When You Look atVoting Patterns,WomenVote More than Men

so forth. But it is not enough. We are Oliver Twist, and we are asking them for more. I can assure you that a lot of the moribund companies of government and moribund Paraatatals of government can be resuscitated by women. Women are born managers and women excel in looking after things.

People believe women have lackadaisical attitude to politics. What’s your view?

We have been the ones participating the most because, you see, in any policy, it is the women and the children that are affected most and you would never find a woman who would abandon her children. The statistics are not negligible. Women stand by their children. Apart from that, 60 per cent of the households in Africa are headed by women. When you go to political campaigns, it is the women you will see. In Churches, it is the women that you will see. In anything that you will require participation, it is the women that you will find there. So, we have the numbers. We don’t just have the wherewithal to get there. We have the mental capacity, but we don’t have the wherewithal to get there, because we require funding.

Why is it that women are usually made Deputy Governors in Nigeria?

We reject it. What is the word I’m looking for? It is to console the women, because if you go and look at the statistics, majority of voters are women. In political circles, before now, when you raise this issue, they will say, “no, no”, because a lot of things are going on. But now, it is from the registration that your gender is taken. So, we can rely, to a large extent, on those statistics. It is the women, we participate more than the men, but we will leave that aside where money talks in politics. Because for every arrangement you will need to make, you will need money. And we are not organised enough to say, we want to do funding. But we are working something out and I won’t tell you that on the pages of the newspapers. For 2019, we are working out something to support women who want to come out.

Apart from the culture, some women are rich enough to say they want to vie for elective offices. What do you think?

What percentage of the women? What percentage of the women is rich enough? If you count on your fingertips, how many women are speaking up in Nigeria? How many women are in the limelight? It will be difficult for you to get up to 100,. I dare say.

If women are to vie for elective offices, like the governorship and they are given the opportunity, are we going to have the office of a ‘first man’?

It depends on, if the President of Nigeria married. Why not?

We have always had ‘first lady’, why can’t we have ‘first man’? But the question is how many men are willing to be ‘first men? But it is possible. We have women who are in high positions now, and their husbands are there, quietly supporting them, quietly being there for them, quietly working things out for them. So, we would get there. Our own ‘yes, we-can-style Obama woman’ would come. Sometimes, big things ºare not planned, but sometimes, they just happen. It is going to be extremely difficult, but not impossible, because you will have to consider the culture of this country.

When you look at the North, their own religion and culture are fixed together. But the likes of Queen Amina of Zaria came out of the North. So, it is not impossible. We look forward to the day and we are praying for that day. That Professor woman, the KOWA woman, is still there, trying to be President.

So, when the time is ripe the Lord will help us. And I always say, if Nigeria has a female President things will work and turn around for good. Women are fixers. And it is only women who can fix this country.