The founder and CEO Ego-Bekee Foundation for Better Living and Founder Women Traders Association of Nigeria Dr. Rosemary Nwakaego Emmanuel popularly known as”Ego-Bekee” in this interview with our Ebonyi State Correspondent, Gracia Simeon-, said the participation of women fully in Nigeria politics, will make the country better again come 2023 general election.
Experts:
You just empowered traders in the state. What motivated you to do this?
We are fighting poverty to alleviate it completely from our neighbourhood, state and communities. So this platform, Ego-Bekee foundation for better living is a platform we are using to teach our women not only to give them fish but how to catch fish. We are using this platform to teach how to trade and how make values to the society, to their families, to their children and every girl child around. So, empowering them is to encourage them to build on their selves, encourage them to be able to train their children. We gave out cheques of N500,000 to these traders in each of the 13 local government areas of the state. These monies will be disbursed to our local government Chairpersons and the ones that are doing petty businesses like the ones who are selling vegetables in the market, perishables. Sometimes you see most of these women looking for N5,000, N10,000 to do those kind of businesses and it is difficult. This grant is going to help them, it is a grant without interest that will revolve among the women; you collect, when you return back, another woman will collect. Was just did it to encourage them.
How do you intend to monitor the N6.5illion you gave the women traders to ensure that it gets to the desired people?
Before now, I have run a lot of cooperative. Part of the business I am doing, I run this cooperative and I have used it to grow a number of women who are doing well in our society in their businesses. Normally, in every state when we enter, we first of all set up a committee and then there due processes that you have to follow to be able to access these monies and when you follow these processes I am sure most of them will be faithful not to run away and they will also see the love you are giving to them. You know as hard as our country is today, you hardly see anyone who throws money around even when you get it since you have a lot of thing you can even give it rather than giving it to people you don’t even know where they are coming out from. So, I am sure with the love you are showing to them, they will want to be reasonable and then with the monitoring team we have set, before this money is disbursed, we will be sure that it is giving to the people who need most and we will be sure that the people we are giving the money are people who have guarantors, people you can hold if anything goes wrong but we are not praying for that.
You are also a politician apart from being a businesswoman. What are your plans to bring women to limelight in politics?
Well, if can agree with me here in Ebonyi, our women are lagging behind in politics and being someone who didn’t grow up at home though I am from here, I have seen that a lot of women from other states of the country do better than us. Number one reason why our women don’t do well is because they have complex issues, some of them are so fearful that they can’t stand the men but we coming in now because we learnt politics from a different place and our coming will encourage them to make them shay away from complaints, to make them believe in themselves and to make them believe that whatever a man can do in politics, they can even do better.
You said women can even do better than men in politics. What makes you believe in this philosophy?
If women are giving chance to be in power in the country, we will have a better system, we will have a better government because women are mothers, they are home builders, they are more calculative, a woman counsels you even better than a man. So, if women are actually giving privilege, our society will actually do well. Then, in our terrain especially here in Ebonyi, they don’t believe in women, they don’t believe but well, we that are upcoming from women group, we are also fighting very seriously to find ourselves into the system and I believe we are succeeding.
How have you been able to combine your business and politics to the level you are today?
It is not easy, it is so challenging. It is so challenging because the most important aspect of politics is your time and then business also needs your time. So, combining the two, need your time, it can consume you. But being that it is something that I am passionate about, I just try myself to make sure that the two are balanced. It has not been easy, it has been so challenging but I think God is helping me and I am happy that I am doing well.
Thugs with dangerous weapons barricaded the road in your place and turned women groups that were attending your empowerment programme back this year. How do you see that particular act by the political thugs?
I was amazed with the show of love I was shown by the women. It was like this empowerment programme was never going to hold. If myself gets to somewhere and I am threatened with guns and machetes, believe me, I will not want to continue but you see, I saw so much love from the women and that is because there is something they have seen in me by God’s special grace. So, the people made me to believe more on myself on the capacity God has given to me and I feel so great and I feel loved. The action of those thugs is one of the challenges about life, there is no life without challenges and I am sure there is something most of the women who finally succeeded to attend the programme learnt and the boldness most of them got is also amazing and I think it is going to help them in their endeavours because for them to be able to stand guns, stand other dangerous weapons; machetes, bottles and others, I think them personally will be happy they did.
2023 is fast approaching, what will you like women to do?
Already, I am campaigning on women coming out en mass to get their PVCs. If you look at what is happening in our nation today, you will see that a lot of we women are suffering because at some point in the family when a man can no longer cope, everything about the responsibility of the family rest on the woman because a woman cannot look at her children and remove her eyes. So, you see them struggling enough to meet up with their children feeding, their school fees and medicals. So, I believe that women has the power to rule out bad leaders and bring in good ones. So, the campaign is get your PVCs, make your household to get their PVCs. Your PVC is your power, your PVC is your strength. On that day of election, you might not carry gun, you might not carry machete but you carry your PVC quietly and go and vote in a leader that you think that will be able to help us or you vote out whosoever that you think has not done well and wants to continue. So, I am encouraging women to come out and get their PVC and encourage their children and husbands to also get their PVCs so that we can build a better nation.
In Ebonyi, men are occupying all the nine National Assembly positions in the country. Do you think there is need for women to take their shots on those positions in 2023 general elections?
Of course, every citizen of every state has the right be it a woman or a man. I think Ebonyi is growing to that level because there are other states even within the neighbouring states of the east where we have a lot of women in the green and red chambers representing their people. We as the baby state within the east, we are learning fast and we are coming and I believe that in no distant time, our women will also appear.
So, what are the strategies women can use to occupy their rightful place in the polity?
They should love themselves just like what happened in the empowerment programme that enemies attempted to disrupt by blocking the women from attending the event. When women love themselves and they come together and agree, it is achievable. For instance, election is fast approaching and the women can have their stand; if this person wins, he should give us some key positions, bring women into the exco, bring this and it will be an agreement and because they know that we have large number, they cannot avoid the women, they will definitely need the women. So, if that agreement has been reached, I am sure that after the election, women will be considered very highly. So, it is just for the women to come together, love ourselves and work together towards achieving our goals.
