For eloquent Ebiti Onoyom Ndok, the Chairperson of the United National Party for Development (UNPD) and the only female leader of a political party in the country, no woman can climb up the political ladder on her own. She told us in this interview that women need to join hands if they must occupy a good leadership position come 2015.
Who is Dr Ndok?
My name is Chief Dr. Ebiti Onoyom Ndok. I am from Cross River State and I am the chairperson for the United National Party for Development UNPD). I also doubled up as the presidential candidate in the last election.
How was the experience?
Waoh, being a woman, where do I start from? First of all, we had logistics problem which was why we were not able to campaign all over the country. Also, I contested on a very new platform, a new political party but we thank God for the opportunity we had to showcase because I was able to participate in the debate.
How was it for you coming out for the post of a presidential candidate as a woman?
Funny enough I had no problems. I believe the only problem we had was financial. If the money that the incumbent president had was able to go round the country to showcase the manifesto of the United National Party for Development, I believe we will be in Aso Rock by now because we are talking about socialist ideology, welfare of the people and basic needs for Nigerians. Nigerians are entitled to better life. What are we having now is nothing, purely zero. Every Nigerian is a local government on his own, you provide your light, food and all. I mean there is pure suffering in this country.
We believe UNPD can change that but we had no money to be able to go round. But presently, we are re-strategising to educate Nigerians of our policies and programmes. Yes, we start now, we are strategising for 2015.
What would you say was the major challenge as a woman?
Well, as I said, not many knew me. And I believe if I was out more often, I would have gotten enough support from women as at that time. So, that is why we want to start early to be out. I have to be out there more often and let women know that they have a strong representative, a strong and intelligent one.
What are some of your antecedents?
I lived in the United Kingdom for 22 years. I am a trained lawyer, a diplomat. I had a Master’s degree in International Relations and I have done a lot of work on women issues in England. I headed an organisation called Organisation for the Welfare of the African Women in the UK. So all my life I have been fighting women causes. And when I came to Nigeria in 2005, I saw that the whole situation scenario is still the same. I went around to other political parties and see if I could work with them but their policies, programmes and manifestos didn’t suit what I was looking for, so I gathered people around and we registered the UNPD.
Apart from being the chairperson of UNPD, I am the president of Nigerian Women Solidarity, a women organisation here in Nigeria. I am also a publisher.
What do you publish?
Well, I have Christian books that I have published. I have a book on local government that is coming out very soon.
What would you find in this book for local governments?
It contains the administration of local government to its contribution to the development of Nigeria because I believe that the development of this country should be taken to the grassroots. So, we need to empower more local government chairmen to develop this country.
Is it empowerment they need or redirection?
They need redirection but, you see, they need to be empowered diligently, guiding them and restructuring. So you need to empower them intelligently, you talk to them, you guide them. The extra mile that is guidance, performance measurement, you need to begin to put the right things in place.
Where does this trait of your activism come from?
I think I just was born. I’m a gift to Nigeria. My name is Ebiti and it means gift. I have been a fighter right from my mother’s womb, I believe. I contested for chairman of Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) when I was 25 years old in Ondo State. I did not win because of the usual men thing. I was a staff of NTA, Akure then. I was in the media from 1979 to 1983; I started with the radio station, went to NTA where I left as an acting chief presenter in NTA.
Why do women think they can just come in and jump in sometimes? What about mentoring the young ones who would follow when you get up there?
We are talking about forming a data base. Nigerian Women Solidarity is looking into training and we are talking about starting now. If we come together and have workshops, seminars on a regular basis, I wish to impact myself into a million Nigerian women. They become fighters and you can imagine if we all go out, we will get what we want. One thing that is lacking in this country is women recognising their position in this country, their contribution to nation building. We are very important and until we recognise that, we are going nowhere. And that is where Nigerian Women Solidarity is coming in.
Good idea but how do you intend to achieve this?
Well, we want to first of all stabilise Nigerian Women Solidarity. We want to start by bringing in more political women leaders, professional associations and old students associations. We will bring all these women together and start talking from there, they will create the interest and then, you begin to formalise. We also have a micro-finance bank we are looking into that we want to set up. It is called Able Worth Micro Finance bank. We are going to have N25 billion base and with that we can sponsor 12 female governors come 2015 and they will win. They don’t need the money but we need to start working with them from now. There are 774 local governments in Nigeria; a third of it belongs to women.
We have 36 states and six zones. That means in every zone there must be two female governors. We should have 33 female senators and 120 House of Representatives for women in 2015. So if we elementalise it that way, we will be able to use this structure to put things in place. So that is why Nigerian Women Solidarity is coming working with United National Party for Development.
It is commonly believed that women are their own enemies. How do you intend to handle this?
For me, I don’t see any woman as a threat. I believe if I add my strength to your strength, your knowledge to my knowledge, we will be better off. So what you need to be telling people is look for the best in each other. We will source for the best and use it. Everybody has weaknesses, so we will strengthen our weaknesses, create an opportunity to become a threat to the other person and that is it. That is my own SWOT analysis.
What strategies do you think women should put in place so that 2015 election can be carried out effectively?
As I said, Nigerian Women Solidarity is looking into bringing more women together in different professions. If you look at the deputy governors that are in now, they are from the bank. So, we need to bring in all these women, sensitise them and open their eyes to the goodness that is out there waiting for them. A lot of women shy away from trouble, from expected violence. But as I said, if we create our fund, then, there is no need to be afraid. We need to create that funding ourselves; we are not going to be looking out. What I found out presently is that a lot of women are waiting for donor agencies to sponsor them. You don’t expect somebody from outside to come and build your house for you. You need to sow to reap. When we begin to understand that, we begin to implement, we prepare, plan and we proact.
Don’t you think the issue of godfatherism could be a threat?
Not at all, because the money is not coming from anybody, it is coming from our money collectively gathered together. So, there is no issue of godfatherism this time around. So we will source for the best.
