 You're welcome back. What we're looking at now is gender inequality in politics being of development in Nigeria. That's a topic we'll be looking at this morning. That's our first hot topic for the day. And we have a guest who has joined us and will be talking on this topic. We're glad to be joined by Francaise Olysa Obonaya, broadcast journalist and woman in politics or in leadership advocate. Good morning and welcome to the program, Miss Obonaya. Well, right before Francaise joins us, which we hope will be in a very short while, there's also something that really interested us on the headlines of some dailies, and it was recently said. The Minister for Interior said something that really gladdens the heart of some of us. Ulubumi Tungiojo said that now visa, they are going to adopt principle of reciprocity in visa issuance. That is the kind of do me or do you kind of thing. If America, for instance, doesn't give us a visa freely or they have some bottlenecks that we have to pass through before we can get our visa, the American citizens that are seeking visa to Nigeria will also have the same. Imagine the audacity. So it means that we have something that other people want that we might not want to give to them if they do wrongly. Let's see if Francaise has joined us in the meantime, could us to the Minister of Interior for clearing the backlog of visas and all that. So Francaise Obonaya, broadcast journalist and woman in leadership advocate. Good morning and welcome to the show. Good morning. It's nice to meet you. Okay. We couldn't hear you, so we thought that maybe you wouldn't be joining us anymore. Okay. You said, or it is said in some quarters that because of the way women are represented in governance and all that is the bane of this country. It's a problem for this country. Give us an insight into why that is. Okay. Okay. You know, generally, we believe that women are due that. There's an old saying that says being a woman is trained in nations. So women are, women are, when you come to families, families where women don't play a type of role don't really end up working. And the family is the nucleus of the bigger society, which includes Nigeria, we have. So, and these same women, who play these very important families, important roles in families, get to the national level at the leadership level of the state and get eliminated. Yes, we want to destroy. I do not know how reasonable that is. Most of the countries we'll talk about today are one of the most developed countries where women play very evidential roles. For example, New Zealand is one of the best countries in the world today. He signed in all of the chapters. Let me just say, during COVID, women, countries led by women didn't manage COVID better than every other country. In their fact, from New Zealand, the other countries that were led by women, countries that have women are prime ministers. Women are more contentious. Women are more passionate leaders. People set up companies, and when they set up companies and they want to achieve some certain targets, they put women as very strategic positions. They might end up putting men as well, but over our heads, because very strategic roles are headed at the same time. Women are believed to be left corrupt. Why? They are a streak of acquisition. It's not as high as that of the Nigerian man. In the Nigerian man's example, let me bring this closer. It's actually believed to be political news. A man who had about 15 wives, about 10 other girls, in other parts of the world and country. We tend to acquire more, even if we still do, so he can satisfy their species. And a Niger woman would not even be proud to engage in polyandry, let alone such things that men will do. Women are less braided when it comes to their streak of activation and corruption. Corruption is the brain of this country. And then again, why the elimination of women is one of the problems of our country is that when you look at how long Nigeria has lasted and how much growth the men has played from the colonial days up to now. If the men has been ruling from 1960 up to now, and we end up going down, Nigeria economy keeps on emerging, things keep getting bad. It's not better to stay in the party. It's not better to keep looking at the other side. We are asking, they are saying, give women more opportunity. Women are more honest leaders. Women are more professional. Women are family leaders. They are nation leaders. If we can fix this, we need to fix it. Even you, you know a lot of women. Well, when you talk about women being alienated, some people do not really understand. Because women are the only ones who have been given reserved positions. They are given a quota. They are the forms for contesting for election are less than the one that men buy. Women sometimes are mostly chosen as the running mates for governorship aspirants and some of them actually become deputy governors. And so many other things. Women are the only ones who have women affairs ministry. There's no men affairs ministry. One would think that women are given the opportunity to become what they want to become. Are you advocating now that the men should just give way and let the women rule? Because if they have to play in a particular field, they have to be ready to face the challenges that come with that field. Don't you think so? I'll give an example of let's say Waik or Jam. They don't say women should have a quota that is smaller. But the women will perform sometimes more than the men. So why not just give a level playing field and let everybody fight it out? What else do the women want? Okay, good. It is wrong of you to compare qualification exam to qualifications in Nigeria. I will say you are talking from the point of ignorance. Because they are not comparable. Oh really? Just a moment. Maybe you didn't get me right. If a man is buying a form to contest, for instance, for five million, I know of parties that have given