Lagos 2015: Rising Call for Gender Consideration

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The scramble for the governorship ticket is getting interesting by the day. But the quest appears so vague and uncertain for the aspirants and the observers alike that none of the contenders is even sure on whom the lot will fall at last. The uncertainty has been ascribed to what analysts called the decision of All Progressives Congress (APC), Lagos State Chapter, to zone the seat to the East and its preference for a Christian candidate.

While the party’s two critical considerations are still generating serious controversies, women groups, particularly in the rank of APC and across the state, have started pushing for a female governorship candidate. The groups include Women Law and Development Centre in Nigeria (WLDCN, Lagos State Gender Action Team (LASGAT), State Accountability and Voice Initiative (SAVI), Women Arise for Change and Inclusive Group, among others.

Already, the women groups have started working together and networking across the state’s socio-political strata to form what the Executive Director of WLCDN, Dr. Keziah Awosika, called the Women Movement in Nigeria. She said the purpose of the movement was “to ensure that women participate meaningfully in the 2015 general elections and are elected into strategic political offices, not only in Lagos, but across other states.”

Apparently, therefore, the new quest has brought gender dimension into the governorship contest in Lagos State, which the state’s APC Chairman, Chief Oladele Ajomale, said was a welcome development and that APC was a gender-friendly party. This has, also, spurred interests among the female political actors, especially in the APC, to join the race for Lagos House in 2015, thereby creating an entirely different political scenario.

The questions now remain: are female politicians ready for the job? Can they really weather the storm? Is the party politics inclusive enough to ensure the emergence of a female governorship candidate? The contest has started, and the party might not change its consideration for zoning and religion, though the chairman said the party would never trade any consideration for merit, which he said, had distinguished the state over the years.

The gender agitation has, however, added more female political heavyweights to the list of governorship aspirants in the state. Now in the race are Chairman of the House Committee on Diaspora Affairs, Hon. Abike Dabiri-Erewa, the state’s Deputy Governor, Mrs. Adejoke Orelope-Adefilure, and Sen. Oluremi Tinubu, who is currently representing Lagos Central in the Senate and wife of the APC National Leader, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

Abike Dabiri-Erewa

An ace broadcaster from Ikorodu Division, Dabiri-Erewa has been effectively steering the House of Representatives Committee on Diaspora Affair, which she chairs. Before the agitation of a female governorship candidate, the lawmaker was the only woman in the race on the platform of the APC from Lagos East, an area to which the state’s APC has zoned the governorship position with a view to ensuring fairness.

She is not only a household name in the state, but also in the country having distinguished herself as a broadcaster and representative of Ikorodu in the lower chamber. Apparently, her almost twelve-year legislative experience will count in her favour. Also, the voting strength of women by political parties and the support she enjoys from the stakeholders in Ikorodu put her in a good stead for the state’s prime position.

Fortunately enough, Dabiri-Erewa is the only candidate from Ikorodu Division, which traditional rulers and professionals from the division said, has not produced the state governor. Consequently, the entire division has constituted a pressure group called Ikorodu Division Resource under the leadership of Prof. Kunle Wahab, already lobbying the party leaders in the state to pick an Ikorodu indigene, irrespective of gender and religion, for the position.

The group’s argument was that of the three zones that make up Lagos East Senatorial District, Ikorodu “has not really been privileged.” The group said only Ikorodu and Badagry “have not been privileged to occupy the first position in the state. Badagry falls under the Lagos West Senatorial District. Even in Lagos East, Epe produced former Governor Michael Otedola while Sen. Gbenga Ashafa from Ibeju Lekki is the district representative in the Senate.”

Despite the speculation that the state’s former Accountant-General, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode has been anointed, this political calculation put Dabiri-Erewa in particular and Ikorodu Division on a good standing for the state’s first position. If the lot falls on Ikorodu Division to produce a candidate at last, the party stalwarts interested in the position will have to wrestle with Dabiri-Erewa, whose gender rallies massive support for her.

