International artiste cum Chief Executive Officer, National Women Development Centre, the Elegant Stallion, Onyeka Onwenu (OO) talks about her passion and drive for women of Nigeria in this interview. Enjoy…

What would you say Jonathan has done for women besides appointing a few as ministers?

By giving women the kind of appointments and portfolio he has given us, we are able to make the kind of contributions that are required of us. It is not just 35 per cent; it is more than 35 per cent. It is the fact that we have been given that opportunity and we are using it to make progress. Though some people have refused to see the progress he has made, some of us see it and know that he is making progress with his transformation agenda. By the way, we, the National Council for Women Development (NCWD), are planning a fare for women in agriculture because women are the farmers. He has improved the agriculture sector and that is why prices of foodstuff have not gone up in spite of the economic downturn. He has introduced the dry season farming programme which has made it possible for farming to go all year round and which has led to the availability of food all year.

He has eliminated corruption in fertilizer distribution. Fertilizer now goes directly to farmers who need it and not to corrupt middlemen.  Railway is back with air condition coaches. The road network is better; the second Niger Bridge is ongoing. I want to use this opportunity to shout out that the road to Arondizuogu, my town is bad, though, the Minister of Works has promised that he is going to start work on it. The president has achieved a lot except that he is quiet about it. Jonathan’s administration has delivered.

What exactly did you meet on ground when you assumed office at the centre?

First of all, I had to acquaint myself with what the National Centre for Women Development (NCWD) was all about because it seemed that it had gone into obscurity. It had been allowed to go into obscurity and what a wonderful set up it is – the idea behind it is a brilliant idea, that is, for it to serve as a centre for research, advocacy and training to project Nigerian women and protect their interest. To be a gathering point, a launching pad for women to where they should be in this country. So when I came here, I was very happy that God has brought me to this place because it was like a culmination of all that I have been working towards without knowing it. But I was also slightly overwhelmed by the amount of work that needed to be done; I was very sad that it had been allowed to deteriorate. Then I realize that I cannot do it alone; it is either I have a management team that can come with me on board and work together to get the work done or I have support from the ministry that oversees this place. I get support from the First Lady of the Federal Republic of Nigeria because she is so concerned about women issues. She has kept me on my toes; she has made me work harder than I probably planned to work. Her expectations from me are very high and I have to keep up with her because I have come close to her and seen her work ethics. She is very hard working and hardly rests and I have learned by watching her over this period. She never takes no for an answer on any issue concerning women. She is my role model for that. She tells me that the stakes are very high and that this is about the Nigerian woman and this is her time, her opportunity and she has to grab it with not only her two hands, but her feet as well because people are waiting to say ‘see now, they have been given opportunity and they are not able to utilise it’. She keeps telling me that we must maximise every opportunity that we get. So, on what I met on ground, you know that I am not a civil servant. I come from the private sector and so I will be lying if I say there were no challenges of working with people with different mindset from mine. But it was either we have a collision and nothing will come out of it or we have a minor collision and at the end of the day, the person is well meaning; that the person has every intention to give more than what he/she can get and not what he/she can give as well. I must say that in my management, I have found good people who understand the reasons why I am here. That’s understanding the enormity of the task that we have been given and the opportunity that has presented itself to us to excel and I am working with people of like minds. To say that we work 8 to 4 is an understatement; we don’t work 8 to 4. Sometimes we close at 9pm. To us, it is whatever it takes, just get the work done. Sometimes we resume as early as 6am. It has been challenging, interesting and it has tasked me emotionally, spiritually in every way but I can only say glory be to God. There has been a turn around with the foundation we have made. We are not there yet, but we know where we are going to. It is no longer business as usual.

How were you able to source for finance for the ongoing work at the centre, especially the renovation work at the guest house?

I tell you what; the reason we have not finished it is because the finance is not there, the lack of funds is responsible for our inability to complete the work. But all the same, we pride ourselves with the ability to think outside the box. We have utilised the little resources at our disposal wisely. We have realised that by being accountable, I mean everyone because accountability is not just for one person, by making sure that accountability is the business of everyone. It is no longer business as usual and whatever happened here before I came is no longer happening so that everything can be accounted for. The construction of the place has allowed us to have that guest house and the multi-purpose hall, which were completely run down before I came and which we have brought back to shape. We needed to put them back to shape so that they can yield revenue and from that revenue part of it will be used in maintaining the structures in this centre. For me, you can’t continue running them as they were being run and run down, not having enough patronage or without maintaining them. You must take from the revenue it generated no matter how small, to maintain it. I consider myself a gardener and when I came in here and I found that we were growing flowers, I started bringing flowers from my garden. Nobody pays for that; I transport them from Lagos and the flowers are blooming.

