By Christy Anyanwu
Iyom Josephine Anenih is a distinguished leader of women. She is an accomplished administrator, a learned lawyer, a fearless champion of the cause of the oppressed, underprivileged, downtrodden and the marginalized society.
You can call her a woman of steel. She was the minister of women affairs and social development .She has been deeply involved in the formation and co-ordination of organizations that are involved in the empowerment of women at the grassroots.
Recently, she bagged the MMS hall of fame awards for her passion, definition of clarity and purpose for gender movement. In this interview, she opened up about life and women in politics generally. Excerpt:
This year’s Hall of Fame Awards is tagged: Women in leadership and governance; promoting sustainable economic prosperity. Do you think women can do this in Nigeria?
Well, as far I’m concerned the little economic prosperity that Nigeria has is in the shoulders of women because nothing is happening at the micro level. They call it SMEs where you see women selling tomatoes and selling garri and all that is hardly emphasized. What we are asking is that women should be encouraged by making the environment conducive for them to increase and escalate what they are doing. All I know and I believe in is that every economic activity is done by women, so government should give them an enabling environment to improve on what they are doing because it is the traders, the market women, the women farmers, so the economy of Nigeria is on the back of the women.
You are so passionate about a woman being the president and governor in the country some day, what does it take?
What it takes for a woman to be president is for a woman to join political party to start with. And then we will vote for her because presidency is not by appointment, you have to contest and you cannot contest on your own, you have to contest on a political party platform. So, my encouragement is for women to stop this less concerned or lethargy of being in partisan politics because every woman is a politician and we do play politics on a daily basis from our homes, in the market , from our work places where we work, we all do politics so, that you are in a partisan platform should not be different. In fact, you should bring the skills that is already in you to come into party politics and excel. More women should come out and be actively involved in partisan politics. We need more female state governors come 2023. Money should not be a problem, we should come together, we should identify those women who will take this country to the higher level and we need to. Look at what we are going through in this country, look at our children; drugs are taking over, wickedness, evil taking over. It is our responsibility because a bad child has a mother and as a mother we are all mothers. So, we need to change this narrative, whatever it takes women should take over not only in politics, in commerce and in everything that we require to make this nation a great nation.
A lot of economists are saying that the living condition in Nigeria is very poor and we know that women are crucial to changing the narratives. How would you rate the standard in Nigeria?
It is very poor. Nigeria is rated as one of the poorest countries in the whole world and it is sad but again, when I look at it, our rating is also because the work and the contribution of women is not counted because if you count the contribution of women in the informal sector, at the micro level, if they added what women are producing they cannot say that we are the poorest. I think that everything we have in this country we got it on the back of the women. Women are in agriculture that is feeding the nation. Forget the men talking about their farms, I have never seen what comes out of their farms. It is women that are labouring, producing everything that we have. They are the ones trading, they are the ones doing inter-border trading. In Benin Republic you see our women all over the place selling. But there’s no data, nobody records what they are doing and it is as if we are doing nothing.
A lot of people are amazed that you are a lawyer, many didn’t know you as a learned fellow, how would you react to that?
Because once a woman is in politics they think she’s an illiterate and she’s a prostitute that is the stereotype, the way they profile women in politics. That is why you find qualified women, educated women; professional women do not want to go into politics because of that negative profiling. That was the reason I said I would go in, you cannot be talking from outside if you want to change things you have to be in, that was the reason I made up my mind to join active politics to tell them that profiling of women is very wrong. Now, any political party you go into now, educated women have taken over, professional women are now there.
How far do you want to take your political ambition?
I don’t have a political ambition, I’m a politician and I’m a politician for life. I’m not a flight by night politician. I have contested and failed several times. I contested for national assembly I failed, I contested for governor, I failed., if I wasn’t 75, I would have contested for president in 2023, but I’m leaving it for the younger ones now.
Why do you fail in elections?
Mainly finance, mainly money. Politics has been so monetized that if you don’t have a deep pocket, you can hardly make it in Nigeria because the electorate, people who are voting are so corrupt. They are not asking for governance, they are not asking for whether you are intelligent, they are not asking whether you can perform, all they are asking for is bring the money, share the money. And, of course, people who make their money, anywhere, anyhow will pay and get the ticket and get the positions and then take it back on them.
Are you satisfied with the way things are going in Nigeria as regards women coming out in politics?
That’s why I’m shouting myself, encouraging women and telling them to come forth. You cannot be in the other room or in the kitchen and say you want to. It is not by appointment. If you are making money in the private sector invest it, the question of saying there’s no money is not true. If you don’t have maybe your husband has, collect it and go and contest. The women in the private sector should try and take the risk and invest their money in politics. There’s no way women could be on corporate boards as directors without some elements of politicking, it is time for them to play politics at the big stage in political parties. There is no way you can have leadership of those country without belonging to a political party. That is what the constitution says. You have to come out and contest and you cannot contest unless you belong to a political party, so women come out, join any political party of your choice, use the power, the energy that you are using to excel in the private sector, in your businesses to excel and come on top in the political party, then you can have a say, then you can have a ticket to contest, then you can become a governor, then you can become a president.
You don’t look 70 years old?
I will be 74 by the time election will come in 2023, I will be 75 years old.