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Joke Silva Endorsed Tinubu On Personal Conviction – APC Women Leader

THE National Women Leader of the ruling All Progressives Congress, Dr Betta Edu, speaks to ALEXANDER OKERE about the party’s preparation for the 2023 general elections, the chances of its presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu, amid stiff opposition, and how women will decide the outcome of the polls

National Women Leader of the ruling All Progressives Congress, Dr Betta Edu

It’s been weeks since the ban on electioneering for the 2023 general elections was lifted by the Independent National Electoral Commission. What is your general assessment of your party’s preparation so far?

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What we are doing now is intense planning, and fixing our action points. Also, consultations are going on beyond the country. Our presidential candidate and others are consulting.

What has been the role of women in the APC in the process of canvassing for votes for your party’s candidates across the country?

Women have kick-started the show. As you know, the presidential campaign team for women has been inaugurated by the President and this is like a platform where women can express themselves more and can be everywhere doing their campaigns in little ways to reach out to as many as possible. This is completely different from the main campaign that will go round the country. A lot is going on as I said; we are working with women at the state, zonal, local, ward, and polling units. But everything is tied around ensuring that we amass as many votes as possible. For these elections, 60 per cent of those who have collected their Permanent Voter Cards are women. So, women have a huge role to play in the entire electioneering process and we are confident that we will not fail.

Do you think women in your party are getting the recognition they deserve in terms of key positions within the presidential campaign council?

There is no other political party in Nigeria that has created a full platform for over 1,000 women. I think there is no party or presidential campaign that has over 1,000 women. Here, (in the APC) you have a situation where over 1,500 women are on a presidential campaign team. Women have been included massively and given high prominence.

How did you receive the judgment of the Federal High Court in Yola, which nullified the candidature of your party’s governorship candidate in Adamawa State, Senator Aishatu Binani?

We have the right to go forward to appeal against the judgment. Our goal is to support women all across the board and ensure that women are given that prominence. We are the only party that gave a ticket to a woman at the governorship level and we will do all we can to protect that. So, again, it is part of the struggle in politics. So, anyone who wants to be in politics has to be prepared, whether a woman or a man, for eventualities and how they can address them. So, it is beyond issues women face; it is an issue that anybody in politics will face.

What are you doing differently to ensure that the APC creates a larger representation for women at the national and state Houses of Assembly in the forthcoming elections?

First and foremost, I am sure you know that the party has had a lot of action points to ensure that women emerge (as candidates); we are that party that gives our forms free to women so that as many as possible can contest and overcome the financial barriers. We are the party that had a constitutional review calling for more women as delegates at the primaries, such that where there are five delegates at the local and state levels, two out of the five must be women. We are the party that says one out of the three delegates voting at the national level must be a woman. We have placed women in the entire scheme of things so that they play prominent roles and support themselves to emerge. Of course, it paid off. For the first time in the history of our party, we have almost 95 women on the ballot for next year’s elections. Before now, it used to be less than 40.

What do you think is responsible for the inability of female politicians to rise beyond playing the second fiddle in politics?

Different challenges have hindered women’s participation in politics over the years, beginning with cultural and religious barriers, stereotyping, and lack of funds. All these have hindered women but I think with advocacy and orientation, mindsets are beginning to change. We have different programmes that have encouraged ‘he-for-she’ to praise persons who have gone all out to support women as men to grow. We believe that as we continue to do this and as we continue to push, we will get legislation passed that will support women, policies, executive orders that will support, and of course, going forward, we can find more women as governors, speakers, and deputy governors, which we already have in our party. We have women as deputy governors in Ogun, Kaduna, and even Ekiti states. Many other small African countries that are not as big as Nigeria have gone far in female gender mainstreaming. Some have women as presidents, vice-presidents, speakers, and governors. So, these are things that we are learning and trying to understand how they got them to work. It is a process, not automatic, but if we are deliberate about it, we will definitely get there.

Based on your observation and the reports you receive from the states and local government areas, are women at the grassroots willing to take part in the elections by coming out to vote, considering the spate of insecurity and hunger many are facing?

The most resilient set of people in Nigeria and anywhere in the world are women. No matter the situation, they are always ready to participate and make their voices heard. But one thing I must say very clearly here is that women have been beneficiaries of the government through empowerment (programmes) at the grassroots level to reach out to women through different mediums. I remember that a couple of weeks ago, I was back in Cross River with the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and they were carrying out unconditional cash transfers and 70 per cent of the beneficiaries were grassroots women. There were also small businesses for women at the grassroots and their children. Feeding was part of the things that bothered women over time but the government took it off their shoulders. There is the N-Power programme; a mother knows that one of the issues that greatly disturbs her is the fact that her child is unable to get a job, especially when the child has left school. They (the government) have been able to provide jobs for at least nine million people. The APC will do more.

What are your thoughts about the spate of insecurity in the country and how this can effect the turnout of women for the polls?

If there is a set of people that go for an election and remain there until their votes are counted and announced, it is women. Yes, there have been cases of electoral violence but I think all that has been addressed by the new (Electoral) Act, which is clear that where there is over-voting and electoral violence, the unit involved will be cancelled. But in all, the presence of women in a place reduces the chances of violence. It is going to be difficult for a child to bring out a gun and shoot when their mother is in a queue because harming any woman comes with grievous consequences. I believe women will play a great role in promoting violence-free elections and ensuring that their children are not part of electoral violence.

