As Nigerian women joined the global community to celebrate the International Women’s Day on Monday, March 8, 2021, Hon Anengi Barasua, Vice Chairman, Bonny Local Government Council, Rivers State shares her thoughts  in this interview she granted in Port Harcourt.

Excerpts:

 What does the International Women’s Day mean to you?

 To me it means Women Liberation; a day to celebrate the success story of women; a day to highlight what women have achieved. And of course, it is worth celebrating, coming from where we as women are coming from. We are coming from the backstage and we’re trying to take the front stage.  I’m not saying we’re trying to take power from the men but we’re indeed pushing forward to see how we can collaborate with the men and make the nation and the world a better place.

That is what the International Women’s Day means to me: pushing women forward and women pushing themselves forward to develop and bring a lot of achievements to the nation.

 Politically speaking, would you say women have achieved much for the development of this country?

 I must say that, to an extent, women are doing well. I am a politician and a women – I know the challenges I face as a woman. It’s not easy to swim in this ocean that is filled with men and come out head high. This is because whatever you have to do they don’t see your achievement as being the result of your intellectual capacity. They see it as ‘oh because she’s a woman’. Some will even say ‘Oh because she has compromised. They have a way of tagging your success to something, not really your ability, not really concentrating on your own competence.  They always want to put it under and make it look like if there was not a man, she would not have succeeded.

So, I will say that women are doing well, we’re trying especially in Africa and Nigeria in particular because the political ground is dominated by men. To tell you the truth, our men are not yet ready to accommodate women in this field. But I want to thank God for people like the governor of Rivers State (Chief Nyesom Wike). He actually made women surface and take the centre stage in his tenure. Recall that when he came on board, he insisted that the 23 local government areas vice chairmen must be women and that brought a lot of women onto the forefront in politics. That brought me as Vice Chairman of Bonny Local Government Area to the forefront. And that’s applaudable. It’s like giving women the platform to showcase their capability, their competence.

Some people feel that the place of a woman, no matter how educated, is in the kitchen but today we’ve seen that its’ not true. Even the likes of Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the much celebrated woman today, has proven that women are brilliant, women are intelligent and women can do what men can do as long as it has to do with mental capacity.

I want to dedicate this year’s International women’s Day to Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. She’s the first woman to become the Director-General of the world Trade Organisation. That alone speaks volumes of what women can achieve.

 The theme of this year’s celebration is Choose To Challenge; and I’m wondering what would you choose to challenge yourself?

 I was telling my sister just yesterday that may be because of age, because of availability of resources, I might not be able to challenge Dr Okonjo-Iweala but I will choose to creat a platform where women will come up to be like Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. This is because if you give our young girls today the platform, the resources, the education that they need, they will get there. At my age, as I said, I might not have what is required to be  like her but if we begin from the root, from the primary school, the secondary school and right to the university days and begin to guide them, we will get more of Ngozi Okonjo-Iwealas. So, that’s what I choose to challenge.

My part as a vice chairman of a local government, I want to use the opportunity to advise and counsel young ladies that they should look at her as today’s woman, they should see her as their mentor and strive to be like her. I wish I can be like her and so I wish that other young ladies can be like her tomorrow and that we will have more of her type in our society.

 In Rivers State, women have been chosen to be Vice Chairmanship candidates by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 23 local government councils, is that where you belong or you want to challenge for more?

It is the starting point. We have to test the waters, swim in this water and come out successful first before we can now begin to look at the second stage. I will say that I as the Vice Chairman can beat my chest and say I have tried and I have done well because just recently, in my little capacity and with the resources available to me, I was able to empower women with skills acquisition.

Now I know that not everybody must go to school but we can support ourselves by learning a trade, getting self-employed. And if these women are self-employed, they can sponsor the education of their children so their future is secured. So, with that I can say I’m moving forward. Power belongs to God. So as I set the pace, at the end of my second tenure which I’m about to go into, by the grace of God, I believe I will do better and then I can look at it and think of the next step to take. I believe that being the Vice Chairman of the local government is my starting point but definitely not my end point in politics.

 Don’t you think women in politics in Nigeria need to build themselves like Kamala Harris and Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala such that their successes could not be ascribed to anything else but their own value, competence and integrity?

A I think we have such women. I may not be able to remember their names readily, but I know that we have such women in Nigeria. These women have set examples for themselves before they got to this position and that is what spoke for them. It didn’t just start today. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala was one-time Minister of Finance in Nigeria and she has a straight record. She wasn’t found wanting, she wasn’t found misappropriating funds. These are the characteristics that you need to have that will set the pace for you. That’s why I say we might not be like her in that same capacity but we can do like her. I am a public office holder today, my part is to be sure that what is in my hand is secure, what is placed under my care is protected. I don’t need to be seen among scoundrels or (money) launderers or people that misappropriate fund; I don’t need to abuse the office, I need to keep the records straight, I need to project transparency. So, when you do all these, the sky will be your limit because at that point, people will not see your success and tag it to compromise, they will now see what you can do in your antecedents and give you credit.

So, like I said earlier, our duty now is to create the platform, counsel young ladies, support them, give them the avenue to become like the role models and if we do that, counselling them, teaching them how to lead decent lives… unfortunately today, many of our young ladies are derailing, so, we should create the platform where young girls can be trained so that we have a better society.

Women are nation builders; women make the world go round so it behoves us as women to empower ourselves, support ourselves, train ourselves because if you train a woman you train a nation.

 Speak to the proposition that women are credible alternatives in terms of political leadership?

Yes, women are credible alternatives: they’re reliable, they’re trust worthy. I’m a woman and I know the limit of what I can do and what I cannot do. There are things I cannot compromise and that’s my integrity and my reputation, they matter so much to me and on that note we’re indeed credible. But when you say credible alternatives, I am a bit unsettled about it. They’re not an alternative, they are credible themselves. They shouldn’t be on plan B always. They can be on plan A as well.

 Looking at 2023, would you say women have come of age to take leadership of this country?

Yes, emphatically yes. I believe and I see 2023 with more local government chairmen, and don’t be surprised, we might have a female governor in Nigeria, in the 36 states of the country, I believe women will emerge as governors and nothing stops a woman from even being the president of the country because we have what it takes.

By: Opaka Dokubo