. When I was about to leave the third time, she asked me to come back, that she wanted to talk to me. That was in 2005, and she started telling me stories about some of the memorable moments in the past. When I wanted to leave, she pleaded with me to stay the night with her. I told her that I have called Ondo that I was in Akure, then she said maybe it was because her house was not fine or that she did not have soup for a rich lady like me.

I was touched and I pleaded with her to allow me to call my people and I stayed back. That night, we talked and talked; we slept around 1.am. She wanted to know if I would stay with COWAN and I said yes. From there, I had interest for mama, had passion for her work and the things that she stood for. She is a very strong woman and I saw that she was coping without even using drugs without anything. Then one day, I asked her what the magic was and she told me it was God. Then she invited me to a programme in her church at WOSEM, Obadare’s church. She told me to be there on the first of the next month. From there, I got interested in going to Koseunti programme. Then I went to a WOSEM conference in Ilesha and she asked me to be on her right side. She is the chairman of fundraising for WOSEM Worldwide. She said I want you to be my right partner and I said okay. She later went and mentioned me to the general secretary, Pastor Jare Olaoye. She told him that she wanted him to replace her in future with Princess. The man now asked mama what she was talking about. She said I don’t want her to leave this church and I want her to sit on my seat when I am gone. The man was laughing, saying mama; you are saying a story that cannot happen now. However, glory is to God today, the word she said was made a reality. They invited me and put me on the same seat that she used in WOSEM.

Let’s also talk about some of the other memorable moments that you shared together

There are so many. The one that I would like to talk about was when we went to Abuja for Nigeria’s 50th anniversary award and she was given an award. One I also considered as a miracle, there was a woman who hated mama so much, Mariam Abacha. She hated her so much that they locked her up in Aso Rock. The award in the banquet hall of that same Aso Rock, they asked Abacha’s wife to present the award to mama. Mama was angry. How can they tell Abacha’s wife to give her the award? She was angry and said that she would not take it. Then they came to me that your mother does not want to take the award and I told them that I would talk to her. I told her how she took me to the right hand of God and that this was the opportunity to prove God more. The Lord has made the enemy to be the one who would present you with an award. The president’s wife that says that you are nothing in their regime and then another president’s wife, Dame Jonathan, is recognising you. So when she was going to collect the award, Abacha’s wife held mama for about ten minutes, saying she was sorry. Mariam Abacha was in tears and mama was also in tears.