…Time to re- write the book!!
By Jacqui IWU
FRI, MARCH 2 2018-theG&BJournal-As Nigeria prepares for the polls come 2019 a lot is happening at the political arena presently but it looks like, we do not hear much happening within the women folks as to what their plans are in joining the 2019 race. Well, you could say, they are doing their runs silently but, how could Nigerians know women are gearing up for 2019 if we do not see signs and hear their voices?
Take a survey on the streets of Nigeria cities and ask them questions concerning women coming out for 2019 elections and you will be disappointed. They will be clueless on mentioning any name because they are not aware of any. The only woman few can give you might be the present Minister of women affairs Aisha Alhassan but since she made that controversial statement against PMB and APC, it’s like she has gone undercover. We do not even hear her performance at her job post. Some Nigerians are even wondering if she is still the minister of women affairs. She still is …right? Oh…forgive me I still have to ask because in this country, the ministries keep sacking and bringing back officials secretly without us knowing what the heck is happening.
I love what some youths are doing on social media with #nottooyoungtorunon twitter but I personally think, this campaign should have been on years back and not so sudden to the next elections. This notwithstanding, we are committed to the youths taking the leadership terrain by force this time if the old school politicians still refuse to include them in the leadership roundtable. Don’t get me wrong when I say ‘by force’ I do not mean by violence but I mean going all the way to take what we want. We all know that in Nigeria, if you wait to be included in the political arena of this country, you will wait till you expire-you have got to take what you want/deserve or else no one is going to hand it over to you.
It is still this idea of waiting for our turn and sitting idle doing nothing that most eligible, intelligent, prudent Nigerian women who should have been a great access and value to this country are not making contributions in our political leadership lanes. We know how ruthless political terrains are and how Nigerian men fight to their last drop of blood to ensure women who dare to challenge them, are frustrated. This does not mean there are not men in Nigeria who believe in women but to be honest, they are few…very …very few.
Our women are aware of the challenges they face if they decide to join politics so I expected that those of them in the law making positions should have used the time they have/had to make laws that can pave ways easily for women to participate in politics without violence or frustrations.
One of such laws am talking about is ‘INDEPENDENT CANDIDACY’. I am not a lawyer so I can’t explain much how this can work here but I think, this is one way that can enable our women who have what it takes to pilot the affairs of this country can do so without being manhandled by the male folks.
We have credible women who are silently operating powerful establishments and well recognized outside the shores of this country yet, Nigeria seem to neglect them and allowing them reforming other countries.
A woman like Amy Jadesimi, daughter of a former founding partner of Arthur Andersen Nigeria – Oladipo Jadesimi. Amy is a graduate of Oxford University Medical school, former banker at Goldman Sachs London, a graduate of Stanford Graduate School of business and presently as you read this, the big boss sitting at the helms of the only Nigerian privately owned largest deep offshore logistic based company- Lagos Deep Offshore Logistic (LADOL).
Amy, as the managing Director of LADOL is actually one of those women I personally call-‘career shark’…..oh… she must be for her to be handling a huge responsibility in a deep ocean filled and dominated with male sharks and whales. She dared the devil and took over the affairs of job in such position where most women dare to venture for fear of being disgraced by the male folks who swore that women have nothing in their brains to offer except lovely body features that make babies and sexual satisfactions.
Be honest with yourself, how many of our political God fathers can freely allow women like Amy to join their party and run for Governor/presidency positions in Nigeria? How many of them? The worst part that boils my blood is that, these men who have pulled their hair and swore that women must not get the upper hand in politics are fully aware that the women they resist or blackmail are most times more qualified than some men they support but still run them out.
Coming back to this rare Amazon Amy Jadesimi, women like her in this country who treasure their self-respect and dignity will not want to drag issues with political Godfathers in Nigeria so they simply stay silent and continue to do their own stuff. As a member of an international commission of business leaders- the business and sustainable Development commission which works alongside DAVOS, she renders her leadership skills to foreigners yet, her country sinks in areas like the, 17 economic (SDGs) sustainable Development Goals set by United Nations in 2015 for all countries to achieve. She highly believes in these goals and have been working in her own private sector capacity to ensure LADOL helps within the West African region.
Not that her skills and services does not affect Nigeria positively since she is in the petroleum field but not as much as when it comes to taking huge/vital government decisions that can benefit the entire citizens of Nigeria if she was allowed to run the affairs holistically.
Amy is just one out of thousands of Nigerian intellectual executive females who has what it takes to better the lives of Nigerians but meet stumbling blocks here and there in the political parties so, the time for Nigeria to declare ‘Independent candidacy’ is now.
Nigerians have been following the books where the male hold all the political cards, we have gotten to the stage in our political life when the book should be re-written for the good of all Nigerians. Nigerians have waited long for this independent candidacy not just in the female arena but even more in the male category. (I will talk about the Nigerian males, vibrant youth, some who have tried already and find very credible like- Former Gov. Donald Duke, who are also standing on their own waiting for independent political Candidate to happen so that they can render their services.
Jacqui IWU is a Media Communications & PR strategist|A Life &Business Coach with passion for youth and women Economic/Social Empowerment. |Twitter- |@vivantjacqui|@Jacquiworld| #talkbacktobwj
