Ebere Obiesie, convener and programme coordinator for Women for Peter Obi, in this interview with FRIDAY OLOKOR, explains why the Labour Party’s presidential candidate, Peter Obi, is better positioned to solve Nigeria’s myriad of problems
Are women rallying behind Obi? Why?
Sure, women are supporting Peter Obi. It is interesting to know that women and youth constitute around 75% of the voting population in Nigeria, and this is a significant ratio that nobody should undermine.
As a woman leader, in the course of galvanising women across the length and breadth of Nigeria, I found that there are several women’s groups in Nigeria and in the Diaspora that have come out to throw their weight behind the presidential candidacy of Mr. Peter Obi. One of such groups is Women for Peter Obi.
WPO is a group of like-minded business and professional women in Nigeria and the Diaspora who are passionate about good governance and sustainable development in Nigeria.
Currently, the WPO is in 26 states of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, including the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Ireland. We’re focused on grassroots mobilisation. We’re very active in the local governments and wards, recruiting women who are volunteering to vote and making their votes count in the 2023 general elections.
Our target is at least 50 women per polling unit in all the states where we’re active. This is a project that the entire WPO team has bought into and is aggressively pursuing. We’re happy to put in the huge resources (manpower and money) currently going into this project.
The entire WPO Management Team, both at the national and state levels, works at least 10 to 12 hours daily. Many of us have shed off our private engagements to work full time on this Obi-Datti Presidency Project and will not rest on our laurels until victory is guaranteed at the polls in February 2023 by the special grace of the almighty God.
This brings me to the question of why we are supporting Peter Obi.
A number of factors have led to more women standing up to participate in the forthcoming electoral process in 2023. The fact that Nigeria is sitting on the brink and this cannot be overemphasised. Women are grossly underrepresented in Nigeria’s political leadership, owing to the country’s deteriorating economy, increased insecurity, inadequate healthcare and education, and other factors. They are also the least economically empowered and are often and easily emotionally abused as well as sexually violated, particularly due to rampant kidnapping and terrorism.
In my work with some humanitarian agencies in Nigeria, I discovered that women and children were more numerous in all the Internally Displaced Persons camps across the country. Many of them shared their harrowing experiences in the hands of the insurgents. They have continued to suffer from the loss of children through infant mortality, including the loss of their own lives during pregnancy, as a result of a lack of affordable and adequate healthcare.
Women have also continued to suffer gender-based discrimination that has made it impossible for them to attain the 35% representation in political leadership as approved by the United Nations for every progressive society that is on a trajectory of sustainable growth. The situation grew worse with the rejection of the proposed amendment to the Nigerian Constitution to allow women more equality and political participation in the country. The federal lawmakers also outright rejected the move to grant citizenship to foreign husbands of Nigerian women, while their male counterparts’ wives were given the same rights. The affirmative actions to ensure greater participation and inclusion of women in political and government leadership were thrown out.
After five years, women in Nigeria have asked to become indigenes of the state where they are married. This was also rejected. What this means is that any woman married outside her state of origin will not be eligible to contest political positions in the state where she is married.
According to the IMF report of 2019, women in Nigeria have been rated the poorest in the country. Three years later, the situation has grown from bad to worse. It is public knowledge that when a woman is empowered, the family is equally empowered, as women have continued to cater for the livelihood of the family. The lack of financial capacity is also a major reason why women cannot compete with their male counterparts, although Nigeria is largely a patriarchal society.
Other factors that have necessitated the greater participation of women in the electoral process in Nigeria are the high rate of inflation, which is currently at 18.6% in June 2022, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. There is also widespread hunger and a lack of adequate health care. There is a report by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa in 2020 that says Nigeria has the highest maternal deaths in Africa, with more than 50,000 women dying every year.
Mr. Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party of Nigeria, and his vice presidential candidate, Sen. Yusuf Datti, have proven verifiable track records of transformational leadership. The two are technocrats who have continued to campaign with their achievements from their previous and existing leadership roles and promised to move Nigeria from a “consumption to production’ economy.
Peter Obi’s group has been accused of cyber-bullying. What is your view?
No, I don’t think so. You see, action and reaction are equal and opposite. When you wrongly accuse a man whose results and integrity are outstanding, people will definitely react.
Prior to the 2015 elections, those accusing Peter Obi groups of cyber-bullying did worse than the incumbent government without the government responding. His results, proactive and selfless service are unparalleled. All the Obi-Datti groups are doing is dispelling false rumors. If there’s any cyber-bullying, it’s coming from the opposition, which has united to fight Obi’s presidential bid, which is gaining traction across the country by the day.
Do you think he has the structure to win the 2023 presidential poll? If yes, where are the structures?
We have the structure. Over 100m Nigerians in poverty are the structure. The students and lecturers who are at home protesting the underfunding of the universities in Nigeria are the structure. The Nigerian Union of Road Transport Workers, the Nigerian Trade Union, civil servants, and the private sector are the structures. It is beyond just the people being the structure, though.
We, the people in collaboration and strategic partnership with the Labour Party, are assiduously working on this. All we ask for is that the Independent National Electoral Commission will not only conduct a free and fair election but also look into the issues of people trying to compromise their system.
There are confirmed cases of people trying to collect vulnerable voters’ identification pins by asking them to submit this sensitive information in various disguises. This is something INEC should verify and stop. I’m so certain that with the prevention of electoral fraud, Obi will coast home victoriously next year.
Obi is the only candidate giving hope to all Nigerians. He is a wealth creator and highly accepted, even in the remote places of the north. I can tell you this for free because we’re in the field. It will be too early to reveal our strategies here, but we are working seriously and confident of victory.
Based on your prediction, in how many states will Peter Obi win?
He will easily win the South-East, South-South, and North-Central regions. He will also do well in the South-West. Let me shock you, even in the North-West and the North-East, Obi-Datti will curry significant votes.
What are his strengths in the forthcoming election?
Please go and verify (laughter). Obi and Datti have verifiable results from their previous and current transformational leadership roles. Obi and Datti are men of integrity with the proven capacity to lead the people. As a trader and economist, Obi has excellent managerial skills for harnessing both human and financial resources. More importantly, his age and health are some of his outstanding advantages.
How many votes can the women give him, considering the fact that women are political mobilisers?
The WPO aims at giving him at least one million votes. A lot of other women’s groups are equally working for votes.
Some believe that Obi’s only strength is in the South-East. Can that alone fetch him the presidency?
That is just a hallucination by the opposition. Did you see the two million people and support groups march in Port Harcourt last week? This has been the pattern across the country. This movement is organic and an idea whose time has come. Nobody can stop this.
What do you have for critics who say Peter Obi is naturally a very stingy person and won’t be a good president; and that he may therefore run into trouble with some political hawks in Nigeria?
He is not stingy but prudent, which is what a haemorrhaging economy such as Nigeria needs at this critical time in our history. Did you not see how much he handed over to his successor in Anambra? He literally plugged avenues of wastage during his time as governor, which is why he was able to save so much for the state. Have you bothered to check out how he’s been giving to charities since he left the government? Peter Obi is not collecting anything as an ex-governor of Anambra. Please go and verify. We need his prudence to get back on track.
PUNCH
