Hon. Mulikat reads at ANA monthly reading session
The Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) Abuja chapter this Thursday hosted former majority leader of the House of Representatives, Hon. Mulikat Akande Adeola at its monthly guest writers session.
The event gave the politician the chance to showcase her literary prowess with a reading from her book, A woman in Parliament, which documented her experiences in the House of Representatives, that climaxed with her failed bid to be Speaker of the house
Reading from the second chapter of the book, Hon Mulikat recounted the battles and intrigues that took place while she was jostling for the number one position at the lower chamber of the House.
Her loss according to her, showed the lack of cooperation from the men to allow women take up leadership positions as well as the betrayals that characterized the politics of the house.
Adeola did not ignore the fact that women barely supported their fellow women when they contest for political offices, giving an instance where the wife of any male politician will definitely mobilise women to support her husband to win whatever position he is vying for, even if he is contesting against a woman.
She frowned at the low number of women in the National Assembly and wondered when men will cooperate with women and have a large number of them in political offices.
Hon Adeola insisted that political parties also have a major role to play in bringing women into active politics by including women in the party hierarchy as well as ensuring that the party constitution provides certain number of positions which women will be encouraged to contest for.
Her book, she said, was written to state the facts as she saw them about what transpired during her days in the house in a bid to encourage other women to face the challenges that life would throw at them.
“There is no attempt to name and shame anyone here,” she said, “these are the facts, this is what happened and if anyone is mentioned here, it is because they did something that contributed to the story,” she said.
Speaking to journalists at the event, Chairman, ANA Abuja Chapter, Ben Ubiri said the absence of literature in politics was a thing of concern as everyone should be encouraged to document their personal stories.
He enjoined writers and journalists to desist from writing negative reports about politicians because they get discouraged and shy away from anything that relates with writers and their works.
“When we write negatively about politicians we chase them away but when we write positively about them, we bring them close. Our various negative write ups about them have made them detach themselves from the society which should not be so,” he emphasized.
At the opening glee, various witers and poets read from their works including Jamila Abass from the University of Abuja Literary Society, who recited one of her poems agitating that the feminine folks be given their rightful positions in the society.
Also commenting, the president of the Association of Nigeria Authors, Malam Denja Abdullahi said he could relate with the politician’s experience as he went through similar ordeals while contesting for the presidency of the association.
He took the opportunity to announce his desire to re-contest the presidency of ANA at the 2017 convention in Markudi this November.