 Thanks for staying with us now. According to a news source, despite clamors for improvement in women participation in public life across the world, Nigeria appears to be moving in the wrong direction now from 1990 to date. Only 157 women have been elected into the 469 member national assembly, 38 senators and 119 members of the House of Representatives, compared to 2,657 men with about 616 senators and 2,041 reps during the same period. On the results of the 25th February presidential and national assembly elections have further exposed Nigeria's failure to implement several treaties and status it signed, which are aimed to ensuring women's involvement in politics. Now, of course, the 92 women who contested for the Senate in the February elections, only three women won. While out of the 286 who contested for the seats of the House of Representatives, only 15 have been declared winners. It is our responsibility as citizens to learn from our mistakes and make decisions that will be for the benefits of the larger good. And today we're asking how can we get more women into seats of power. Now, please let's hear what you have to say. Remember, you can join the conversation, send us an SMS or WhatsApp to read 1-803-4663. You can also tweet at us at WeishoAfka1 with the hashtag Weisho. In one or two minutes, quickly, how do you think we can help women get into power more? Advocacy, we need to, I mean, get more women involved in politics and a lot of times that involves financing. You know, we need to understand that there are roles to this thing. So if you discover what your strength is, you must be able to say that I'm giving this to you. I'm lending you my strength. I can campaign with you, but I can donate resources. This one can't do this. I can come with my intellectual capacity. So again, and then we need to be forgiving to other women. I think that's just what I was even going to say, actually. So I think people, we women need to support each other. And then, you know, we're just discussing how the standard is always raised when you see a woman coming into a place of leadership, you know, you then you don't now say, when it's a man, it's like, okay, it's normal, whatever he does, he does. But then when it's a woman, I hope she will be able to do this. I hope she will be able to do this. Why? A woman is, she's a human being, just as a man is, right? So I think we also, we need to recognize the on top capacity of women leadership, actually. And do you know how interesting these elections went? Do you know that the people that actually did not only the day vote, that stood to protect their votes, they were mostly women? I mean, honestly, imagine if women had just come together and say, I don't want to care which party you belong. As long as you're a woman, I am here for you. On this ballot, I am here to, all the women would have entered the, I mean, they would have won their elections. I think so, because the real people that voted in these particular elections were women. No, but women are usually the powerhouse of electoral in elections. So you see them, that's why your larger market women association, they hold such strong political force. Because you can't go and meet a man, I mean, in that large number, and say, come out and vote. No, it is the women that will mobilize other women and say, listen, so we just need to channel that. So let me bring in our guests. Terry Taylor is a media professional and a TV producer with vast experience, serving clients in both the public and private sector. She is a vice chairman, environment of a leaky zone and is the environment secretary of leaky estate residents association. Terry Taylor is the duly nominated candidate of the youth party to represent Etiosa one at the state house of assembly in the just concluded 2023 elections that happened on Saturday. She's also campaigning on it or she campaigned rather on a clear strategy to transform the environment and create jobs for many, many unemployed youths in the constituency or political terminologies. But she's joining us live in studio. Thank you so much, Terry Taylor. First of all, let me ask you for the just concluded elections. How was Saturday for you? Saturday was quite an interesting day for me. I was ready, you know, for to participate in the elections. My team and I had my agents in all the polling units across and we were basically good to go. But then we were watching out, you know, for when the materials come out and, you know, and then at that point, we realized that my party had been excluded from the ballot for House of Assembly in Etiosa one. Yes. So that was my experience. But still, I mean, it was a very busy day because, like I said, we already had all of our logistics in place. So we had to still manage people, manage all of our agents all around, take care of welfare, just still keep things going. So that kept me busy all of Saturday. I still went to vote. How did that keep? How did that? So how did that go? It had been an ongoing legal issue with INEC. But on the second of December 2022, we had a judgment from the Supreme Court in our favor as a party saying INEC should allow us to participate as we are duly registered, you know, political party. Meanwhile, this is not my first time contesting. In 2021, at the local government elections, I was on the ballot on Youth Party. I ran for councillor of my ward. So I've been on the ballot before on this same platform. Okay. And so when this happened, you know, we got the judgment on the second of December. So he was like, okay, you know what, you don't really expect INEC to just completely ignore and disobey Supreme Court judgments. But turns out