| I love to see a female president
in Nigeria – Kemi Nelson
By WOLE BALOGUN
Wednesday, October
7, 2009
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•Chief
Kemi Nelson
Photo: Sun News Publishing
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Riding on the shoulders of business success into politics,
Chief Mrs. Kemi Nelson, former Commissioner of Women Affairs
and Poverty Alleviation of Lagos State, has been in the fore-front
of what could be termed Advocacy for Women Participation in
Politics, (AWPP).
This could be defended with the fact that she had been able
to hold her own in politics and had aired her voice and had
her way even at the time Nigeria politics had been apparently
dominated by men.
During a recent encounter with Daily Sun,
the MBA certified tycoon and politician surprisingly prophesized
that Nigeria ‘s first female President would be nominated
by men in Politics.
Speaking confidently, Nelson said: “First and foremost,
there is nothing that says a woman cannot be a president in
Nigeria because we have women who could even perform better
than the men but the African culture has really restrained
our women , we are just coming out gradually. Men have started
accepting the fact that we must have to share this space ,
that they must have to allow us share this space with them.
And that it is a gradual process , I am sure you would be
surprised that by the time we would have a female president
, it is the men that would nominate them, you would be surprised
. It is happening everywhere now.”
Asked if she would like to mention some of the women who may
be nominated for president. She waved a “No” reply
and went down the memory lane about her seventeen year experience
in politics:
“I joined politics in 1992 when Babangida encouraged
a new breed of politicians. Then we had two political parties
which were the NRC and SDP. I decided to pitch my tent with
the NRC, the party under which I also became the flag bearer
for the Lagos West Senatorial district in 1993, I lost the
election but I was unpertubed . I still carried on , working
for the party, I was appointed the chairman for the presidential
electoral Committee for Osun State.
During the Ciroma- Shinkafi election I was the chairman of
the electoral committee. When the party was scrapped and a
care-taker committee was put in place.
I was appointed a member of the Uwais Ahmed party. When we
had five principal parties under Abacha, I was a founding
member of the ENCP under which I contested as the party candidate
to the Federal House of Representative for Ikeja Local government.
I won the election but Abacha died and we were not sworn in.
But again as a politician I was not perturbed because I had
made up my mind that I was going to be a change Agent . So
I joined the Alliance For Democracy. I worked with the party
conscientiously. That was when I was a appointed the Commissioneer
in the cabinet of Ashiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. After which
we are all now together in Action Congress.”
On what attributes earned her the appointment, she replied:
“So many things come to play in appointing the Commissioner
, your integrity, role, and contribution towards the success
of the party at different levels and of course your educational
qualification.”
Delving more into her experience as a female politician, Nelson
revealed that :
“My experience has not been different from all other
women, you know politics is dominated by men. And human beings
resist change. Naturally the men would see you as wanting
to compete with them , whereas that is not the case. We are
supposed to be partners in progress. I think we have moved
up from the time that women really have problem surviving
in the political terrain.
Now we have been allowed to have our say and have our way
a times. A lot of women have their voice now and some of also
in our states and even in national level, people respect us
and respect our views. Once they know that you know what you
are doing and are serious about what you are saying.
They don’t see you as somebody that is just there to
hurt their ego, because men do have ego. But they have to
see you as a partner in progress. And sometimes they even
forget that you are a female politician, because you are on
the field together and attend meetings together even till
very late times in the evening. During campaigns and all that.
So for me, the ego thing is a problem that would keep to rear
its head but the ability of the woman to continue holding
her own in that huge ocean is what would help her.”
Male admiration and harassment of the women to Nelson is not
limited to politics, it is her candid opinion that : “A
man would always be a man, a man would always admire a woman
in or out of politics. So the way you ward off such elsewhere
is the same way you do it in politics. So I don’t see
any difference, a man is a man in or out of politics and a
woman is a woman in or out of politics.” But she cautioned
maturely that : “The ability of a man and a woman to
understand where they are coming from and what would be honourable
is what is important.”
Although , Nelson concurred that the unconstitutional idea
of the new wave of prominence of First Ladies tends to cross
the bounds in discharging State duties, she however saw something
positive in it and this she defended when she said:
“ They all have the projects that they are doing. You
know their husbands are very busy. They don’t have time
for them. So if you have something that would keep the women
busy , which would not make them not disturb their husband
and at the same time contribute to the progress of the nation,
won’t it be better to encourage them to continue with
the projects that they are doing and the funds they are raising
than take those funds for shopping spree and all other irrelevant
tendencies. So for me it is good, let them continue.
In their own way , they are contributing their quota to the
development of the nation. The only area I would want a brake
applied is that they should not interfere too much on State
duties , they would interfere , because a woman would know
how to relate to her man, a woman would know how to get whatever
she wants from her husband. I know there have been cases of
the problems between female Commissioners and some First ladies,
petty jealousies and all that, but as long as they can keep
within their limits, I don’t see any problem.”
Her Amazon features shone when she reacted to the face-off
between the Governor of Lagos State and President Yar’Adua
over the controversial LCDAs in the State. She said:
“I thought we had laid the issue of the LCDAs to rest
but unfortunately it has come to the front burner again. For
me, the LCDAs in all honesty, unless we want to deceive ourselves,
have really imparted in the lives of Lagosians. It has taken
Government closer to the people and I think Lagos State deserves
even much more. So I would just appeal that the President
himself should urge the Assembly to play their part in lifting
these LCDAs so that we won’t go into crisis that we
need not because honestly it is a crisis that we do not need.
Especially at this point in time when the nation is drifting”
Appearing to be quite frank on the issue of re-branding, Nelson
said: “Well, re-branding is good but if you asked me
I would say it should start from our schools. Teach them young,
that is what I believe. So by the time they would be full
adults they would have imbibed the right culture, many of
us have imbibed wrong culture and like the Yorubas would say:
“A dry fish is difficult to bend”. Even though
we would try and see how far our efforts would go but I think
our target should be the schools , infact the primary schools.”
Asked what her political plans for the future are, Nelson
sounded very humble when she replied that : “I have
always rested my plans because I am a human being it is God
that plans . So I have rested everything in the hands of the
almighty. Governance is what we have now you can’t start
talking about election until next year. We have put our people
in government and we should give them our support . Politics
for me now is still in the back burner. When the time is right
God would direct.”
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