One organisation leading the campaign for women’s participation in governance is Women in Politics Forum (WIPF). In this interview with JOEL DUKU, the Forum’s founder, an ex-National Women Leader of Labour Party, Mrs Ebere Ifendu, speaks on, among other things, its challenges and successes. Excerpts:
Why did you set up Women in Politics Forum?
I initiated WIPF sometime in November 2011 at a programme organised by Women Democratic Network (WDM), International Republican Institute (IRI). So far, we have participated in the Constitution review and went to the House of Representatives and the Senate. We are hopeful that some of the things we presented will be taken from what the Constitution will come out with even though we are not expecting 100% but we are sure that some key issues there will be looked at. After that, we started our mentoring program. The young women that we have gathered here are from the Northeastern part of the country and after this session, we would have empowered 600 young women across the zones. We have also had the opportunity of bringing Smith Craig who is one of Hillary Clinton campaign strategists to Nigeria to talk to women aspirants. We have also plans with IRI to bring in an expert on fund raising from America to teach our women because we realised that funding is one of the major challenges that women face during electioneering.
We have to get somebody to teach us how to get these funds and how they were able to do it there in the United States. We have plans sometime next month. We are also looking at launching our organisation properly but so far, our primary interest is to build the capacity of women. We have conducted series of programmes with the support of UNDP-DGD, IRI, women Trust Funds, and WRAPA. We also partner with FIDA and women in business. Most of the women in business are not interested in active participation in politics but they would want to see more women participate so we are talking to them to see how they will help us to sponsor such quality and credible women into politics. Generally, I can say that WIPF has done well within this short period and we are hoping to count our successes after the elections in 2015.
What are the feedbacks from what you have done so far?
The feedback has been very encouraging. Women are getting aware that there is an organisation like WIPF in existence. I receive calls from women across the country concerning our activities. Like the programme we are holding here, for instance, a woman aspirant called me yesterday from Niger State. I must commend the press for the visibility they are giving us and with more pressure and achievement we are putting in the system, the feedbacks are very good and we don’t expect to stop but to put in more energy immediately after the general election. We are looking beyond 2015. We want to start early because men have started long before us so we need to begin building our own structures to march the muscles of the men. We have to tell women who have interest in 2019 to start immediately after the 2015 election so that we put the necessary things together but I am not saying that we will not make an impact in 2015 but not as much as we would have loved to.
What did you present to the National Assembly when you visited them?
We talked about affirmative action for women. We talked about citizenship. A man that is married to a foreigner automatically confers on that woman a Nigerian citizenship but a Nigerian woman that is married to a foreigner cannot be in the reverse case. We talked about giving us at least one out of the three senatorial seats in the state.
You want that to be enshrined in the Constitution?
Of course, what is wrong with that? That is the only way we can achieve what we are asking for. We are talking about affirmative action today but it may be men tomorrow talking about it. When people criticise affirmative action, I give them just one example for instance, if I write an entrance exam with somebody from the North, I must work hard because even if my grade is 70%, I might still not get admission but if the northerner scores 30% he still gets admission. That is still affirmative action because we want to help them come up for the fact that they are seen as being backward education wise if we therefore understand that women have not been participating well in politics because of male dominance and we are struggling to come up now, what is wrong to also use affirmative action to bring up women.
There should be a certain percentage for women representation at the House of Representatives as well. We are looking at the situation that in future, no gender should be less than 30% representation. We also believe that independent candidacy will favour women. Most times, we have seen that it is the so called internal party politics that disenfranchise women. If you have these quality women who can stand on their own, they can as well stand as independent candidate and make an impact. I have noticed that some of those things that we discussed were being touched the last time when they were mentioning the constitutional review. We are therefore hoping that in the final amendment, some of our issues will be incorporated in the constitution.
Apart from finance, what are the other challenges that women face in trying to get elected into political position?
Apart from finance, genuine internal party democracy is very important. What you hear is that we have internal democracy but I have always challenged it because I don’t think it is existing in any political party in Nigeria today. Every political party in Nigeria is a culprit in this issue. I want to say that most times, these are the things the men use to disenfranchise women like zoning and what have you. We are not against zoning because we are talking about affirmative action but what we are saying is that can we also have it in a transparent manner? You will agree with me that when some of these decisions are being taken, women are not there from the beginning. The men will just take a decision and think it will suit us and most times it does not. They can’t decide for us. If they want to take a decision, they should get us involved to make our own inputs so that if we succumb to superior argument, you won’t feel disenfranchised or short-changed at the end of the day.
We have also faced other challenges like acceptability, cultural and religious problems. But these are wrong interpretation because I have found out that women are more protected in Islam than in Christianity. Our problem here is lack of proper information and awareness. Because the women are not properly informed, they keep on toying them here and there. I have kept on asking this question how Benazir Bhutto made it to the highest political office in Pakistan, a complete Islamic country. She got the opportunity and she did well. I am sure that the religion is not against women but it is the psyche they are putting in our understanding and we are feeling shy to come out. Again, support from family. And I think the press is also not helping us by asking women questions about her family instead of asking her questions about what she will do when she gets into the office. When the press interviews a man, they ask him questions that will bring out the best in him unlike the women that would be asked: how would your husband and your children feel? How would you cope as a mother and so on? Men are also fathers so whatever hindrances we face within the family so if you have to ask us questions concerning our social life, men should also be asked the same questions and if you are giving them the opportunity to bring the programs they have, we should also be given same opportunities.
How do you build trust across political parties in your organisation which you say is non-political?
You see, we have all tried it within our political parties and failed completely. So we decided have we can do it in another way. Women in Politics Forum is actually like a pressure group. It is not an affiliate of any political party. It’s open for not just women in politics but women interested in seeing more women participate in politics including organisations working towards that agenda which we regard as associate members of WIPF. Our role as an organization is to visit political parties and demand for more participation and positions for women.