that's exactly what they did. And so are you planning to pursue, take an illegal action or what's the plan going forward? Yes. I mean, so I mean, since I've been running this campaign since May last year, I declared in May, we did the primaries, we did the screening. So it's been a long stretch. I think I have done all that I know to do as a candidate. In spite of all that uncertainty and all of that, I, you know, I did the campaigning. I took it all upon myself. I expended everything that I did. And this was the outcome, which is fine. I mean, this is online. They did this, you know, however, I think if the party wants to follow it up, they should. But I wouldn't need on that. I think I've done my part in the whole process. Why do I feel so disappointed that you are not pursuing it? Well, I mean, I hope it's pursued because yes, why should they ignore a Supreme Court judgment? But I wouldn't need on it. You know, I'm a candidate. I have run a strong campaign. I've done everything. I've done my groundwork. I've, you know, connected with my electoral base. I had people come out. So I had to spend all of Saturday doing damage control. Everybody who was supporting me, I had to send messages to them saying this is what has happened, but please, you still need to go out and vote. And I made sure that I went out to vote. So imagine I took that House of Assembly, you know, paper, I saw myself excluded, but I voted because I wanted to let other people know that, look, let's move on. This has to happen, you know. So that was, that was it. And yeah. So just let's just stay small on that subject of the Saturday election. Yeah. So you put up a post on the, what's it called, the tribal or religious bigotry that went on on Saturday. You know, do you want to just, you know, probably say more about that? I mean, when I found out that I had been excluded, it was terribly was I was disappointed and all of that. But like I said, I was busy. So it was easy to manage that and just carry on doing. But what really broke my heart was this tribal bigotry, you know, to just see that in, I mean, I have never experienced that before. You know what I mean? Like I've heard about tribal profiling, you know, that it exists. But I, for the first time I actually saw the face of it. I, you know what I mean? Like this is ugly. This is terrible. I don't ever want, this is not the Nigeria that I know or that I want to be, you know, I want for us, for all of us. So I felt the need to, you know, reach out because I just imagine that if I was on the receiving end of all that hate, you know, you've lived somewhere all of your life, you have a sense of kinship with everybody there. I mean, we don't see, I don't, I don't see tribe and I've lived in Lagos all my life really. I don't see people on the basis of where they're from or I just see everybody. We're all Nigerians. But to see that division and to see people who you know, who you respect, who you, who are, everyday people like you, you know, propagate that, that hate to me, it was shocking. And I thought, you know what, no, we need to reach out to the people, you know, who have been directly affected by this. We need to, you know, sort of all just find a way to sort of heal from this because it really is bad. And the thing about it that even scared me the most was we all, people talk about, you know, separating, leaving Nigeria, they talk about Biafra, they talk about all of that. And I'm always, I've always been a very strong advocate for one Nigeria. I believe that, you know, one Nigeria is a non-negotiable. We should always find a way to hold together. But for the first time, I sort of understood where the argument was coming from. Yes, I totally understood it because I'm like, you know what, if I was on the receiving end of that, I would say, there's no point. Yes, keep your ears and let me go back here. But I don't want us to all get there. We can't afford to get there because we are better off together. So the healing needs to start. It needs to be, you know, it needs to be urgent. It needs to be strategic. We, and it's all hands on deck. Like we all have a responsibility to reach out. And I think the person I would pin this on is the same. See, I wonder what they call the person. You know, you're the CNC in charge of the state. You know, a lot happened. Again, these people thought they were fighting your battle. So that's why they were calling out, you know, and calling a particular tribe. So if you truly want to heal from this, if you want, because again, you cannot ignore what this particular tribe have brought to your idea. You can't ignore it. I'm sorry, you cannot. They actually are anywhere they go to, they drive the economy. They are that industrious. So you can't just wake up and because of politics, ignore the kind of financial return that these people bring for you as a people. So, but I mean, we will take a very short break. They will not focus on women's seats because we have a short time. Stay with us. We just go out and we ride back. Stay with us. All right. Thanks for staying with us. Now, if you just tuned in, we are having a conversation and we're asking, how can we get more women in the seats of power? And we have a woman. She's been in political scene for a while and she's been contesting. You know, she's here with us, you know, to discuss more about this, right? And please let's hear what you have to say. Remember, you can join the conversation, send us an SMS or WhatsApp to 0818234663. You can also tweet at us at WeishoAfrica, one with the hashtag Weisho. All right. So, Terry, let's now move to the conversation around women. I mean, when the Adamora State