The National Women Leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Dr Betta Edu, says there is a huge improvement in the number of elective position for women which she said has risen from 36 to 95. In this interview on Channels TV ‘Politics Today’, monitored by David Lawani, the vocal APC women leader speaks on other women-related political issues

What is this confusion about that your name was not on the list for the women’s presidential campaign that was inaugurated?

I think it is very simple and straight. I am Dr Betta Edu and I am the APC National Women Leader, the number one woman in APC the ruling and larger party in Africa. It would be abnormal to have my name in any list under other persons who definitely should ordinarily be under me at the party. So, my role is supervisory and anything that has to do with women and their mobilization, their engagement, and whatever it is, I am supposed to spearhead all of it. This is just a support team to the main campaign team, unveiling soon. Remember, this is the women’s presidential campaign team. It is not the council. So, all of this is under the APC as a party. We are the vehicles they are the passengers that drive. People don’t have a clear understanding of different roles and how it works. So, the party has its role, constitution and the role of the women leader in the form of the party is sacrosanct.

Why is affirmative action not evident in the list by your party?
The party has the main presidential campaign council which will be released and properly unveiled with all of its members and you will find loads of women. However, the party has given prominence to the role that women played in the electioneering process. That is why they created a separate support team that will accommodate more than a thousand women on that support team right now. We need to understand that the women’s presidential campaign team is where all the women are accommodated. Key stakeholders and strong women of the party, and we have issues and roles to them to go all out and campaign. The main PCC doesn’t have a women’s directorate as of now except there is a last-minute change that might happen and if you look through the list of PCC even though 1500 women have been accommodated. There are still lots of women though they are not going to be dealing directly with women mobilization but with other areas such as grassroots mobilization, strategic planning the legal aspect of the campaign, the ICT, intelligence, and security. Logistics and name it. Those are the aspect that those who don’t have their names on the main PCC will be dealing with.

Having clamour for a seat at the table, 35 per cent affirmative action, would you say this PCC that will finally be released would at least live up to the expectation of including 35 per cent of women like they say charity begins at home?
I am very positive. There is a joint meeting at the APC secretariat between the NWC of the ruling party, the governors, and the representatives from the presidential campaign council for us to look at the list and ensure that it is unified and also ensure that we have proper inclusion and representation of women, youth, and the disabled. Remember, this is the largest party in Africa and we have a lot of people to be on that list to put their quota in the election for the next president of the federal republic of Nigeria. So, we must find a way as a party and as a group to ensure that these interests are protected. I am very sure that the outcome of the meeting will have more women for their 35 per cent representation in the entire list.

On what basis can the APC government be trusted after the past seven years have had only about 14 per cent women representation in the cabinet?

As a very great and strong party, everything we do we will continue to improve on whatever we have done in time past. If you have watched the trajectory, you will know that in the last convention of the party a lot of amendments were done to the constitution of the party. For this time out, we never used to have two women in the NWC as a national working committee of the party, but that convention brought in the deputy national women leader as a member of the NWC. Before this time out we never used have it compulsory that at the local government and state level, we must have two women out of the five delegates that are at the state level, and then for the national delegates, we should have one out of the three persons at the national delegates being a woman. These are things that we have made compulsory in our party just to ensure that women are included and are part of the electioneering process and we build that interest, commitment, and engagement with women and of course going to the electioneering process, before this time, we used to know that women buy the same forms the way men used to buy them. But for the first time at the party, we were able to say look let women have the forms free of charge. So, we can have more women participate and it showed that with the result we have on the ground, before now, we used to have about 30-something candidates from our party as women. But right now, we have close to 95 female candidates running for the ticket of APC and recently we even have a female who is running for the position of governor of a state. No other party in the 2023 general election has that feat that APC has been able to achieve and this is the prominence that the party has given to women. Of course, we are dealing with a candidate, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, who has been tested and trusted and he is not dealing with promises. We are dealing with evidence, raw and crude evidence. It is not fashionable to have a woman as a running mate for Nigeria because definitely, everyone will think with a woman, she probably will not win the election. He was able to bring a woman on.

Are you saying Nigerians should separate the old promises from the new ones because you are making new promises now for your party?

We are not done yet. Hold your breath. We are not done yet with the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari which is an APC government. Last week at the Villa during the President’s speech when he was inaugurating the APC women’s presidential campaign council, he was very clear. He said the office of the minister of women affairs should work with the Attorney General of the Federation and the office of the wife of the President to ensure that before he leaves as President, he will pass legislation that will protect and secure women. When the wife of the President came to give her speech, she said we will have a pact. A pact that will ensure that as Nigerian women go out to work for our candidates to be delivered they will be rewarded and, of course, beyond this, it is not just about positioning the national ministerial appointments. There are several other MDAs that are headed by women and when you come to the grassroots, what is the government doing to empower women? This is part of the questions we should be asking. Many social intervention programmes are targeted at women. If you have followed the Humanitarian Affairs Minister, where they have the unconditional cash transfer for the grassroots. 80 per cent of this is targeted at women at the grassroots. The government in many ways has been deliberate in empowering women beyond positioning and, of course, you can see that the party has improved the number of women on elective tickets in the party. As I said, it is a work in progress. Before the President leaves, we would have legislation to protect women and when the new president comes in by the grace of God, we will have more women from the Federal Executive Council to heading MDAs to the very least grassroots empowerment in our villages. More women will benefit from the government.

