Why I Ventured Into Politics
Professor Oluremi Comfort Sonaiya is a Nigerian politician, educationist and writer. She was the only female presidential candidate in the 2015 general election under the platform of the KOWA and has since then had positive influences in the political spa
How Was Your Upbringing?
I had a wonderful childhood. I grew up in a beautiful campus called St Luke College in Ibadan. My father was a teacher in that college. So we lived on the campus. It was a teacher training college and there was also primary school joining it, which was, were I attended. So it was a wonderful experience. Both of my parents were disciplinarians. My mother especially, may be my father tended to spoil me a little bit because I was the only girl born after four boys. So my mother had to make sure that my father doesn’t spoil her only daughter. But anyway; my father died when I was Ten years old. So that was when we left St Luke’s college. So it was a wonderful time. There were lot of children in the house because my mother ran a boarding school for primary school children who were going to school from our house. I guess their parents heard that both of my parents being teachers, it would be a great advantage to their children to bring them to our house. And the good old day’s kind of disciplinarians they were; they don’t take any nonsense from anybody. They did their work conscientiously, they worked hard; they did not see why any child should not be trained to appreciate the value of work. So all of us were given our duties which we had to perform before going to school, and things like that. I remember, one of the types of disciplines we had also was that my father making sure that we learn portions of scriptures every Sunday. He would give you just a few verses to learn, you will memorize and then you would recite to him, before you are free to go and eat your Sunday rice. I am sure it helped to stimulate the intellect, brought me closer to God and made me very conversant with the bible scriptures in my mind.
What was your drive towards achieving academic excellence and how have you contributed to the society?
I don’t have this sense of; I have contributed much to the society and things like that. You know, my own thinking was that I must try to do whatever job that I found in my hands and do it faithfully and diligently. That was the pattern I was brought up by my parents and teachers. And I assumed it as the way to do your job. We were expected to be diligent, do whatever you have to do to the best of your ability. Weather it was sweeping of floor. I attended a boarding school, in those days when you we were asked to sweep the floor at home or in school, it would be inspected. So your work has to pass the test of inspection. That means you learn to work well because, you do not want to be sent back to repeat the work. So those things had their way of affecting our personality and psychology now that we have grown. There is a way and standard that work should be done, so you must go ahead and ensure you do your work according to that standard.
How is life as a wife and then a professor and how you do you advocate for the push for women to attain career advancement?
Really, I wasn’t pushing for women per say, I just knew I had to be diligent to climb the ladder. Hard work pays. You cannot be working hard and find yourself at the bottom of the ladder, it’s not possible. So once I decided I would be in the academics, I knew I had to be the best that I could be in that area. I cannot emphasize that enough; the training I had at my upbringing. You gave your best to everything you are doing. Whether you are washing plate; you know, my mother supervised everything, she inspected your work. If you wash a pot, it has to be clean. The plates mustn’t be slippery. They thought us to work hard and well. And in going to school too, thank God for the ability he gave me because it is not everybody who works hard, who becomes a professor. So it was by God’s grace. I didn’t make myself to be a guru in academics but for the help of God.
How were you able to juggle your career and motherhood?
I am not sure how many parents can actually beat their chest to say they have brought up their children successfully, it’s actually about what the public see. I thank God for the help he gave us (my husband and I). There were challenges. There were things that you have being through that the public does not see. The times of struggling, your ups and downs, the public might not see all of that. But there is no doubt that God has been good and faithful. We thank Him for that. Talking about striking a balance, in my own mind, what I have always desired is to have a God rich life not to be all academics, life is supposed to be lived fully in its different phases. You are mother, you are wife, you are teacher, you are choir member in your church, you are bible study teach; I am saying all the things that I am. You are friends to several people, you are daughter to somebody. I see all of those different roles as opportunities for God to enrich our lives. And when we play them well, I think that is what amounts to a good life. For me, I am one who loves to travel, I like to cook and bake. I think that with good management of time and focus, one can really succeed in having a truly enriching kind of life. Knowing what your priorities are and the best thing to do at different times. As the bible says, to everything there is a time and season. So if one focuses on what is important at a particular time, she would be able to have an enriched life.
Why did you venture into politics amidst other options?
