Denying women involvement in politics slow paced Nigeria’s development – Hon. Alli-Macaulay

Hon Mojisolaoluwa Alli-Macaulay a Lagos State House of Assembly member, representing Amuwo Odofin I constituency disclosed that Nigeria has been deliberately shortchanging herself amongst the comity of nation’s as she continues to relegate women’s influence in the polity, made this disclosure in a one-on-one interview with Olanrewaju Adesanya,she also touched on other sundry issues. Excerpt:

What is your assessment of President Mohammadu Buhari’s Ministerial line up,reflecting on the rate at which women are included, the 35 percent Beijing stance how well aligned with?

I want to actually commend President Muhammadu Buhari for even considering the number of women we have on the list,if you ask me and I say these genuinely, I wasn’t even expecting this number of women to appear on his list,I was not expecting it .

Why?

If you look at the antecedents, except during the time of President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan when we had more women representation,but in the last dispensation of the President we didn’t have much representation of women in his ministerial list, so I was not looking forward to this going by the antecedent. Now that we have these much women,this is something I want to be grateful for,though we can do better going by the stance at the Beijing conference,we can do better than this because honestly speaking Nigeria is really far behind looking at the female representation in the polity,we need Nigeria to push more women forward.
If you look at Namibia for instance and other African countries, they have more of their women in the polity,Namibia for instance has 60 percent of their women in their legislators.

So if that little country of Namibia could do that why not have that replicated in Nigeria,that claims to be the giant of Africa,Nigeria is actually shortchanging herself if you look at the global village a lot of the European countries have their women driving their polity and economies.
That is why they are successful a lot of women put in everything,we are natural and divine multipliers, a woman put in everything to ensure there is perfect implementation of whatever obligations she has been asked to do. So if Nigeria is lagging behind in this matter then she is actually shortchanging herself. Nigeria can do better than this so for me,I still want to thank the President hoping to see more women in governance in Nigeria.

Political parties in Nigeria affords women  the ease of politicking,will you agree with me that women have been their own worst enemies as regards political progression?

Actually that used to be very prevalent in the past,that women used to be their own worst enemies,I attended a women conference in Abuja recently and I told them that look we will have to change the narrative,we have to stop this idea of being against one another but I can see sincerely that the percentage has dropped compared to in the recent past, I see more women groups springing up like the Lagos State Women in politics,they have the National women in politics as well, I have seen their platforms and how dedicated they are,I see a lot of women using their own money to sponsor women during the time of election,they were holding seminars,workshops,conferences to encourage more women to participate in the polity, so I see a lot of change compared to what it used to be in the past.

Women now are realizing this and are being supportive, the narrative is changing gradually, it is a process I know very soon we will get there,because the class of women that I don’t even expect to be in politics are venturing into politics now and that for me is a very green light that we are getting somewhere,so very soon,steady but surely women would come forward.

Which bill do you intends to follow through with a Lagos State appeal addressing a topical issue?

On Tuesday the second  plenary after our resumption,I made an observation concerning the people’s orientation,the behaviour of the people towards the environment will be very distinct and apt if they are well guided. When you try to orientate your people the people begin to understand that when they take care of their environment,it begins to take care of them in return.
So I suggested on the floor of house which was graciously taken by all members especially the Rt. Hon. Speaker, that we should try to domesticate the National Orientation Agency here in Lagos State . We have it as an agency independent of any ministry, though normally such agency ought to come under the ministry of Information but the ministry of information is already fully overburdened with all sorts of functions of disseminating information from all other ministries,so I think for more effective implementation we would rather have that agency independent by itself, so that there would be more effective coordination and engagement of the people of Lagos State.

A lot of people behave abysmally because they don’t know,some people don’t have information,like I for one, a lot of people tell things that shock me and I ask are all these part of the responsibility of a legislator?
They are even telling me authoritatively whereas it is not true.So people need to get engaged through orientation the government should be responsible for the way the people percieve things, paradigm of the people of that nomenclature,the government of that place should be responsible for the way people of that place perceived that government,I go to the United  States for instance from the airport I begin to align with the dictate of the government of that place,the way they behave there because I have the orientation and information that I must not drop trash on the floor because I know there is an implication and there must be a consequence for it.

Nigerians go abroad as well and they align with the dictate of the nomenclature,then when they return here they start behaving abysmally because there is no constant orientation.

People abroad know where and when to go pay their taxes without being told. They go straight to the bank and Lodge in their taxes,it is part of the orientation they’ve been through,so over the years the people get used to the dictates, it is in their paradigm.
It has now become a normal and lifestyle,that they have to align with the government so that is what I am trying to say that our government in Lagos State, Lagosians know how the State operates,the modus operandi of the state and they align with it.

So rather than government wasting monies on people falling sick, due to indiscrimate disposal of refuse in the drains, on the streets and on our highways to get it cleared, spending more on primary health care system,to provide drugs and what have you for the people who are falling ill why don’t we now instead of doing the curing, let’s work more on the prevention,so that the people know that okay, when I do this, this is the consequence. Then that indirectly relieves the government of these needless expenditures.

