By Juliana-Taiwo Obalonye
The immediate past Director-General of the National Centre for Women Development (NCWD), Mary Ekpere-Eta, has declared that Nigeria is ripe for a female president, adding that she hopes to occupy the country’s highest political office someday.
She expressed delight that Nigerian women are leaving indelible footprints everywhere, noting that Dr Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, Director-General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and Amina Mohammed, Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations, are some of the women making the country proud on the global stage. Ekpere-Eta, who revealed that her home town, Ikom, and her farm are some of her favourite holiday destinations, also spoke about her four-year tenure at the NCWD, among other issues.
Your four-year tenure as Director-General of the NCWD has come to an end. What are you achievements?
My tenure has been a fulfilling one, working round the clock to achieve the core mandates of the NCWD. With the support of the board, management and staff of the centre, I was able to carry out many laudable programmes in line with the agenda of the President Muhammadu Buhari administration, which places very serious interest on the issues that affect Nigerian women. In so doing, the centre under my watch was able to touch the lives of various women positively across the country.
What were the peculiar challenges you have encountered?
I feel fulfilled with my achievements as the Director-General of the NCWD. I am grateful to God who has been with me and saw me through the last four years. Challenges abound everywhere and it is in overcoming them that one brings out the best in any endeavour. You are all aware of the challenges posed by world economies and recently, the COVID-19 pandemic. These issues affected us in no small measure by limiting the much we can do. But in all, I am satisfied with the changes we were able to spearhead at the centre in the past four years.
Looking back since my assumption of office as Director-General, NCWD in April 2017, the experiences were both been challenging and rewarding. I went to the NCWD with the mindset of galvanizing the human capital and other resources on ground. Of course, I also went with the private sector attitude of setting targets, meeting deadlines and having tangible achievements to highlight at key intervals. Nonetheless, I was keen on working with staff of the agency and not trying to alienate them. I believe this helped me a great deal with the centre moving at a good pace. So, I prefer to look at challenges as stepping-stones in managing the affairs of the NCWD.
How were you able to work seamlessly with fellow women from across different backgrounds?
It has been very rewarding and fulfilling in the sense that as a woman myself and one who has always been at the forefront of ensuring the welfare of women, it was not a new terrain for me to listen and proffer solutions to the myriad of issues bedevilling Nigerian women, using the instruments of government. Looking back, I would say we were able to make remarkable progress and I am satisfied with what the government has been able to achieve under my watch.
What do you count as NCWD’s achievements in the past four years?
As the national repository institution charged with gender research, capacity development, training, and documentation for the advancement of Nigerian women, the NCWD has continued to live up to expectations as a gender-compliant, gender-responsive, gender-intervention and female-focused agency. Alongside the management and staff, we were able to scale up the existing programmes and introduce new ones. This explains why we were able to achieve a lot in that short period of time despite the initial hurdles I faced and successfully scaled. I was too energized with the zeal to work with my team to implement programmes for the advancement and empowerment of Nigerian women and girls. This probably explains why the months ran fast, with associates and friends reminding me that I had spent four years in office.
The NCWD, not minding its low budgetary status, was able to forge ahead. The centre, as you know, is at the forefront of sensitising women and leading in the advocacy for improving the status of women and girls in the country. Therefore, institutionalized training courses of the NCWD consist mostly of building the capacity of women, building competences for research on women, developing women’s knowledge on information technology; challenging women to become more computer literate and marketing their businesses, using ICT as well as providing a platform for them to contribute to national discourse.