elections, it was going, everybody was so excited. Oh, what a Mother's Day gift, you know, and all of that. You know, even me, I took the picture that I'd seen online. I put it on my status. I felt very proud. I felt very like, okay, yes, you know, I can see somebody like me, you know. I mean, being a governor is a big deal, right? And she ran a very tight race, right? But when, of course, they broke my hearts. First of all, people were saying that why were we congratulating her? We made it, you know, we jinxed it. It was too early. It was too early that, and we were over hyping, we were celebrating her. People didn't understand what it was. Yes, that was a win for all women. But this issue around women in leadership, right? It's a big deal. I mean, Diora mentioned finance. Chileno was talking about standards, how we put a lot of expectations. When is a woman that is running? But when is a man? Nobody's asking those kinds of questions. How do we truly get women, you know, more women to occupy seats of power? There's a law that says we must feel 35%. They're not even following that and nobody's even questioning it. So how do we even start? Where do we start from if we really want to follow through? And I like what you said about strategy because me, I'm not about emotions anymore. After this election, they have opened my eye to see that it's not about emotions. We just need to be very strategic. So how do we strategically get more women seated at high levels of power? So first of all, more women have to desire it. More women have to want that power and to be in those and to occupy those offices. So when you have more women wanting it and not just wanting it to be handed over to them, but wanting, but willing to put in the work, you know, and go into political parties, you can you can just sit here and wish, wish yourself into office. You have to go into a political party. You have to be part of the political party system because our electoral act doesn't allow for independent candidates. So you have to be part of a political party for them to present you as a candidate. And that is a, you know, that is a race on its own. You know, it's not you're not just going to get up doing elections and say I want to join a political party. If you want to be elected in 2027, you have to start to work, join the party now, you know, join the party, get find yourself a role, start to add value, start to volunteer, you know, let people know you, let people even within the party start to know you, start to trust you. So that when you now come out and say, oh, I want to, you know, buy the form for one position or the other, there will be people who will back you up. There will be delegates who are willing to vote for you. But if you just come out of nowhere and just expect that there will be some sort of because you're a hand out, you know, it would just be handed over to you, that is completely wrong. And that is why a lot of people in the parties will not even respect a woman who will come up because they're like, why should we all just hand it over to you because they are doing 35% no, you have to fight for it as well. So I think that it's a, it's a joint understanding if the political parties are more willing to put forward more women, so they can now put in within their processes things that will allow for that, you know, to happen. For example, maybe they would, in my party, when I was running, like running for House of Assembly now, so the form for the House of Assembly was a millionaire, but because I'm a woman, I got it for 500,000. So that's a little incentive, you know, you can do with the forms. And I know that different parties do it. Some even give for free. But I don't, I think you should pay for the form. I think you should pay for the form. It's your own first investment into your own. So pay, pay for the form. I would advise anyone to. Actually think so too. Yeah. It's your way of committing and say, I'm going to do this and I'm going to take the money and I'm going to invest in this. So it's you committing to it and it shows your seriousness, to be honest. You would appreciate the form better when you have. They took it and gave it to you, you know. So more of those sort of incentives, you know, will allow men feel that, okay, if a campaign is not going to be too expensive, I don't have to go out and sell my house. If I'm going to get the funding to do it, like you said, you know, it would encourage more people. But first of all, you have to come in and be willing to do the work, be willing to come in and, you know, do the groundwork, the back end work, not the glorious work that everybody will see, but go and be the one that is arranging chairs, doing business. Do you understand? Be the one to provide food, to provide welfare when people need. Let people know you and be able to vouch for you and say, you know what, this because a lot of times, you know, people are actually, there's sometimes a bit of fear, even towards women vying for this position. That may because of a society that may be a an instinctive, you know, reaction. People are afraid. But when you show people that there's nothing for you to be afraid of, I'm somebody you can trust. I'm somebody that you even want to be in power because you know that it's to benefit you. You know what I mean? So once you can make yourself that way to people, it reduces those barriers and you'll be surprised that it's even the men that will be pushing you forward and saying, no, let her be the one. That has been my experience, even in, you know, the, in Lera, in Leki, you know, where I occupy some positions. I've always been recommended by, you know, men who have