Actually, I retired to go into politics. I still had fifteen more years to spend in the university as at 2010 when I retired. I had always being interest in social issues; justice, equity, clean and sane environment. I have had the opportunity to travel quite a bit especially given my areas of study; foreign languages, so I have travelled to those countries where those languages are spoken. Every time I travel and come back, I am very disturbed. I am like, why do these other countries work better, why are they cleaner than my own, etc. And yet, I knew that I was from a rich country, I knew that we have resources in this country. So, obviously we were not using our resources well. So, I would. Come back and write articles, get it published in the newspaper and so on. And so I was working in the University, the same University I had attended as an undergraduate; Obafemi Awolowo University, then University of Ife. I have being there as a student from 1972 to 1977. And here was I back then teaching and it was like things from the mid 80’s to late 80’s, things just started going down. And it used to bother me that the students that I was teaching could not have the same standard of education that I had in this same country. I thought that things were supposed to be getting better but the otherwise was the case. And that bothered me. We would be telling our students stories of how wonderful things were, how we ate jollof rice and chicken and Ice cream on Sunday afternoons for 25 kobo in those days. I mean, nobody was expecting that things would still remain that cheap and so on but, it shouldn’t be this worse. And whenever I travel over and over to the institutions that I have visited in Europe, in the United States, I would see that they are improving, but I come back home and I see that things are getting worse. So finally, it got to a head. At least in my own mind; maybe around 2007 or 2008, it just hit me, that it is the politicians who determine the quality of our lives. That thing hits me strongly. You know, our resources are in their hands and it’s whatever they do with it that we either suffer from or enjoy. I can’t build my roads to travel on or my school to attend; only government owns that type of resources from the people. So I just got so concerned about it. I told my husband and said “I think we have being wrong to leave our affairs on the hands of people who care only about themselves and not us or the people in general”. And for a long time, he said, “ha! Politics is a dirty game, it’s dangerous and all, decent people don’t go into politics”. I said, “We are paying severely for it and I am convinced that decent people need to go into politics, good people need to go into politics, please I would like to go into it”. And my husband said why not, I would support you. That was how I decided that I would write my letter of resignation at Obafemi Awolowo University. And in fact it came at a time when those in the academics just started earning decent salaries, because for long tome our salaries were really poor. So people thought “are you crazy, this is just a time that you have started to smile a little bit and you want to resign”. But I really was convinced that l, that was the right step for me to take and that was how I joined politics.
What is the significance of your outing to contest for president in 2015 under KOWA Party?
Concerning my participation in that election, we were so limited in terms of resources and so on. But I really want to thank God for the impact that the very little resources we had was able to make. I never seized to be amazed. A number of people met me afterwards and say, you know; we are really inspired. And I am very grateful for that opportunity. Maybe that was one of the reasons that I was meant to run in that elections anyway. Because between then and now, a lot of people, not just women but also young people have said “wow, so this politics is not just limited to only these sets of political class that we all recognize and always give it to them like it is their entitlements.” And all of a sudden, it was like somebody just coming out from a University’s Lecture room to say “No! I too have a responsibility, I too can contest”. In my own mind, I did not see how they were more entitled to contest than I was. And I think that, that is one of my takeaways from my last elections. How it has really energized and inspired several other people. This is our country too; nobody has more of a right than anyone. Once you are a Nigerian, we are all equal. In fact, three of the female politicians who are running for Presidency in next year’s elections have contacted me to say, “You know what? You inspired us”. And I really feel happy about that. Several young people too. Some of them running at different levels; whether the presidency, senate and house of representatives etc.; they have also told me I inspired them. I am very grateful for having had that opportunity.
Do you consider women as a major consideration in today's politics ?
I often say that, I did not go into the 2015 elections screaming “I was a woman, it’s our turn” or something like that. I was just a citizen who was fed up with the way in which our country was being misgoverned. And I felt that I have the responsibility to do whatever I could to contribute in turning us to the right and proper direction. However, since I got involved, I have come to realize that it is important for women to participate in the running of our public affairs. I have had many opportunities come to me because of my participation in those elections, and I have now seen more and more. I have had to read a lot more, I have being in many more places, people have spoken, and there is evidence that societies stands to gain when they have women also represented at the decision making table. You cannot relegate half of your population to the. Background and think that you would advance, it won’t work. And the countries of the world that are having their women participate in running their affairs are finding greater stability, prospering more, and the fact is that women have concerns that they too would bring. Men and women don’t necessarily see the world through the same lenses. Women are more concerned about social issues, infrastructures, how our schools and hospitals would be better equipped. Because, when children fall sick, they are the ones who takes children to the hospital and mostly the ones who takes children to school. So, their concerns are some worth different and it is good for nations to have those concerns also represented when they are taking decisions. We are not just saying put any woman there because she is a woman, we saying, put competent women there. And Nigeria has a lot of competent women. We have women who are making impacts. In different areas of their endeavours; in business, commerce and industry, IT, entertainment and it’s not enough in politics. We have to ask them what is keeping them out of politics. We must address those issues because we are short changing ourselves by keeping our women out of politics.
What is your stand on feminism?
Let me quickly say, I don’t describe myself as a feminist. I don’t like to put myself in a preconstructed straight jacket and say this is what I am. I am passionate about issues of justice, I defend the rights of all women to dignity, to self-respect, to earning a fair pay for a same amount of work that they do, because those are issues of justice. Some of the practices that we have are so terrible. Widowhood practices for instance, practices of early marriages where we marry out girls of age ten to a man of 60 years, old enough to be her grandfathers and things like that. So I am passionate about those issues, but I don’t really like to put myself in any straight jacket. I am a human being, a passionate Nigerian, a passionate African who will love to see us get rid of a lot of these practices that really do not show us in good light, that relegates certain members of our society.
Do you think Nigerians are ready for a female president come 2019?
Nobody really knows what any country is ready for, let alone our own; until it happens. Even all of us thought and hoped America is ready for a female President, but then it didn’t happen. It might not be necessarily because she is a woman and that’s why it didn’t happen, but it just happens that it did not happen. So I don’t think there is a good and viable way to measure whether Nigerians are ready. Many people have met me and said, I think it is the right time for a woman to come to power and I would support you with everything you need, but there are those who thinks otherwise and says no, we are not ready for that.