Some critics of your party described the turnout at the solidarity walk organised by the women’s wing in support of your presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu, as a rented crowd. What is your reaction to that?

I will tell you this: there is no need to rent a crowd; it is not a rented crowd. Women are not like men. You can have a rented crowd of men, but you cannot have a rented crowd of women, to be honest. If a woman is not with you, she is not with you; if she is with you, she is with you. Women are the most reliable set of persons in the political space. One may say they have 100 men in their support but in reality, those really in support are a few. But if 100 women do the same, 99 of them will really give their support. Women are the most reliable. That was why I said they would decide the election. If you have the women by your side, go to sleep; they will stand by you to the end. It is not just in politics, it is in everything else.

What is your reaction to the criticisms that a veteran Nollywood star, Joke Silva, faced following her decision to support your candidate?

Mama Joke Silva, as I like to call her, is a mother and has played a great role in shaping our nation, whether we like it or not. Those movies she featured in over the years influenced and helped to give a voice to women and us, as a nation. She is an icon, a living legend. She came out openly to say she knows this man (Tinubu), his family, what he stands for and what he represents, and his ability to make things work in Nigeria. She believes he has done it before and will do it again. It is only a fool that looks at raw evidence and says it is not so. I take exception to anybody throwing words at her. If anyone has any evidence to the contrary, they can make that known. But what we see are persons interested in attacking others instead of addressing issues. This is the Lagos we all know and grew up in. This is the Lagos we now have. They (critics) should give us the Anambra or Yola they knew and now have. Let issues meet issues, not persons or individuals.

Are we still going into the next election on a gamble or looking at what has been done and confirmed with raw evidence to say it will be replicated at the national level? What do we want as a people? We should be very clear. I took exception to anybody attacking her person. She is confident just as millions of us in Nigeria are confident that if he did it in Lagos, he will do even more. We just need to open our eyes and understand the facts and ensure that we are not deceived by sweet oratory. No! We have gone beyond that as a nation. We should be smarter than that now.

Do you think her endorsement was based on a personal conviction? Some people believe she did that for other reasons.

Tinubu has been a personal friend of that family for several years. The (entertainment) industry in Lagos has been supported by him. Why is Lagos like the hub of the entertainment industry? Apart from the large market that Lagos has, Lagos has had deliberate policies put in place by the government to support the entertainment industry as opposed to anywhere else. So, how can somebody see that level of support by the government and think that it will not be replicated for the same industry to get better globally if the person is at the national level? Be fair to her. Most of the people who are discussing (her) are in Lagos. They can’t go to their villages and towns because they don’t have that level of life there. They want the Lagos life, yet they don’t want other Nigerians to benefit from the same thing. So, she had the personal conviction, experience and boldness to speak. We respect her and she has influenced young people to look at issues beyond rhetoric and see who exactly deserves to be the president of Nigeria. Of course, it is Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

Why do you think your candidate is mentally and physically ready to fix Nigeria’s problems, including poverty, unemployment, and corruption, that the current regime has not been able to address in over seven years?

The current regime has laid a foundation. We are building on it. Rome was not built in a day. If it took 16 years to destroy a country, it won’t take only two years to rebuild it. America, China, and Japan, those countries we look at and hail, were not built in a day. Some people laid the foundation for their democracy and infrastructure. The foundation is ongoing and he (Tinubu) is going to build on it and solidify it.

Asiwaju is 100 per cent sound! I say this with emphasis. I have had discussions about different issues, issues about security, health care, and education, and Asiwaju will tell you what he did. He will tell you where the challenges are and where we need to improve at the national level. If you have five minutes with Asiwaju, you will leave that room convinced. He is mentally fit to be President. By experience, he is ready. For me, where he stands that is better than every other candidate is the fact those candidates come to the table with promissory notes. They had opportunities but were unable to utilise those opportunities to show us why we should vote for them.

But there are Nigerians who will disagree with you that your candidate is sound enough to lead the country based on some of his gaffes at public events.

What errors are you referring to?

For instance, there is a video on social media showing him saying that the Kaduna State Governor, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, has ‘vision, creativity, and resilience in turning a rotten situation to a bad one…’

That is far from the truth. First and foremost, I am not aware of such, but if you are conversant with public speaking, I have spoken in public for quite a long time, and I can tell you that even the best of speeches can be misinterpreted. Most of the time, Asiwaju speaks from his mind and he is practical about what he wants and clear about what he means and is able to convey his message in the easiest of ways to Nigerians based on the audience. So, for me, in the issue of public speaking, once or twice one may miss one’s tenses, words, or ability to hold the audience spellbound, it happens to the best of speakers. However, as I said early on, he is 100 per cent fit.

Supporters of the Peoples Democratic Party’s presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, and those of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, believe their candidates stand a better chance and are more qualified to be Nigeria’s next President. Do you consider them a threat to Tinubu’s presidential ambition?

I can’t see the threat.

With the ‘Atikulated’ and ‘Obidients’ all over the place?

Well, all I know is that we just have a group of a few people who proliferate the social media space. That does not in any way translate to the votes on the ground. The majority of them do not have the PVC. The majority of them are not registered to vote. They are just on social media. If you mention something, they abuse you. If you say something, they curse you.  We have gone beyond that. As Michelle Obama said, when they go low, we go higher because we have seen this over again. The woman in my village doesn’t even know there is an Obi on the ballot. They don’t even know the name of the party.

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