pushed me forward and said, you know, she will do the work. She will get it done. And it has encouraged me through my political career too, to step out. You know, before you can be a candidate, people have to nominate you. And, you know, a lot of times, a lot of guys would be the one to say, Terry, you do it. You are the one to go forward. But that's because I've paid my dues in that sense. I've been, I've always been available, always been accessible. They know that if they want something done, she will get it done. You know, so it builds that trust over time. Okay, so I wanted to add something to where you say, I often find that women think that being soft and, you know, all that vulnerability is a weakness for them. So a lot of times, we tend to think, no, I have to come across like, you know, very, very aggressive. And I don't think that's the way to go. I honestly think that we can weaponize that softness. It can become a strategy because people naturally gravitate towards empathy. And we have that in abundance. I mean, well, most women, you know, and we can use that. We are the ones that can easily relate to the grassroots women. You understand what it means for her to go through all the trouble to feed her kids. You understand what it means for her to put two nara, three nara together to say, okay, I want to feed my family. And we, I honestly, because a lot of women I speak to, they go like, oh, I need to, you know, once I'm in that pool, I need to be very tough so that all these people won't be looking at me like I'm too soft or somebody wants to take advantage. No, just be your natural self and just let it play out. People that would, everybody would, and again, I think for women, we want everybody to like us. Everybody will not accept us. You know, I totally agree with you. I do. It's even false when you try to be something you are not. You know, there are some women who by their personality type are aggressive and come across strongly. That's fine if that's your personality. But there are other people who are maybe a bit reserved, a bit soft spoken, and people would imagine that that would, that would mean you wouldn't get the respect of people out there. But I think it's even this Madame Binani in Adamawa, when I first of all heard or saw her that she was running, I then said, let me go and look for a video of her because I wanted to like experience what she was like. And I was so shocked at how soft spoken and like very gentle, you know, mannered she is. And I was like, okay, that's interesting. She's not the stereotype, you know, that you described as brash, aggressive, and all that. And it was welcoming and refreshing to me to see that because I was like, I'm glad, I'm happy that she's just an easygoing woman, like every, well she appears to be an easygoing woman, like every other person you know. And I think for me, that's a winner. Just be yourself, be your authentic self. The people that will gravitate to you if you're aggressive will gravitate to you. The people that will gravitate to you if you're gentle will gravitate to you. So just be yourself. I don't know. Okay, so that's what you said about putting in the work, right? But then it's been said because I remember that there's a particular, there was a particular candidate with the party who was a woman and then she was also young. So it wasn't even just because she was a woman now. Also because she was young, she didn't get the presidential ticket she was trying to get at the time. So what would you have to say about that? Um, well I don't know the exact, you know, I'm talking generally now, but I would say, you know, I'm not of the school of thought. You were saying this earlier. I slightly have a different way of looking at it. I'm not of the school of thought of saying I would just support someone because she's a woman. No, I'm sorry. It's not that easy. No, you have to earn my respect. You have to earn my vote. You have to earn my, my, you know, like every other person, I don't, I don't see things like that. I wouldn't, yes, I may be a little bit more biased in terms of giving you more of my attention or being more sympathetic in the way I view your, but I will not automatically just vote for someone because she's a woman. I'm sorry. You have to take the boxes. There has to be competence. I have to see your character and feel like you're somebody I can trust with leadership. You know, I'm not just going to do that. So, and I don't really, I know, I understand the urgent need for more women to be in politics and in governments, but it should be the right woman. I want to ask you a question. It should be the right woman. These same standards that you have just said now, do you put it for men? Which same standards? Because you see, people, I've heard these arguments and all of that. I've heard, I've heard this argument about competence, character and all of that. I do. The group of leaders that we have today, can you categorically say that there is competence as character? Some. Some. It's not an abundance of them. It's not. It's very minimal. But you see, the number has raised. So the way I'm driving with the conversation is the point I'm trying to make is that in terms of all that criteria of competence and character and all of that, if you put all the crops of everybody together, so let them all be incompetent together as far as I'm concerned. Because again, no, it's true because we've tried out men for so long. Imagine if we had women in the seats of power, right? Like this is policy makers, especially women. No, I'm talking about a good number for policy makers, especially not really the executive so like the critical