Orelope-Adefulire

Unlike Dabiri-Erewa who hails from the eastern part of the state, Orelope-Adefulire comes from Lagos West Senatorial District. Although she is geographically disadvantaged considering the decision to zone the governorship position to the Lagos East, Orelope-Adefulire currently serving as the deputy governor of the state is a veteran female political actor, who has occupied different strategic offices between 1990 and 1993.

The deputy governor has been described in the rank of the party leaders as an aggressive mobiliser and grassroot politician, whose role has garnered massive support for APC in Alimosho, an area with the biggest voting strength in the state. She served as the Commissioner for Women Affairs and Poverty Alleviation during the second term of Tinubu’s administration and the first term of Fashola’s administration.

Orelope-Adefulire’s political experience is not limited to executive office alone. Also, the deputy-governor had served as a lawmaker in the Lagos State House of Assembly under the botched Third Republic between 1991 and 1993. But the return to democratic era in 1999 brought her back to the political stage after her active involvement in the pro-democratic struggle, which spanned almost two decades.

But her political strength was demonstrated at a recent rally her office organised to mark the 2014 International Women Day at the Police College, where several thousands of women professionals from all walks of life kicked against what they described as the growing incidences of gender-based violence and the poor gender representation in politics. At the rally, according to her, a society that fails its women and girls ultimately fails itself.

Definitely, the deputy governor cannot be underrated in Lagos politics, especially when it comes to Lagos West. She is, no doubt, a formidable force to contend with given her political clout and her father’s political influence in the rank of APC leaders. As a Christian, Orelope-Adefulire certifies the party’s religious consideration, but does not come from the Lagos East, to which the governorship position has been zoned.

Oluremi Tinubu

Even though the APC national leader does not want his wife’s name mentioned in the governorship contest, different women groups across the state have been quietly projecting Mrs. Tinubu as a future candidate for the prime job. But her husband, THISDAY gathered, has never been favourably disposed to her supposed interest in the position, which some of the party chieftains said their national leader would not subscribe to.

That aside, Mrs. Tinubu has wide political contacts within and outside the state. She has been able to build and establish such political contacts while serving as the state’s First Lady for eight years. This has definitely earned her current political office in the Senate, where she is representing Lagos Central Senatorial District. Her political structure, New Era Foundation, cut across all the established divisions of the state.

Till date, the impact of the foundation is felt across the state, especially in Lagos Central where she periodically ministers to the need of the aged; partners the Lagos Island Local Government Area in some development programmes; reaches out to the vulnerable: children and women; carries out different vocational schemes for the unemployed and champion empowerment programmes for various categories of people.

Mrs. Tinubu’s major constraints relate to Asiwaju’s well-speculated disapproval of her supposed governorship ambition and the zoning of the governorship position to the Lagos East, which evidently put her at a disadvantage. But these constraints never stopped different women groups from projecting and networking for her underground, thereby suggesting that the race for Lagos House would be highly competitive and stiff.

APC in the Game

However, the WLDCN executive director acknowledged her group’s aggressive campaign for a female governorship candidate in the state. She explained that different women groups had been networking with the Lagos State House of Assembly under the State Accountability and Voice Initiative and partnering the Department for International Development (DFID) under the Lagos State Gender Action Team Initiative.

But at a session with THISDAY yesterday, Ajomale confirmed the zoning of the governorship position and the party’s warm disposition towards equal gender representation, which he said, were a good thing for democracy in the state. He said the party “has zoned the position to Lagos East,” though explained that the leaders of the district “have to work together and agree on a candidate, who will drive the vision of Lagos megacity.”

While the chairman denied the party’s preference for a Christian candidate, he acknowledged that the party “will not compromise merit on the altar of gender, religion and zoning.” Irrespective of socio-political considerations the party has set already, Ajomale said merit “remains the fulcrum of the state governorship contest,” noting that neither religion nor gender would edge out merit.

If the Lagos East cannot agree on a candidate, the chairman said the party would conduct primaries in order to deepen internal democracy, which he said, was critical to constitutional governance. But the chairman said the position “has been zoned to Lagos East, and the leaders in the districts are expected to produce a candidate irrespective of religion and gender or all the aspirants from district will face the party’s election process.”