We started out in 2017 with the training and empowerment of 150 female Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Adamawa and Borno States, increasing the number to 225 in 2018, covering additional States of Taraba and Yobe States in the North East. We also scaled up the female artisanship programme in air conditioning and refrigerator repairs, generating set repairs, plumbing and piping and tiling and masonry from 50 in 2017 to 140 in 2018. While providing start off grants for them, we also obtained Trade Test 3 certificates for them. As at the time my tenure came to an end, we had ongoing plans with the German Development Cooperation Agency (GIZ) to scale up the training to a more advanced level so as to award them the level 2 and 1 Trade Test certificates. Our ICT facilities enabled us to train more women in girls in bridging the gender digital divide. Between 2017 and 2018, we were able to train over 800 women and girls, while spreading these training to rural communities in the country. Twenty visually impaired women also benefited from our ICT programmes. We equally executed special training for women farmers and entrepreneurs.
Since 2017 as with previous years, university graduates have continued to top the list of our trainees. What this showed is the fact that vocational skills are fundamental in resolving the problem of unemployment in the country. Between 2017 and 2018, 750 students graduated from our training programmes with fashion design and garment making as the most favourite, followed by hospitality and tourism, interior and outdoor decoration, catering, cake baking, decoration and sugar craft 9, bread and pastry making, tie and dye, make up and head gear and bead and jewellery making. The centre continues to work with members of the parliament in training a large number of women and youth as part of their constituency projects. The success rate of these projects led to more lawmakers domiciling their constituency projects with the centre. The list of my achievements is inexhaustible. But let me add by saying that I resumed office as Director-General of the NCWD in 2017 with the zeal to reform and reposition the agency. I met a centre whose infrastructure wasn’t in the best of shape and I was able to bring it to international standard. My tenure witnessed unprecedented level of refurbishment of critical infrastructure in the centre. Despite the meagre resources available, I overhauled the facilities within the event centres such as the Maryam Babangida Auditorium, the banquet hall and its adjourning meeting room. Amongst the first set of facilities to receive attention was the 69-bedroom Dora Akunyili Guest House, which has been raised to a three-star hotel status. I am always glad to market the centre as a one-stop location for conferencing of any size in the Federal Capital Territory. I will continue to do so even though I am no longer there. The auditorium, with a 1, 200 sitting capacity, received a facelift to make it more conducive for events. I did not sit and complain of how the facilities needed to be upgraded or renovated. Rather, I got to work and the feedback on the quality of remodelling done has been excellent. Work was still on-going in the Franca Afegbua Hostel to also make it more conducive. We made efforts to ensure that the facilities are disability friendly, all in a bid to provide inclusive services to all categories of Nigerians.
We also mainstreamed ICT into all of our training and skill acquisition programmes. My tenure as Director-General saw the centre scale-up our skill acquisition programmes and more significantly moving women into sectors that were once the exclusive preserve of men. The centre graduated from its regular training with over 6000 participants in fashion design, garment making, hospitality and tourism, interior and outdoor decoration, catering, cake baking, decoration and sugar craft, bread and pastry, tie and dye, make up, and head gear fixing, beads and jewellery making.
For some time, we struggled with assisting students set up their own businesses. But we succeeded in recording a good level of victory with the centre partnering with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) under the Agricultural Small and Medium Enterprises Investment Scheme (AGSMEIS) launched in 2018 to assist graduates in accessing facilities to set up their businesses. Some of our graduates also received start-up loans and equipment. I eagerly await their success stories even when I am no longer in office.
The NCWD-Skills Development for Youth Employment Programme (SKYE) collaboration to raise a band of highly skilled female artisans is another intervention that brings joy to my heart. The advanced female artisanship programme is a partnership between the SKYE Programme (funded by the German Government) and implemented by GIZ and NCWD. To take this laudable intervention to the next level, 100 young women, aged between 15 and 35, were selected from the 230 young women and girls earlier trained through a transparent procedure. The training was aimed at strengthening their capacity for the award of Trade Test 2 and 1 certification (NVQF 2 and 3) in plumbing and piping, air condition and refrigerator repairs, masonry and tiling repairs, power generating sets repairs, and Plaster of Paris (POP) installation. We equally expanded our training programmes to propel more women into success in the agricultural sub-section of the economy. My vision was to create a good number of happy, confident and financially stable female farmers who will inspire others.