mass, the critical mass of women, especially where some policies are being crafted. There is a way a woman would craft. There's a way you would craft a policy that would completely different from how a man would craft that policy. Right? So let me just step aside because that competence matters. I said after this selection, I don't want to know what you are. The fact that we are disappointed by, it's like those jokes, those memes you always see on this, what I order versus what I go. What I go? So let us just, let us just be on the same team. It's true. The fact that we are disappointed doesn't mean you should give up. I would not. How do we ever, how would we ever get what we want if we don't persist? So let me just quickly divert a bit. I want to digress a bit. I want to focus on you a little bit. Now, you run under a party. Now, look at Binani. She ran under a very strong political party. The ruling party. It's a ruling party. Now, I want to understand the role of the party for women because again, I see that a lot of the smaller parties are very quick to give tickets and all of that to women and all of that. They are very quick to do all of those things. But when it comes to the bigger parties, like the big political parties, the big political players, it's very difficult. So for her to have gotten that ticket, you would know that the kind of work she must have put in, she would have matched maybe 10 men because she would have done 10 times what the men would have done for her to have gotten that seat. So the question I'm trying to ask is, is it wisdom anymore for women that are trying to put themselves, we want to, if we want to, I mean, start to increase our seats of power, is it wisdom for us to continue to run under smaller parties or we should start considering, you know, the bigger players? Well, that's a question for every politician, you know, but speaking specifically to women, you know, as a politician generally, I don't even like to just like gender, gender, gender rise it or how do I call it, you want to be standing on a firm foundation, look at what happened to me, you know, yes, I've run on this party before and I have been on the ballot, but you know, the way that it went because of the, I mean, I just decided to do what they did, but it would be, there have been candidates from even the more established parties who have been excluded, you know, we all know the presidential elections is not every party that was on the ballot for that, you know, so sometimes because of legal issues or whatever, it could happen, but I think that going forward, it is very important, but it's a two-way, it's a two-way thing. Yes, I agree with you and I think that we should be in those more established parties because it provides a stronger platform to run on, they have more structure, this word, they have more voice in reality, there is more structure, there is more, of course with INEC, it's harder for INEC to mess with their, you know, them and all of that like that, but there's also the idea of the culture that has formed within that party and would we, would this allow us to get the best woman out at the end of the day, if there is a culture of impunity or lack of internal advocacy or what if the woman, they just even, what if she bought the ticket, we should still support her because she's a woman, what if she was, she has a godfather or godmother somewhere that just puts her there, we should still support her just because she's a woman, so those double standards kind of exist, if Madame Binani had won and I mean, I was rooting for her, I would have liked her too because I thought, okay, this woman looks, but if there is a flaw with the system, should we say, oh, let them just give her a job because she's a woman, shouldn't the right thing be done, shouldn't there be fair and credible elections, so I don't think we should just wish away those standards because we want to see. I have one. What are your thoughts on this special seats being designated for women, you know, especially when the current assembly is saying, oh, maybe we don't have seats to give and then women are saying, okay, you know. Why don't you just create your seats? Yes, what are your thoughts on this? So, special seats and, oh look, well, so are you asking me about creating more seats? More seats so that we catch them. And that place needs to be specific for women? I think government is already too expensive to do more. To do more seats, so the cost of governance in Nigeria is too high. So when you add more seats, that's more constituency offices, more staff for the people, more allowances, so it's just going to bloat government more, but let's, can we start with the 35%? That doesn't mean we'll do that. How do we even do 30%? We have said 35%, that's a form of affirmative action. Let's even try with that one first. There's no need to have the assembly too bulky, too many seats. Let's do, let's work with what we have. So you said something about free and free, we are credibly election. So a lot of people have accused, they said that it is impossible for political parties not to rig election. Do you believe that? That even the party that, you know, that everybody say, oh, this is, that they are, that all of them from top to bottom, they rig elections. Do you agree with that? Well, who are, who is in political parties? It's people like you and me, people who make decisions, who take decisions. So it's not as if the party is just one abstract institution that would just re-ignore. They have soldiers that they send out to smash followed boxes. They have agents that go out to pay people, you know, to, for their votes. They have masterminds