Hajiya Talatu Nasir is a member of PDP Board of Trustees from Katsina state and a delegate to the national conference. In this interview with EMEKA NZE, she defends the northern position that the removal of the local government from the exclusive list will not augur well to the people at the grassroots whose only closeness to the government is being threatened. She also praises President Goodluck Jonathan for giving women 90 slots in the national conference, a feat Hajiya Nasir says has been unprecedented in the history of women participation in the politics of the country
Assessing women participation in the confab
Right from the beginning, you will realise that the women have performed well because in previous conferences we had very, very few women like five or six women in the conference. But this time around, thanks be to God, we really appreciate the efforts and concern of Mr. President Goodluck Ebelle Jonathan who showed the concern on the issue of women and allowed us to be up to 90 or so in this conference. Then, if you look at the quality of presentation of the women all over, you will know that really women have achieved something. Whenever a woman get up to talk, she talks about the uplift of the Nigerian nation and women in particular. Actually, the women have contributed so much towards the conference and in the different committee reports. If what we women have contributed will be implemented then definitely, there will be a step forward in Nigeria’s socio-political situation.
Are there specific recommendations that would impact positively on the women?
Of Course, women are going to be affected positively. That affirmation issue we discussed and we have really gotten something out of it. Again when you look across the reports, wherever you see women issue, you will see that members of that particular committee contributing to raise the issue of women, you see women talk about the emancipation of women, improvement of women economically, socially, and politically trying to uplift the image of the Nigerian woman. We are generally satisfied honestly speaking. Our prayer now is that all the recommendations made will be put to implementation. If we get that, the Nigerian woman will know that democracy is better than any other system of government.
Your take on division between north and south over creation of states and removal of local government from exclusive list
No. I have been on the floor of the conference. No northern delegate is against creation of an additional state in the southeast. We are in support of the creation of states but what we are saying is allow other states to also be created based on the criteria of the creation of states as enshrined in the 1999 constitution as amended, such as the viability of the economy, land mass, population and so forth. That’s what we have been saying. In respect of the local government, you know local government as the name implies, it was created mainly for the welfare and development of women and people at the grassroots. This people are the majority people and they have no means of coming near government, only through local government. Only through local government can the people benefit from government. When their wives deliver new babies or during wedding ceremonies or something of that nature, they will run to the chairman to demand for ram for their naming ceremonies or the chairman will attend their ceremonies. You know, because they are very close, they are the closest level or tier of government to the people at the grassroots. So when they are scrapped from the constitution, it will not be good for the people of Nigeria, since the majority of Nigerians are at the grassroots and would no longer have access to the government.
I think the decision taken at the conference is not to scrap local government but to remove it from the constitution so that states which feel they don’t have enough can create more and those that feel they have more than enough can merge them?
You don’t understand. What we mean by delisting it from the constitution, if the local governments are delisted from the constitution then they will have no right to expect any money from the federal government; their funding will come from the state. If you look at the real situation there are states which cannot afford to fund the local governments.
That’s even the reason for putting them under the states. Majority of the local governments were created during the military regimes. The military used their powers to favour the part of the country where they come from and the whole thing became lopsided. What is your take?
Nobody is against the creation of local governments. We in the north are not stopping anybody from creating local governments. What we are after is the abrogation or delisting local government from the constitution. If they are delisted there will be no more means whereby the people at the grassroots will come near the government.
Are you saying that if local governments are under the states, the states will not fund them?
If they are under the states the states will create local governments whenever they like and also abolish them whenever they like and injustice will emanate from there. There is an instance; one of the delegates was telling us that because of political reasons, they woke up one day to hear that one of the governors has taken the headquarters of one of the local governments have been taken to another place. It will give room for that and the local government will suffer and it is the closest and the nearest to the masses.
Talking about the many achievements those women have scored at the conference, how do we translate it to action to liberate the women especially in areas in the country where women are not allowed to participate in politics?
All we want is implementation because one of the governors the governor of Katsina state has gone far in these women issues. Take for instance we have 34 local governments, in every local government we have a supervisory councillor who is a woman and we have three wards and in every ward we have a woman leader. In the state we have so many female permanent secretaries, special advisers, commissioners and so on. So if you take this into cognizance you will know that states like Katsina state has gone far in woman emancipation and women development. So when the issue is included in the document, it is very simple; those who have not started they will start doing it. Those who have already started like the governor of Katsina state Barrister Ibrahim Shema, then he will continue as this conference would have energised him, encourage him to do more.
There was a revelation by a former senator and delegate to the conference, Senator Dansadau that divorce among the Hausas in the north is on the increase, was he exaggerating or is it the true position?
No, in every ethnic group or religion, divorce occurs but the reason why it is high in the north is because of the issue of polygamy and we cannot say polygamy is good; it is bad. What we are saying now is for couples to be God-fearing. No matter how many women you have, one- two-three- four, if you are God –fearing and you give the woman what she deserves then and the woman gives you the right you deserve, then there will be no problem and things will be alright and the society will be better for it.
You are a member of the committee on religion, when it was said that government would no longer sponsor pilgrimages, how did you feel about it?
All we want is unity in the country. We always want unity to prevail and to be promoted. On the issue of pilgrimages it affects everybody, it affects the Muslims and it affects the Christians. Christians are thinking that government is sponsoring the whole lot of Muslim pilgrims while the Muslims are also thinking that more Christians are being sponsored by the government. In order for us to avoid any confusion or mutual suspicion, and in order to promote unity and understanding, we in the committee deliberated extensively on it and decided to stop the sponsorship but we did not stop there. Government will not sponsor pilgrimages but things like consularship and matters concerning the welfare of the pilgrims, you know the linkages between one country and another, all this government has to oversee that because it is the right of the citizens.
Therefore there is partial involvement of government in pilgrims’ affairs because there is no way a government can hands off religion completely, it is not going to be possible. Also in order to ensure that things are properly organised we also recommended the establishment of national equity commission to take care of all discrepancies, to take care of all differences especially when any argument arises. As we recommended the commission will be manned by people of integrity.