What was the NCWD budgetary like?
The budget of the NCWD has not been encouraging. It has been meagre. But in recent times, particularly due to the concern shown by the President Buhari administration, the budget rose from N1 billion in 2017 to the current allocation of N5 billion. But I am confident that the allocation will get better going forward.
What can the government do to add more value to the cause of Nigerian women?
First, to ensure that every form of violence and discrimination against women in the country is eliminated. More women also need to be given the necessary opportunity in decision-making organs of the country which will in turn, affect other women positively. Adequate resources need to be deployed in order to carry out programmes and projects that directly impact on women nationwide.
Is Nigeria not yet ripe for a female president? Why are there no women in the race in the two major parties?
Nigeria is ripe for a female president. Nigerian women are making indelible footprints everywhere. A recent example is the appointment of Dr Ngozi Okonjo Iweala as the Director-General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO). I am sure as we move closer to 2023, interested women will join the race.
We had a lot of women rising to challenge one stereotype or the other in March, referred to as women’s month. What was yours?
Already, in the centre, we have been challenging stereotypes by introducing women into men-dominated trade like the construction industry, helping the women to get into the industry by teaching them tiling, electrical fittings, Plaster of Paris (POP), plumbing work, welding and wiring and a lot of other areas. So, we were already challenging the stereotypes. It has been our hope that women will take opportunities in those industries that are basically referred to as men domineering areas.
Do you believe women are their own enemies in politics as widely expressed?
I don’t think so. Women are caring and they appreciate one another. I think at this point in time, it is the hope of Nigerian women to ensure that they take over leadership.
What’s your advice for women come 2023?
I advise them to get involved in partisan politics, participate right from the ward by being ward leaders. Like in my ward, I have about 12 women in the ward executive and in the chapter executive, about eight. So, I advise women not to rely on women leaders – National women leader, state women leader, chapter women leader and ward women leader. What is wrong with a woman being the chapter chairman, ward chairman, state chairman or treasurer, secretary and other positions? I think if women are able to get certain quotas in partisan politics within the political parties, I think they have gotten 50 percent already because when decisions are being made about women’s positions, they will be there.
Would you say you’re fulfilled in your field of endeavour?
I think I am fulfilled. In my practice, I did excellently well. If not that I diverted to politics, I should have been a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN). For those who know me, they know that I did excellently well in my legal practice and in my endeavours, especially at the National Centre for Women Development. I think I have done a great job that speaks for itself. I don’t need to blow my own trumpet, but for those who know, if you go around, you see my footprints everywhere and I am very glad I did that.
And in your politics?
Yeah. For now, politics is progressive by the day for the particular moment that I am in. But as the day goes by, I desire to move on to the top. Perhaps, one day, I expect to be the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
How do you combine your public service schedule with family demands?
It is just a matter of proper organisation. You fix time for certain things to be done. It is not easy because challenges will definitely come, but through those challenges, you are able to break the glass ceiling to ensure that every sector is given appropriate attention at every point in time.
How do you relax?
I like playing with my children at home and I take a walk round. I also indulge in indoor gym and at times, I go out to socialise with friends.
What’s your favourite sport?
At the moment, I don’t have a particular sport, but I have taken interest in golf because it is slow and steady, a continuous game and it is not very stressful.
Do you have a favourite food?
I am an excellent cook. I really don’t eat very much, but as a typical Nigerian, I prefer my own dish, Afang soup, fisherman soup, my home-made, prepared ekpangnkukwo. Those are the dishes I can cook very well and I entertain people with. They are very rich in nutrition. You have vegetables, enough protein in every shade and form and all the vitamins. These are very healthy meals.
Where’s your favourite holiday destination?
Surprisingly, it is my home town. I am very much attached to my hometown, Ikom, because everything there is natural. In Ikom, you are at home with nature. As a daughter of a farmer, another of my favourite places is the farm. I grew up on a farm, I love farming and it is still part of me today.