Then people begin to behave normally and rather than having the prisons congested they begin to get empty and decongested because nobody wants to go to prison, people begin to behave normally.
So those are some of the things  that I feel Lagos State can actually begin to work towards so that by the time that is domesticated and people’s orientation reformed,then there is going to be less burden on the state, rather than wasting all these monies on all of these things,we would rather put it to use for the  benefit of the people of the state. So that is part of such bills that I wish passed on the floor of the house,there are other ones that addresses the welfare of the elderly people and so many others.

As a first term state lawmaker in Amuwo Odofin what good are you bringing to the table for constituents?

My agenda for Amuwo Odofin,like during the campaign, I made a lot of campaign promises,my first point of agenda,will be for the women,like I always say that if you empower a woman,you have empowered the nation,you have empowered the children and all other ethnic groups, social cultures or background representation in any environment ,once a woman is empowered she can break any boundaries between any ethnicity or religious backgrounds or representation, so when a woman is empowered a lot of advantage is attached to it there are so many benefits,so for me I am forward to a time when the women of Amuwo Odofin are fully liberated,in terms of self emancipation and of course empowerment, that at least 90percent of women in my constituency can brag and boast of their own self independence. This is my dream because I as a woman I know how confident I am in myself because I can survive on my own regardless of any circumstance I know how to find my way and sort myself out,so I can now put in situation whereby a lot of women have this kind of opportunity and you can just imagine what my constituency would be like,so that will be my priority and by extension the widows, a woman who has a husband in the house who is even helpless, let alone a woman who have no husband and you know how it is in our African culture when a woman’s husband dies,you know what happens,she is left alone to carry all her problems,she is in dilemma, the children are left to suffer,if not abandoning them and sending out of school because their mother can not take of them,so the women by extension the widows,I so much sympathy for them.
So I want to see Amuwo Odofin in general where the women are fully liberated, then of course again the youths who are not employed,I see them everyday and I am saddened, it takes my heart away when see the youths laying fallow,with all the fresh energies and the mind,they have the enablement and the physical presence but financial and the economical resource presence is not there, so a lot of them that I have come across,they love to work but the jobs are not just there for them,so I feel so sorry that they in that state,I feel for that generation of people that are not employed, what is the way forward,it is to find a balance that ensures that they get empowered, the serious minded and educated once among them can step forward with their CV’s we would look for ways to empower them,the people are really ready to learn vocations, because it is not everybody that in realistic terms can work in a bank, or can get a white collar job.
I started out in life at a very early age,in spite of the fact that I had parents who were willing to support me ,they were well to do people but I still went out of my way to discover myself, I got employed by some media agency and I wasn’t even getting paid,but I made that sacrifice, I want the young people of today to be patient and know that sacrifice and patience and the essence of God,because without God you can not be able function,so the young people of today must put their minds to the fact that they have to be willing to make sacrifice,endure and of course to look inwards and discover themselves what are their passion put it to play and eventually make it something resourceful that put meals on their tables. It is not everybody that the government can take care of so until we begin to realize this the young people will move forward,they should waiting on the government, the government is overly burdened already, so let’s begin to look inwards and empower one another with various avenues available,those are my three cardinal agenda and of course the children, I run a programme called child education and social support,that is what you see us working on,on the system,we want to have a situation where ,we can support the young people who are in schools,Primary and secondary schools ,give them writing materials from time to time, provide them furniture,we are already working getting them raincoats to cover up and protect them during the rainy season, school uniforms, school sandals, bags,socks and maybe school materials and all of these to support them. To give them bus ride to make them comfortable and wake up to go school everyday, these and so many other things are what I have in my mind for my constituents.

How do you plan to tackle the road network challenge in your constituency?

Right after we were inaugurated into office the Rt. Hon. Mudashiru Obasa,Speaker of the house,give a a directive to all members of the house to actually go to the Lagos State Public Works to send their gangs to our various constituencies to inspect our bad roads and see how they can help us do palliatives. So I have been to the Lagos State public works and they sent their gangs down to Amuwo Odofin,Festac and Mile 2 area and we’ve checked all the roads and graciously the chairman of the local government is doing some major repairs on some of this roads so I am just coming to complement his works so that we can have more spread of good road networks in Amuwo Odofin. Now concerning Abule Ado there is not going to be palliatives there, because it is going to be major roads construction there and yours truly, I have spoken with the Deputy Governor His Excellency Dr. Obafemi Hamzat concerning Abule Ado, if there is a way they can actually connect Abule Ado to 7th avenue using a pedestrian or a  mini bridge motorable where people can come in to avoid the express so that there would be a bit of decongestion of traffic in that axis.
He has assured me but the problem we have now is the financial implication of it, so we would have to hold on  on that for now he was definitely going to look into it, that had been brought to notice of the state government, bothering on the road network in my local government and I am sure you will notice that a few weeks back we came to flag off Lagos Badagry expressway in continuation of the construction of ten lane expressway along side the CCECC, that also is underway, so the government is really working assiduously to ensure that the Badagry division of Lagos state also enjoy the full benefit of democracy so it is not a forgotten place,it is not going to be desolate,by the special grace of God the people in that axis,Badagry division all my constituents they will begin to feel the impact of this administration under His Excellency Governor Babajide Sanwoolu.