Ojobo Atuluku is the CEO of Development in Practice, a development firm supporting development actors through building capacity, management consultancy, research and incubating new social enterprises and NGOs. Early this year, she was given a certificate of appreciation by the World Bank in recognition of her contribution to women, business and law study. In her kitty, you find a number of recognitions as British Chevening scholar, United States International Visitor Alum, Fellow of the Harvard Hauser Centre, Roy and Lila Ash Fellow in Democracy and Governance and Mason Fellow in Public Policy and Management all of Harvard University, where she graduated from the Harvard Kennedy School.
In this interview with Yetunde Oladeinde, she talks about life as a gender specialist, governance and public policy expert, lawyer, and the need for female participation in the political process, challenges for women in politics and more.
WHY did you study law?
I was motivated by two things. I was inspired by a lawyer called Perry Mason who I read about in a novel that defended those who looked guilty and everyone accused them but he found out that they were innocent and took up their case and proved that they were innocent. I also loved their robe and lastly I guess JAMB gave me the option at that point.
I started my career after my NYSC in 1986 with the Ministry of Justice in Benue State and spent five years there. It was a very interesting experience but I left in 1991 to join the newly set up National Commission for Women as Legal Adviser. I moved on subsequently and between 1997 and year 2000 had a short stint in the private sector when I set up my law firm called Law consult. The experience was very good and I focused more on corporate legal services. The only litigations I did were to support women survivors of violence and it was always pro bono. This legal representation made the prosecution to sit up and made the women more comfortable to go on with the cases. This is important because they can make the person involved feel so dirty and uncomfortable. Sadly, none of the cases got to trial, somehow because the family stopped or the lady at the centre of it opted out. As an activist, you want the accused to pay for the damage but again you do not want to do things that can be distressful to the person you want to protect.
Talking about violence, the 16 days of activism is already here; how would you assess the impact of the campaign?
There has been tremendous progress and I must say that even the reports in the media are more. It is an indication of the progress made. Not too sure yet if it is an increase in reporting or an increase in cases too. One of the big progress made is the police gender policy; there is also a senior female police officer responsible for such cases as well as a special unit for this. In addition, you have the Human Rights Commission and even the Legal Aid Council whose mandate has also been expanded.
Positive policies can help to make a change. What is the place of women in political participation?
The history of women’s place in elections can be traced from the beginning of Nigeria from 1922 when the first African nominations into decision making body started in Nigeria, to 1950when a women’s party participated in the Lagos town Council elections, to 1979 when Northern Nigerian women received suffrage, and to 1999 when it was decided that women’s wing should not exist anymore in political parties to encourage women in mainstream party politics.
Sadly, many think they have no place in politics; that it is dirty and uninteresting. If you are in business in Nigeria, you must be interested in politics and there are ways of doing politics. My experience was not as a candidate. I was part of a campaign team of a deputy gubernatorial candidate from my senatorial zone. It is important to be interested because it is only through politics that we can have a space in decision making and so we must be interested in what’s going on. Governance is a two-way process, not just for the politicians.
It is only through politics that we can influence policies. The policies we hear about every day are not as if some people sit in government and say this is the best way to go about it. It is because they have interest groups and lobbyists speaking in their ears about what they need for their business or interests.
You have also participated in politics. What was the experience like?
I started my business in 2009 and by late 2010, I was wondering if I was in the right direction. Something prompted me and I started asking myself why don’t I try politics for two reasons. If I succeeded, then I can have wider impact and if I don’t succeed then at least I would have had the practical experience which would never be wasted and will deepen my work with women aspirants.
As far back as when I was in school, I had always been interested and involved in the women’s movement. In 1995, I did a five-week study tour of the US on women’s political participation. In 2009 ten years after democracy returned to Nigeria, I did an assessment of what was on ground. And it came to me that how do you train someone on something that you have not practiced? And that was what encouraged me to go into politics. That formed part of my experience in teaching women and it was such an exciting journey.
What were some of the challenges?
The first thing I did was to get someone in the inner caucus to get me in. One thing that is important is to have an entry point, where you are accepted into the party and he registered me quickly but I was never invited to any meeting. I never knew when any meeting was happening. Each time I called him, he would say, ‘wait, and I would tell you when we are ready.’ It is not yet time. Then they started registering members online, still I was told no don’t bother, that it was a useless thing to do.
The most mysterious thing about political parties in Nigeria is their membership. You don’t know who their members are or how they register members – forms are out, it has not yet started etc.
I couldn’t register in the first party, but somehow I noticed that things were happening within the party. So, I turned to another party and one other interesting thing I noticed was that during the day members belonged to one party and during the night they belonged to another party. I joined this group and I was welcomed by the leadership. The first time I called, they said they had something at eight in the following morning and they wanted to know if I would be available. I was in Abuja and I felt that if I do not go, I would miss a chance.
I started driving at 4am from Abuja in order to catch up with others. When I got to Makurdi, they said, ‘Oh, it is in Otukpo,’ which was another one hour’s drive. I continued and then they called, saying they were on their way to Gboko . So I took off again from Otukpo to Gboko. That is the story of the Nigerian political journey. You don’t know where you are going or where you would be at any point in time. It is like you are standing in the middle of the road and just following.
What are some of the other issues you noticed?
In the morning, you go and report in your principal’s house and you keep idling away. If you do not sit there, you are not an actor, you are not recognised. This is how relationships are made or marred. There is also the issue of people trying to spoil your reputation with people considered as influencers in that field. The long and short of it was that people didn’t know my background because they didn’t know who I was. All they knew was that I was coming from London but the truth was that I have never lived in London, I returned from the States in 2009. It was one of those stories that go around and since it gave me profile, I didn’t deny it, I also did not confirm it. One thing with politicians is that they want to associate with success and if you are successful, you are powerful. If you have money, you are powerful. If you have the ears of someone who is an influencer, you are powerful.
What was the turning point?
I became an elder. I believe I paid my dues then, I was part of the elders’ forum but there are always schemes. We were to host the candidates in my LGA and they decided the group to meet with them was too large and they wanted only about 10 people and all three of us women (including one who had been with them from the beginning, were removed from the list). Well, I was not letting a little thing like that keep me out of such a strategic meeting. In the midst of the meeting, I was asked to arrange for the refreshments to be served to the guests in the secret meeting place from the venue earlier planned for. I had to devise a means to do that without leaving the meeting. This is because the only role politicians think women should play is welfare or entertainment. Even the women leader thing, it is because we must have a woman leader. They would prefer to look for someone who would not oppose them, someone they can manipulate and control. Most of the time, the woman leader does not have a constituency and this explains why the women usually do not have access to decision making.