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When did you say you will have legislation protecting women, which are you referring to in particular, is it the equality bill, because those gender bases have not even been mentioned despite the promises made?

From yesterday’s meeting, we are looking at the 35 per cent affirmative action and the other gender bill that has gone through the national assembly that has not scaled through the first time. The president has instructed that all of this should be looked into. Remember before now, we already have the buy-in of even the speaker of the House of Representatives who expressly addressed women that this would be reviewed again on the floor of the house. We still have some time and we believe that the president is personally interested in this. And other key Nigerians and indeed the international community will fast-track the action and of course, achieve all of these bills that will mainstream women and give us our rightful place in governance and politics.

Would you say this administration for the past seven years has done well for women?

Yes, I can boldly say that our party the APC has done well for the Nigerian woman. I think we need to take the narrative a little away from just offering you a seat at the federal elective council. And things around the heading of the MDAs. We have got good representations and as I said, we can make it better. Some issues affect women on day to day basis. Financial empowerment is one of them. One of the reasons why we have a high maternal mortality rate which is beginning to drop is the fact that women are unable to make decisions when they are supposed to because they are not financially empowered. Women have other problems. They wake up in the morning and a mother is unable to feed the child to go to school and participate in school. And he worried. How can I get that done? The government has found several ways to do right by women. If as a mother you sent your child to school and you are sure your child is in school and will be fed at least you are sure that meal will be given to your child, it gives you hope and peace of mind as a mother. I spoke about the conditional cash transfer at least I was part of the team that went to Cross River State and within the last 18 months, they’ve been able to reach out to over 36,000 women across the state and these women were coming out live to give testimonies. They were coming out to collect these monies. Even during the COVID-19 era, we had a lot of interventions. Survival funds and care. You don’t even want to mention female farmers who were prioritised? When they said support rice farmers in my state, I have a good number of women that I knew before now who didn’t have funds to farm but today, they can boldly show you their farms and what they have made of them. All of these are ways the government has to be of help to people and don’t forget we had a pandemic, so, when you look at it as government side by side with other issues that shot down our nation, and other global issues that affected Nigeria and several other countries, I can boldly look at Nigerian women in the eye and say, yes there was intervention social and otherwise that prioritise women. But remember, help, hope, and more improvement are coming.

What are the barriers facing Nigerian women and what are the solutions you are offering?

As women, we have things like barriers over time. Ideologies where women just believed I should not be involved in politics. And politics is for a man. It is not my thing. It is their ideologies. And, of course, we have a religious part. It said women should not be heard. They should be submissive. And, people build rhetoric around it which they used to push women to the back burner and, of course, we have a major issue around funding which is a major challenge. Except you empower that woman she is unable to make decisions. She is unable to make those steps into the political space and speak for herself. It is not easy to arrive at decisions when it comes to elections. Everywhere in the world of course Nigeria is not an exception. We have issues around stereotyping, and corruption which have not made it easy for women to thrive in the political space. When you have one woman making an error of failing to put herself out then if one woman fails, it shuts the door against 60 million women out there. Like if someone drives funnily, the next thing you will hear is why is she driving like a woman? Or I am sure she is a woman driving that car. All those stereotypes are things that have put women back from participating in politics and that politics is a dirty game or that women who are involved are not cultured or morally correct; too exposed and that is not what our culture preaches. Those are cultures that have held women back, but in addition to this, there is that mental belief among the male folks too that it is competition instead of a complementary role in building our nation. There is a need for orientation for our men and women. If you listen recently to the news and across, going through the office of women’s affairs, even the UN you will hear things like ‘he’ for ‘she’. Trying to bring men’s awareness that it is not a competition but that we have to work harmoniously for peace in our country and truly if you want this nation to develop at the speed of light, everyone needs to be very conscious of getting women into leadership positions. These are things that have held us back from both angles. And, we have gotten to see some men stand up to say yes and let the women have a seat at the table so that they can be mainstream. We are very positive. And remember, it is a critical period even for the people at the legislation. They want the votes from the women right now. If that bill goes to the house, I am very sure that at this point they will do all they can to quickly pass it into law and women are mainstream. And, I think this is a good window of opportunity for Nigerian women.

How will you assess the ‘Obi-dient’ movement, do you think it could be hijacked just like the EndSARS matter?

My state was affected by the EndSARS and even on Channels Television, we stood out my governor speaking against that movement which was hijacked by hoodlums and would destroy developments for 3o years. Things that we will not even as a state recover in the next 20 to 30 years. It was not just child’s play because it still takes us steps back despite we have a very strong calm man as a governor who was able to galvanise support in everyone’s mind in the state to hold n and just work towards rebuilding. It was a very terrible time for us as a state and for the nation. And, at no time did we ever agree or say Nigerian young people should not dialogue but that they should go into the streets and destroy what they have used taxes payers’ money, and their hard-earned money to build. Coming to the point of myself being a young person. My party made a very strong statement by giving the leadership of the women’s wing to a young person. For the first time probably, in the history of the electioneering process of my party, I am the first woman leader elected into the party at 35 years of age and this was done to say we believed in young people. We want to harness the innovation, energy, and productivity that you have brought to the table for nation-building. And, for the young people whom I interact with, on a day-to-day basis, I encourage them. We need to support the party and support our presidential candidate.

Would you support the economist position that Peter Obi is revolutionary, do you agree with that assertion?

No.