theirs for free. No, no, no, no. That is politics. I got you. I got you better off. So how ignorant am I? No, hold on. From all your analogy, I only picked one. You said, for example, Jamban Waik, they don't give special consideration to women. They allow them to compete favorably with men. Isn't that what he said? Yes. And in the banking sector as well, women are flourishing. Most of the heads of the banks are women. That's what I'm saying. No quota. That's what I'm saying. It is wrong of you, and it's not wrong, rather, but it's ignorant of you, to compare qualification exam with speaking political officials in Nigeria. They are not the same. Not the same ecology. Not the same milieu. They are not the same. It's wrong to compare a political milieu and a qualification exam. Let me leave it at that. Let me help you out. Let me tell you, politics in Nigeria has totally militarily against women. They are not the same with examination. They are not the same with qualification exam. Let me tell you why. You mentioned deputy governor. How many women are deputy governors in Nigeria? How many? They are not even up to six, as we are speaking. Out of six, six days. And you mentioned the ministry of women. The ministry of women affairs is just like every other ministry. And they are all accountable to demand through the executive officer. The minister cannot do anything. The minister or a commissioner takes orders from the governor or the president. Who is the man? You initiate policies that demand who is the executive officer cannot relate to. It ends up on your desk. So what we are saying, there are factors to be taken against them and beyond from buying. I am a political position myself. I have run for office. So I am not one of the security supporters of women in politics. So I have been there, I have been involved. Start and tell you, buying form is not the problem in Nigeria. People can come together and buy you a form to run for political office. There are factors. There are social factors. There are factors that have been there for long. We are asking, give us laws. Laws, where they will bring out, where they will say 35 percent. Hold on, not just that, not the theoretical 35 percent that we are talking about. 35 percent. Okay, for example, Kiro Nyojota and a couple of them tried to push a bill that there must be an extra House of Bread to present it to you. It's meant for a worker to take a step. They didn't fly. They meant militarily. They voted against the National Assembly. These are the kind of fields that would have helped women. If they had given us one more seat from every seat for a House of Bread, we would have had extra 60 men in the House of... In the National Assembly. At least to sort out the numbers of women there. But they said no. Why would they work? And it worked for them because they are not in numbers. These are the kind of fields that would have helped. Not that 35 percent. And 35 percent is not even respected by many governments. It's not respected. And there is no law banning them. Those things are... There are many issues around them. We have issues of where a woman comes from and where she's married to. And we tried making laws about them. We asked them to be specific for us. Tell us. Where the woman is from is right here from. When we see a contest, they tell us to leave it like that. And it's got to be a problem in some many places. When a woman who is from... For example, I married another woman. I'm running... I do position at the state where I come from. Where is my husband from? But all women cannot do it. They have... I have colleagues who are from a certain state. Mine's another state. When they went to their husband's state to run a lecture. Some people picked up legumes to sit against us. We saw what happened in the... When the... When the reverse victim was appointed as an ambassador. Although to protest they said, No, she's not from our place. Let her go to reverse. She took the strong stance of... Akeredo Luz for you to actually... That's an appointment. Even the governor's wife, Akeredo Luz has to go back to Immoltec. So go around for sleep. After being married for 14 years. And you think Immoltec will attack her. They told her to go back to her husband's house. And they told her to go to Immoltec. These are the things to ask the National Assembly. Please spell it out for us. Tell us where this woman is from. This is the period to live in Blancet. She's given room for suspicion. These are the factors affecting against women. We are not even talking about the captain's insistence of politics. We are saying make for free. Many people do not make use to it. Some even make use to it. Then we shoot other issues that make it difficult. Every political party, actually every political party should say 35% of our positions must vote a woman. And they make laws and say men should not contest in this sort of certain places so that women can go. Don't give us that 35% in that sense. So that's the way you compare this. When you compare what we are facing with Jamban YX. I had to do it. It takes you to come to Immoltec to get and do it. Come to Immoltec to get and do it. Okay. The critical question, even a man, every man always asks what really do women want? So I was trying to put it into perspective. Now in politics a lot of things have been done from the point of view that I'm talking from. Not as a man, but as a Nigerian. From the point of view that I'm talking from. A lot of things have been done. So the question was, what else can be done? You just talked about the fact that every state should give one woman, and I got you right, to be in the National Assembly. That extra seat for the women to be in the National Assembly and all that. Let me just ask you this. This is not talking down on the women. How would you assess the women that have already been given a chance to perform inside whether the National Assembly or the State Assemblies? How