By the time you come back here in six months time, you will see new flowers blooming, that is what I mean by creativity. Whatever anybody can do that is not going to cost us some money, do it and so far we have been able to achieve and I dare say that once the guest house is opened, we can now make more money, part of which will go to the Federal Government. The damage that were done to these facilities were such that, for example, some pipes were broken and leaking water into the walls and these were damages that if they were not repaired on time, we may end up pulling down the entire edifice which will be a lot more expensive project to embark upon. What we have done so far is to repair so that the damage will not spread further. And we intend to do what we have done with the guest house, in the hostel. As for the multi-purpose hall, we have been doing that bit by bit. We have renovated the presidential and vice president’s suites, the banquet hall downstairs has been done and the two meeting rooms have also been renovated. The chiller, we are working on it and it is improving so that people will no longer come in here and you see them on TV fanning themselves. There is still a lot more work to be done, but we are taking it bit by bit as we raise money. We are doing the best that we can and we are hoping that people who read this will come to our rescue.

What are those things that a first timer is likely to see in the centre, aside the guest house, the multipurpose hall and the hostel?

We do advocacy which is one of the three pillars on which this centre was founded. We do a lot of research on women. Our library is here where we store data about the Nigerian woman. The data is made available to any organisation that wants to know, for instance, how many women were elected into the states and National Assemblies at the last elections. How many contested at the just concluded primary elections on the various party platforms and how many were successful. We are also in the process of launching a phone application that is called the market place; it allows women to get information on programmes that are designed to help them. Government has done so much for women but we have come to the realisation that women, whom these programmes are made for, do not know. So, how can we make these known to them? These are the things we are working on in the centre. We held the first ever women and girls’ summit and it was awesome. That summit was centred on girl child education and we discussed a lot of factors – violence and so on – that work against the girl child’s education. We are also putting together a programme which we hope to pursue after the elections and one of those programmes is to stop violence against young girls, young women. Molestation that goes on even in the family; sometimes it is from the father, brother, uncle, cook or even the drivers. When these children are left vulnerable because they are not taught the basic ideas of what molestation is all about and these innocent minds are violated. These are some of the areas we are going to have programmes that will centre on them. Then we have our ICT training which we call ‘No woman left out’. You know that the world is changing rapidly and everything is now based on Internet and ICT and yet majority of our women don’t know how to use the Internet to propel themselves out of poverty. We want to be able to teach the women how to appreciate the computer, how they surf the Internet, how they can get buyers for the goods and services they produce or provide. That is one of the trainings we organise and we bring women from the rural areas not just those in the cities. We spread our tent all over to invite and train them.  And by the time they are done with the training, you are talking to different sets of people because the training will give them a lot of self-confidence to better their situation. We are also working towards empowering them so that after the training, they are not just walking away with what they have learnt but with what will help them explore what they have learnt. We are also looking into non-traditional areas such as plumbing, carpentry, women mechanics, driving – all those areas that are not necessarily women areas.

Who pays the bill for the training?

There are some specific ones that are free; ‘No woman left out’ is free. There are other trainings that are free and at the end of the day we are able to give them a small amount of money that is enough for them to start off in business. Some of the trainings they pay, but what they pay just covers the materials for the training. We are not making money from the training programmes; in fact, we put in our own money because we pay the resource persons.

How do you source for the trainees?

It is on the Internet; the information on how to enroll is on our website. You don’t need to come here to get that information. And by the way, we train physically challenged persons free. It is not exclusively preserved for those who know somebody here. Anywhere you are, you can get through to us. We have in-house ICT people that train these trainees on all aspects of computer programmes and we run some of the programmes in conjunction with reputable ICT training centres. We are accredited by the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) to train some modules like computer technology; hard and softwares, computer certifications and these are diploma programmes that afterwards, if you want to continue at the university level, you can do so. We have a data bank of all those that have benefitted from our trainings. As a matter of fact, the office of the Head of Service has marked this training centre as one of the centres for training high-ranking civil servants on ICT. We have trained more than 400 staff of the Ministry of Police Affairs, over 600 from the Ministry of Defence.

Why is it that there is little or no publicity about this place and what it offers Nigerians?

The place was run down; I am not going to lie about it. It was terribly run down and we are still in the process of renovating it. So, I am not surprised that it went into obscurity. So how do you expect people to patronise such a place? But when we started the renovations, people saw that it is a very nice place in which they can hold their events and programmes. All of these are starting with this administration. I have been here for just a little over a year and within this short period of time, we have done a lot.

And what are you doing to let people know that a place like this exists?

Your visit has opened the doors and we want to use this opportunity to tell the press that they are always welcome here. And I am reaching out to Nigerians to come and see what we have done here. I will also like to encourage Nigerians to support the government of President Goodluck Jonathan because there has been a genuine, impressive transformation across the land. Whatever you feel, you cannot fault how women have done under this administration. Mr. President and the First Lady are passionate about women agenda and have been pushing it more than any other administration in this country. And I will like to use this opportunity to tell my fellow women that there is no going back and that it is not about us alone but about how and where this country is going and how we want to position it for our children.