who sit down and strategize the whole thing. So this is people like you and me. So until we are reached the individual people and all somehow have a change of orientation, it will not be different. The party systems will still be this, you know, intrinsically corrupt until the people change their minds and people will never change their minds if there's no, if there's no consequences. So the law has to be enforced. People that are caught for electoral fraud and rigging and all that, they need to be persecuted. We need to see the full wrath of the law come upon them. That's how you would dissuade other people. But if we just say it and pay lip service to it, nothing is going to change, you know. People are still going to keep on doing what they're doing. Okay. Good evening my dear beautiful sisters of what I say in hashtag ways. How can we get more women into seat of power? Firstly, they have to make themselves available to contest for positions in office. Then they can be voted for. Secondly, they need encouragement. Also, me personally, I have mentioned it so many times in my previous comments that women can deliver if given the chance to. Women generally are passionate for a change. The previous government promised us change for eight years and failed to deliver. If a woman was there, I'm sure there will be a change. Also, men can rig themselves into power where I don't think women will. I will personally vote a woman for the post of president. You ladies abandoned me last week. Okay. How can we get more women into the seats of power? I believe women who want to be the seat of power should be very intentional about it. Just like freedom is not given but taken, the same way women who want power should learn to wrestle for power. They should not come with the attitude of being pitied. They should come with confidence, boldness. Every seat of power that every seat of power requires. Women who seek for the seat of power should do so. We respect, honor, and integrity. They should learn to join any political party of their choice and work themselves up from there. We have women in different places of the world and those women did not have two heads, but one like all the other women in the world. See that thing where you say respect, honor, and integrity? You know what? This matter, nobody can win this argument. I say after what has happened in this general election, nobody should tell me anything. But seriously, we really need to marshal our strength. Yeah, we have to be strategic. But I mean, if you have one final thing to say, because now there's a lot of disappointment in the air. And like you rightly said, it's not really about the political party. It was more of INEC. So INEC has really, INEC has done a lot more damage than they can even evaluate. They don't know the extent of the damage yet until let's say maybe 2027. They will know how far this went. So if you had anything to say to anybody, I love what you said about starting now. How do we be, I mean, how do we start being strategic? I mean, as a woman that is out there or anybody that wants to go, that's really serious about getting into a seat of power. How do we start now? Join a political party first. And if you're not, if you're already a member of a political party, I think in everything, every great venture starts with you first. You have to decide what it is you want, what is your, what is the value you're trying to offer. Don't just come out and say, I want to run for office because I'm a woman. Okay. What value are you bringing to the table? What will you be recognized for? When people are having a conversation about how they want to allocate power, where will your name come out? So you have to build that value, which is why you go into the party or even if it's, you want, not everybody can be a politician. Some people may want to give value in their community just as a private sitting like I was doing in Lera or whatever. What is the area that you want to make a contribution? If you frame it that way, it will be easier for you to gravitate towards, you know, that platform or where it is that, you know, you can find value. So I think we should first of all start with our thinking. Let us start looking, let us start thinking in terms of what can I give, what contribution can I make and what sort of opportunities should I engage with that would take me, you know, to the platforms that I need to get to. So now that they say we should go to our places, she has to go and do it in the middle state. Nobody said you should go. Don't listen to those guys. Nobody said you should go to the middle state. Nobody said you should go to the middle state, you know, because I'm an adult there, you know. But thank you so much. I think we had a fantastic conversation. Honestly, I just want to have a breath of fresh air going forward because I'm really tired. But thank you so much, ladies. Thank you, Teri. Thank you. Fantastic conversation. Thank you, Chinlilu and Adila. Now, before we go, I show you followers across all our social media handles that waste your Africa. You can interact with us further, drop a comment and more importantly, follow all our engagements online, share like and watch again, share with your families and friends. Now, if you missed our quote for the day, here it is again. For me, a better democracy is a democracy where women do not only have the right to vote and to be and to elect, but to be elected. We have to have that right to be elected. Don't remove Teri Telo's name from ballot for people next time. I will go and fight on that behalf. See you guys tomorrow at 8 p.m. As I bring another great conversation to your screen. Enjoy.