would you rate their performances? Even a point C? Yes. If you start to think about that, if you start from the right way, which point C has actually, if she lets some of the men who have made it to give her a picture, we saw a point C. Even the women, the National Assembly, the women... give us a blanket rating of them. Because if you mention them, some people will also be mentioning Desani, Alison Madu. So we are not mentioning the names. Just a blanket assessment of the performance of women. I'm going to give you a blanket assessment, but there are facts, relevant to the facts and questions. The fact is that when you go to the National Assembly, and you see how much women are human, you know? Yes, you would know that many of them are not... are not robust. Women are doing far better. I'm just surprised you're asking. Or maybe you know, or you don't want to tease us. Women are doing far better. There are more proactive leaders. There are more proactive people. We just want them to get... to give them... some making positions. They are not giving them some making positions. They are not... So we are asking... we are doing well in the little ones in giving us from the State Assembly where we are so few and minute. Many House of Assemblies don't have women. And the state has no women. Even the state has no women members. Many other states too. In the northern part of the country. So, so much of them. So we are saying, how can you make laws for us without laws? Make this state 5% mandatory for political parties. However they want to figure it out, let them cut out that 5% for us. Let's make a binding law, as we are asking the State Assembly and the National Assembly. What do they can do it because they should be made by men. So we are only scoping asking women who are who are the major voters to actually to vote women. But it's difficult because women don't get... women really get tickets of dominant political parties. It's not of the cost of positions. Will it really matter if it's a dominant political party, especially nowadays that it seems as if a small party can also make real good headlines when it comes to voting. We saw what Labour Party did for instance that we never dreamt of. Two years ago we didn't think Labour Party could even get a local government council but see what happened. So my final question for you right now is even though people are asking is Nigeria really ready for this kind of leadership that the women are advocating. But my question is you just touched the point that women are some of the major voters in many places. They have the numbers. What is your level of advocacy that you're carrying to the women for themselves? Like you said, you've been telling them to vote the women. But how enlightened are they? How ready are they to support themselves? The men have the brass coat more or less as we like to say. But do the women have these girls coat as well? Are they ready to support their own? Women are actually ready to support their fellow women. I can tell you but with the organization of poverty as a political strategy by our political leader it's not helping us. For example, most of the women are poor and hungry. It's tough in Nigeria. It's been tough in Nigeria and it's getting tougher. So women who are supposed to vote for their fellow women go to the polls and they are wronged. They have students to send for and they say, ma'am, you come to offer them about 15,000 or 20,000 to vote for my candidates. The women, we do not have we don't want them to have the financial worst test like men. A man goes and says a man goes and says, I know you want to vote but look at 15,000. Very clean and crispy Nigerian note. Two men will consider she's got no power of super home. She will consider that after what she said, she will be hungry. She actually needs immediate solution to most of the problems she's having at home. She considers and takes money. You do not blame them. There is no strategy no structure in place for them. Hunger, poverty it's military against us. We can't help it but we will keep trying. I want to advise my fellow young women in politics that if you want to join politics there is no there is no special ballot box in the same ballot box. I advise young people get ready to do what men do in politics. Everything they do gets ready to do. Everything you do to win elections gets ready to do. Including looking for money talk for money look for more money keep looking for more money before going to politics. Okay, well maybe you say a final word because we are drawing the curtain right now so I'll give you a minute to talk to the women folk especially and then to whoever else you want to talk to if you can capture that in one minute. Okay, very well. I want to encourage every young woman who wants to join politics although they are already in politics those who have been trying and it looks like it's not working or you're getting difficult I want to encourage them to keep keeping on a time is coming a revolution is coming like I said in my last word you must prepare for politics it's not an easy terrain do everything they do Jesus for Jesus for that money for money Thank you so much Francaise for coming on the show this morning Thank you Okay, we've been talking with Francaise a broadcast journalist and women in leadership advocate we were talking about the fact that women should be given more opportunities especially in the political space so that they can be on the table when the decisions are being made especially as it concerns children and children okay, so we're going to take a very short break and we're going to be joined by our next set of guests these are two people two young women I would call them that have done Nigeria proud and the topic is finding solution to Nigeria's election issue with electronic voting we'll start with this video clip that gives us an insight to what they are going to be talking about stay with us