Bello’s Amazons
By Hafsat Ibrahim
“Women’s rights are human rights. And human rights are women’s rights”
– Hilary Clinton
Mainstreaming women in leadership roles is a global mandate of the United Nations, UN, that further went ahead to move for the 35 ‘Affirmative Action’.
In Nigeria, successive Federal and State governments have demonstrated zero political will towards implementing this global convention.
It is even worrying that despite Nigerian women forming a majority of the voting population, they are not considered when it’s time for sharing the ‘spoils of electoral victories’.
For instance, the present Federal Executive Cabinet, FEC, constituted by President Muhammadu Buhari in 2019, do not have up to five women as Ministers.
Ditto for Departments and Agencies of the federal government. The number of females appointed by the Buhari government as Head of Agencies, and Parastatals can be counted with a finger tip.
The lopsidedness and inequality against women in political and various leadership roles in the country has not gone unnoticed, even to the blind.
Small wonder, civil society groups in the forefront of gender inclusion advocacy have severally protested the poor representation of Nigerian women in governance, at all levels.
While Nigeria may be miles apart from achieving the UN affirmative action target, the strides of Governor Yahaya Bello, with respect to the crux of this piece, is one that will accelerate Nigeria’s compliance to the UN gender action.
In a manner that is unprecedented, Governor Bello, has demonstrated great love and interest in matters that affect Kogi women.
The 47-year-old Kogi Chief Executive did not stop there. He appointed as his aides and top government functionaries accomplished Kogi women, who presently occupy key positions in his government. Some of the appointments, truth be told, are first of their kinds in the entire country.
Among the first set of aides he appointed in 2016 immediately after his first term inauguration, was the first female Chief Press Secretary, CPS, to a Governor in the history of the state. That person was no other than the cerebral Petra Akinti Onyegbule. She was in office for the greater part of the Governor’s first term and she made her mark.
And then in 2017, Governor Bello appointed famous Nollywood Star, Mercy Johnson Okojie, as his Senior Special Assistant, SSA, on Entertainments, Arts and Culture.
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Governor Bello would soon take his ‘love’ and ‘affection’ for Kogi women a notch higher, when he appointed a female Deputy Superintendent of Police, DSP, Iwanger Ifeoma Akaya, as is Aide De Camp (ADC), sometime in 2020. The DSP was the first and still remains the only female ADC to a Nigerian Governor, at the moment.
Secretary to the Kogi State Government, (SSG) Dr. Ayoade Folashade Arike; Director General of the Kogi Enterprise Development Agency (KEDA), Hajia Rekiya Onaivo Sanni, are two brilliant female appointees of Governor Bello that are performing their roles/duties exceptionally.
In an unprecedented move, Governor Bello has appointed three consecutive female Heads of Service for the state. From Mrs HOK Lawal to Elder Deborah Ogunmola and now to the incumbent, Mrs Hannah Odiyo. In fact, Bello’s Kogi state is the only state in Nigeria with female SSG and Head of Service.
Lest I forget, Governor Bello, few years ago, appointed a woman as the Vice Chancellor of the Prince Audu Abubakar University (PAAU), in Anyigba. She is Prof. Marietu Tenuche, who became the first woman to be appointed into that office in the State.
Moving away from Prof. Tenuche’s deserving appointment to elective offices; presently, and thanks to the masterstroke of Governor Bello, all Vice Chairmen and several Ward Counsellors in the entire 21 Local Government Areas of the State are women.
Though he did not ultimately emerge as the presidential flagbearer of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, Governor Bello’s campaign team was headed by Hafsat Abiola- Costello, daughter of the revered philanthropist and hero of Democracy – MKO Abiola – as its Director General. The spokesperson of the campaign was the accomplished female journalist called Yemi Kolapo.
Beyond politics, the the Bello administration also established the Kogi Women and Youth Empowerment Foundation (KOWYEF), a social intervention scheme for empowering women in The Confluence State.
Less than two years after its creation, KOWYEF, has organised series of skills acquisition trainings for Kogi women and youths, which were aimed at creating jobs and alleviating poverty.
Participants of the training, aside receiving a certificate also got N100, 000 each to kick start their own business. Most of them, according to a progress report on their businesses’ growth, are now job creators and employers.
The story of Governor Bello and his concern for everything that will empower and uplift the status of Kogi and in extension, Nigerian women, cannot be all documented in a one-part essay, to be frank.
However little social commentators and analysts write or say about the Governor’s feats in the realm of women inclusion in politics and governance, together with youths and women empowerment, they are absolutely visible to the blind, and audible even to the deaf.
