•Madam Emma Brown Photo: Sun News Publishing

Woman of the Sun Index

One of the first female journalists in Nigeria and pro-independence nationalist, Madam Emma Brown has declared that nothing good would come out of President Umaru Yar’Adua’s administration because of the moral burden of electoral fraud hanging on its neck.

But she stressed that the current president could not match his predecessor’s evil because he (Obasanjo) was a devil incarnate.
The lady now in her 80s told Daily Sun in her base in Eket, Akwa Ibom State; "no matter the good intentions of Yar’Adua, there is morality question to deal with. No good can come out of evil. He himself has admitted this. You know if he had resigned after discovering the electoral fraud, he wouldn’t be the president today.

So, no good can come out of evil. No matter how much he tries, it will only be struggle, struggle; maybe till the end of four years. Maybe, after the four years he would make impact. He is well-meaning. But you see in the background of all this electoral fraud, it is making things difficult. This is beyond human redemption. It is more of morality and it has come with spiritual connotation. If we say no good can come out of evil, will it come out of a fraudulent election? You see, moving forward is so difficult.

"Now he says I will not probe Obasanjo; why is he refusing to probe Obasanjo. Just as I’m asking Governor Godswill Akpabio why are you afraid to probe former governor Victor Attah? At least, let’s establish his innocence publicly. It is very annoying".

Reliving her activism days both in Nigeria and in England which resulted in her being expelled from the Holborn Literary Institute then, Brown said she had always protested against bad government before and after independence.

"There is no head of state that I have not protested against except Alhaji Shehu Shagari who was a friend and I was in his team. I was the chairman of the Ogun State presidential campaign team. I stayed there in Ogun State until after the elections in Abeokuta."
She said materialism had never been her interest in politics or activism, but the joy of seeing a credible and transparent election.

"It is just like when I started shouting for those women who were killed in 1929 by the colonialists in Ikot Abasi even though the attention had been diverted by the colonial government to Aba because they didn’t kill as many in Aba as they killed in Ikot Abasi. The British government should apologize to Nigerian for the killing of defenceless women. People don’t know that Britain was involved in such a rascally behaviour; mowing down defenceless women. They have to apologise and that is what I want to see".

She, however, lamented that the Federal and Akwa Ibom State governments have not made any effort to attract British apology in the act as even the Hall of Fame built for the Women’s Riot in Ikot Abasi had not been recognized by any government of the state after that of Group Capt. Joseph Adeusi.
"Every December 16, we’ve been having memorial service at Ikot Abasi and we want it declared a public holiday.

Before, women in all the local governments had been attending, but now, the zeal is dying down because in the past eight years of Attah’s administration, no government official has gone there even though it is only Attah’s wife photograph that adorns the wall there," lamented Brown who said she was one of the Nigerian delegates at All African People Congress in 1958 which later metamorphosed to Organization of African Unity (OAU).