Nigeria Urgently Needs Marshall Plan on Poverty Alleviation
In line with the celebration of the International Women’s Day, the President, Cosmopolitan Women’s Club, Lagos, Dame Marie Fatayi-Williams, in this interview speaks about the need for more leadership and decision-making opportunities for women in governments at all levels as well as in the private sector, just as she unfolds her agenda for the Club. Peter Uzoho brings the excerpts:
Can you tell us about the Cosmopolitan Women’s Club and what it was established to achieve?
The Cosmopolitan Women’s Club of Lagos is a club of dignified women and Lagosians, who are not below the age of 50. It is for women who are indigenes of Lagos State and for those who are married to Lagosians. Ours is a members’ only club, a charitable club, a non-governmental organisation and we are non-partisan. It is club for those aged 50 years and above; people who have served the nation in the past, either in top government positions, corporates or their private business. These are people who have a lot to offer the society and want to contribute towards development of the society. The age ranged from 50 years to 70 years. Seventy years is the cutoff point. After seven years, you cannot be a member, but once you are a member, you continue to be a member even after you must have clocked 70 years. It is a club that has a focus and direction as to where they want to go and what they want to do. So, we only have members who believe in our ethos.
In your message on the International Women’s Day, you wrote about how women are increasingly breaking glass ceilings; how women are bearing the brunt of economic hardship as well as inequality. Can you shed more light on some of these issues?
If you look at it, women even before the Beijing Conference and after the conference, have tried to put themselves in the forefront of development and to ensure that the glass ceiling is broken and that we become empowered and relevant. That is because we are that segment of the society that is over 50 per cent, so we cannot be ignored and left behind. We cannot because of the patriarchal society not rear our heads. The discrimination against women and violence against women, poverty, women’s rights not being human rights, and a lot more have been the issues over the years. But all of those things started changing after a lot of pressure, advocacy and the Beijing Conference made us to realise that women’s rights are human rights. Even at that time, we found out that an association like the National Council on Women’s Society wasn’t there, but late Mrs. Adefarasi, late Mrs. Emily Aig-Imoukhuede, and several others, were all in the forefront of the struggle and we were the young ones that worked with them to put pressure on the issues of women’s rights. So, Women Affairs rose from being a department in the Ministry of Social Welfare and Youth, to becoming a Commission during the regime of General Babangida; we continued to advocate and we ended up having a full-fledged Ministry which was brought by Mrs. Sanni Abacha, just before the Beijing Conference. With that, women started being in charge of positions in the States and the federal government by being in charge of the Women Ministry. So, that was a huge progress at that time. Slowly and steadily we were making progress and of course, the 30 per cent Affirmative Action, which has never been attained became a focus; we also started talking about political inclusion and more women in decision-making tables. That is having women in decision-making tables not because you have a pretty face, but because you are endowed and you are a woman of substance, a woman with intellect who is capable of handling the position she is being given. So, women actually started becoming upwardly mobile. In the corporate world, it was not that difficult because like abroad, just as we had the likes of Margaret Thatcher, who was a no-nonsense Prime Minister to the extent that they nicknamed her iron lady. Margaret Thatcher was virtuous, a woman of stature and you could see that even in her dressing, it was not a dressing that was tempting; she carried her handbag with so much dignity and she was a strong woman who could deliver and she left a good legacy, just like Mrs. Ransome Kuti, Margaret Ekpo, Amina Gambo of Nigeria, even though they never got to same leadership position as Margaret Thatcher. But they had those values that guided their actions. Today, we have younger women who have become Prime Ministers in their countries abroad, especially in the Nordic countries. But Nigeria hasn’t gotten to that level and even the gains we have made, it looks like no sooner have we broken few glass ceiling, the glass is now glazed and it is now becoming more difficult to push through. But we found out that in the corporate world, the young women of today have risen on the shoulders of women who had fought the fight and so there is more recognition for them and more allowance for them to get to positions of empowerment in their operations better than past women who had gone through that terrain.
So, in terms of legislation, what would you like to see for more women participation in politics?
Did you see where we are in terms of the Gender Bill? The bill put together by a group of NGOs was thrown out. We feel that an amalgamation of women is very essential to what we do. We must come together with one voice. The Aba Women’s riot, was a success, even though I still do not consider it as a riot. It was a movement to push for the rights of Nigerian women. Until Nigerian women come together, speak with one voice, that is when we can make the desired progress. You want to be part of the political process in a political party, you come with one small voice, the men are more and the women have no voice. Why did they legislate against women having a political party?
But that was the ninth Assembly, is there no way the bills can be re-introduced in this present National Assembly?
The five Gender Bills that were rejected we intend to partner with a group of NGOs and re-present them. We believe that the present lawmakers may decide to pass them having understood what it means and having seen the depletion in the Senate, the House of Representatives and politics generally. But beyond the gender bills, I am talking about how to sustain the momentum. We can’t keep waiting until when they give us the opportunity. Remember we have some form of majority. For example, we need to find out why they won’t allow us to have a women’s political party. If women have their own political party, we are not saying men should not join, but it is going to be a political party for Nigerian women, with men as members. We do have women who are billionaires and they have a lot of money; we do have women who operate in different industries and every woman has a talent, so you get everybody to the table and also men who are interested in belonging to the political party to join us. The day we would achieve that is the day the history and politics of Nigeria will change for better. That is because that party would be an amalgamation of brains, intelligence, quality and quantity. Women are everywhere and that is why they come to us during every political process to beg for us to register and beg for our votes during elections. Why can’t we that they are begging be the ones to dictate the pace and for them to join our