The wife of Ondo State governor-elect, Mrs. Betty Anyanwu-Akeredolu, who is the founder/president of the Breast Cancer Association of Nigeria (BRECAN), recently enrolled at the University of Ibadan to pursue a Masters programme in Public Health. She shares her post-graduate study experience and her plans for Ondo women in the coming dispensation, in this interview with HANNAH OJO.
Mrs Betty-Anyanwu Akeredolu works with the energy of an elegant stallion. Apart from running BRECAN, which takes her to schools and symposiums within and outside Nigeria, she has also decided to pursue the knowledge advantage by enrolling for a second Masters degree in Public Health at the University of Ibadan.
A graduate of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Anyanwu-Akeredolu also holds a Masters Degree in Fisheries and Aquaculture from the Philippines . A breast cancer survivor, she explained that the quest to be better with her work on women and young people is the driving force behind her going back to enroll in a public health programme.
“I envisage that having the knowledge of public health would help a great deal in my work on breast cancer. Going for a second Masters degree says something about my passion and the experience so far has been interesting to say the least,” she enthused.
For a woman of high social standing who exerts influence even before the Ondo election, joining a class full of young people in their 20s and 30s should pose a challenge. To this statement, she gave an answer which further asserts her nurturing ability as a mother and friend to her children.
“My classmates are my children. In fact, my pet name in the faculty is grandma, including my lecturers. Everybody calls me grandma. It’s been fun and I was able to fit in because of my nurture. I am a friend to my children, so it was not difficult to me to fit into a class where you have people in 20s and 30s. They embraced me and I also embraced them as my children ,” she affirms.
As the wife of the incoming governor of Ondo State, Chief Rotimi Akeredolu (SAN), her works in the development sector also give credibility to her as an achiever in her own right. Does she get to enjoy special privileges from her lecturers and co-students owing to her status? Her response: “As soon as I get into class, I remove any garment or cloak and wear that of a student. I don’t expect any special treatment. I don’t crave for it. I am just there to acquire as much knowledge and skills as will help me pursue my interest in breast cancer advocacy.”
As her lilt echoes during the course of the interview, Mrs Anyanwu-Akeredolu, obviously enthusiastic about her new lease of life as a post- graduate student, offered that she is acquiring more knowledge than she bargained for. Even though she has had exposure at various international fora on public health issues, she was quick to add that taking a course on Public Health has enabled her learn the methodology of doing things differently.
“One of my papers is going to be presented at the world cancer conference in Paris and I could see the difference in the abstract I wrote this time and what I had written before. There was remarkable difference and the reason is because of this course. I have been taught how to approach issues and become more analytical”, she said.
As a grassroots politician who has contested for public office in her home town, it did not come as a surprise that she contributed a great deal to her husband’s gubernatorial bid. Going into the nooks and crannies in Ondo State to campaign for votes, especially among special interest groups, came as a natural for her. How she was able to combine the rigour of the election with academic and advocacy duties, is a feat that beats imagining.
In instances where there were clashes of interest between school duty and appearance on the campaign trail, she credits her ground team in Ondo State who helped schedule her programmes in a manner which enabled her contribute significantly to her husband’s campaign.
“It is a lot but the excitement kind of erases the stress”, she chips in.
Working in an area which serves to empower women and young people often comes with exciting moments. In the month of March this year, she was a guest at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, where she delivered a lecture at an event organised by the Association of Anambra Students in Nigeria. Another exciting moment for her was in Enugu State where about 400 students of Queens College signed up as members of the BRECAN club.
However, the most recent outing she will not cease to talk about was the ‘Jog for Life’ programme held in Akure where over 2,000 women turned up for medical benefits.
“It was a pleasant surprise. I nearly fainted when we got into the hall and I saw the crowd. Our budget was for 1,000 people but by the time I got there, our supplies were already exhausted, so we had to order for more. we brought in three consultants from OAU and it was done so that should we pick up lump, we can process treatment immediately. We did not only jog, we also provided free medical test on hypertension, sugar level, EMI and clinical breast examination.”
As the discussion progresses, she stated that she has restrained herself from making her advocacy work in Akure a political outing since BRECAN has no political affiliations. ‘Jog for life’ would also be spreading to other states. Her team is also working on concentrating on work place advocacy since many people are often unable to attend seminars during office hours. Another phase of her advocacy on breast cancer, which is catching on with zeal among adolescents, is getting young people to be breast aware, so they can pass the message of breast examination on to their parents.
“When we go to secondary schools to demonstrate breast cancer examination, we make sure we call out a boy and a girl to demonstrate and it could be fun because they are all giggling. There was an instance when a young boy went home after our training to ask his mother if she had ever done breast examination. The mother eventually did it and she found a lump. She had to come to our office”.
As an Igbo woman married to an Ondo man, there is no doubting the fact that she was an angle of focus in her husband’s gubernatorial bid. She described her husband’s victory at the polls as pleasant.
“ I was surprised by the gap between APC and the other parties. In fact, one can easily call it a landslide. If you were outside Ondo State, you would think that AD had overrun the whole of Ondo State because everywhere we went, we were confronted with the amounts of gifts they were giving out to people and couldn’t match them because we didn’t have that kind of money. We set up a real situation room, the electorate were being reminded that they should get out and vote.”
Sharing the strategies adopted during the campaigns, she said the APC campaign team ran a scientific mass mobilisation.
“We got the details of all the voters we met from house to house. We did that because apart from knowing whom we had reached, we also thought of post-election. We are going to use that data to hit the ground running. More often than not after election, people claim that those in power don’t remember them, but this is a new dawn. I’ll ensure that even if it is once in a week, Aketi will randomly call the electorate. We can never be far from them any longer”.
She also added that the incoming government will be a government for all by addressing real issues and development for citizens of Ondo State.
A firm believer in advancing the cause of women, the incoming Ondo State first lady stated that an optimal means to ensure that Nigeria is not paying lip service to the mantra of empowerment is to train more women.
Highlighting her plans for Ondo State in the new dispensation, she listed women and youth development as top of her priority. “I don’t want to run a parallel programme to the government, this is the bane of most first ladies. They run parallel NGOs and what is already in place suffers. I am interested in our women becoming more economically productive. We are going to make sure that the loan for their business is substantial. We would also work on improving the business knowledge of our women, so they would be able to do proper accounting and record keeping.
“I am also interested in developing talents right from the scratch. We must create a culture of ICT know-how right from the primary school and also create an enabling environment for children of all socio-economic class to explore opportunities. I am very interested in these aspects”, she submitted.
Now that the election is won, what type of first lady would she be, taking into cognizance the controversy surrounding the office of the first lady in Nigeria?
“I think I have to watch my steps. But I think there is this thing called sincerity of purpose. If you have it at the back of your mind in whatever you are doing, you can never go wrong. In most of the things I do in life, I have always used that as my guiding principle. Once that guides you, you can never go wrong.”
As the first lady of a prominent state in Nigeria, would she not be conferred with a preferential status in her post-graduate class?
“I already said I tried to be a student as I can be. I don’t want special treatment and I never did right from day one. You don’t do first lady to your children, ”she firmly stated.
