The women look gorgeous. They leave their houses in the wee hours to catch up with the event, but return late. Some speak English, some pidgin and others vernacular. Before leaving their houses, some prepare food for their husbands and children; others just hurry to board the vehicles to the venue of the event. Armed with bags of different hues, they look serious and move in columns as they are going to business or market. Yet, these are Akwa Ibom women moblised to any state function to cheer personalities and to boost attendance at a function.
For a day or so, the women could abandon the home front. They would abandon their offices. They also abandon businesses for the sake of the ceremony, which has short or long term benefits. Some- the arrow heads- make huge gains. Some of them get both pecuniary benefit and political appointments for always moblising women to cheer or for regular attendance at any big event within or outside the state. Such attendance is, no doubt, seen as sign of loyalty, and the reward for loyalty is compensation from the ‘oga’ at the top or his wife.
This is one of the major features at private or state functions- funeral service, birthday, political rally, church service, among others, mostly attended by government functioneries or their cronies. The women flaunt banners and sing and escort any political office holder to the seat just to get attention or for pecuniary interest. Armed with bells or whistles, some women herald the special guest. They would fill all available spaces. If gift items are brought, they struggle. Or, if food is served, they gluttonously fight over and appropriate much for themselves.
For instance, during the adoption of Akwa Ibom Governor Udom Emmanuel for a second term in November 2017, the women came out in full force. Women from Eket, Ikot Ekpene and Uyo Senatorial Districts including from Lagos clad in different colorful attires filled Ibom hall grounds, Uyo. The women, drawn from diverse social groups all over the state, came out as usual in an intimidating number that the event, to a casual observer, could pass for women convention. Their chants and screams made it almost impossible for one to hear a word said at the event. Let the speaker make a statement of policy or chop-I-chop, they cheer and clap to drown the occasion in a cacophony of voices.
History
Before now, cheerleading role by women did not attract any attention in the state. It started during the advent of popular Better Life for Women initiated by the late Maryam Babangida, ignited by Mrs Maryam Abacha’s Family Support Programme (FSP) and boosted by Mrs. Fati Abubakar’s Family Enhancement Advancement Programme (FEAP). The late Stella Obasanjo and Mrs Patience Jonathan, all Nigeria’s first ladies added more pep to the women liberation movements through their pet projects.
At the state level, Nka Uforo Iban formed in 1988 by Mrs Patience Abe; Child Development Trust (CDT) by the late Nnenyin Alison Victor Attah; Family Life Enhancement Programme (FLEP) by Mrs Unoma Godswill Akpabio were formed and now Family Empowerment and YouthRe-orientation Path-initiative (FEYReP) by Mrs. Martha Udom Emmanuel. These organisations helped to stir the mobilization spirit and create more awareness among women to to be actively involved in the cheerleading as a surest means of grabbing different political offices. Through this, they have come to the realisation that a woman’s place is no longer in the kitchen but in the public domain. The prevailing economic difficulties also conspired to institutionalize the culture of cheerleading. It might have been a pastime but it has turned to a brisk business.
The 35 per cent Affirmative Action for women equally opened the floodgates for women to showcase their feminine potentials. Though the women are unable to grab the 35 per cent slots meant for them in both elective and appointive appointments, they actually capitalize on the action to come full blast to participate in actively in politics and make sure their presence is felt in all fields of human endeavor.
The immediate past President, Goodluck Jonathan administration had wanted to implement United Nation’s 35 per cent Affirmative Action of women’s representation in political and non-elective positions in Nigeria. This policy seeks to offer 35 per cent share of decision making positions to women.
So, cheerleading is a perfected arm of strategic plan by women to boost their popularity and assert themselves to sound a note of warning to their male Jonesses that they have arrived. Some have succeeded in overtaking some men in academic and leadership positions while rest are working harder to outrival their men counterparts to prove that they are occupying the driver’s seat.
Regrettably, Nigeria has not fully implemented this policy as the number of women in key political positions in the country is still very poor.
Evidently, Nigerian women have not reached 10 per cent representation in public positions. No woman has ever come close to occupying the position of the president or a vice president. In 2011, the only woman who gave a shot at the presidency under the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) failed woefully at the level of the primaries as the only vote cast in her favour was hers.
In Akwa Ibom State where politics is assumably the predominant business, the number of women in positions of power is a far cry away from 35 per cent.
Out of the 26 members of the State House of Assembly, only one is a woman and out of the about 23 members of the State Executive Council, just one woman is left after the sudden demise of Commissioner for Investment, Commerce, and Industries, Mrs Eno Blankson Ikpe.
VIEWS BY PARTICIPANTS
Mrs. Ekaette Udoh is a member of a political group known as ‘Nka Uforo Iban’. She was almost in tears while speaking to this reporter as the money shared to her group did not get to her.
Asked what she does for a living, Mrs Udoh, who shockingly first claimed that she was a politician, said that she owns a “small provision shop that we manage to eat with my children”.
“I am not used to sitting in one place. I cannot hear that something like this is going on and I would not want to come and participate in it. I brought my baby here because there was no one at home to leave her with.
“Right now I have not collected a dime from anyone. Look at the number of women in my group alone; what is the possibility that the little amount they gave us will go round? If I could just find my way home, I will be fine,” she said.
Mrs. Mercy Effiong Edem, a member of a group known as ‘Dakkada Market Women’, who also spoke with this reporter, admitted that she had lost a great deal to have abandoned her wares just to show her support to the state governor, but said that she was optimistic that she would cover up when she returned.
“I am supporting Governor Udom Emmanuel because he has done well in this state. Even in my Local Government Area, Ibesikpo Asutan, he has performed very well.
“I know that it would have been better for me to have gone to the market to sell my goods but the excitement of having a governor like this alone is enough to make me come out here to support him,” she said.
Dr. Nevelyn Bartta, the Secretary of Women of Worth, the group supports re-election of Governor Udom Emmanuel. Under the leadership of its president, Dr. Sylvia Imoh, the association is geared towards empowering women, gives loans to women, undertakes training programmes for women.
In one of the functions in Uyo, StraightNews sampled the views of some women on why they participate in the cheerleading. Mrs Grace Imoh from Okoromboko in Eatern Obolo Local Government Area said she came since morning for the function. According to her, “I like to attend the function. Eventhough I do not benefit much from the money usually shared to us, I like leaving family and headaches at home to relieve some worries.”
Another woman, Mrs Grace Effiong from Ikot Ekpene dispelled the rumour that some of them were sponsored to the event. She said she came on her volition. Though she may share in th fallout of the function, she said “ I like attending the it. At times, I feel famished due to staying in the sun or rains for a long time, I like it. I see it as wathing sport.” On the take home money, she admitted that a peanut is usually is given to them by the organers of the function.
Yet, Mrs Paulina Etim from in Ekput in Ibiono Ibom Local Government Area was happy in attending the function. Though she complained that a meager amount of N1000 is always given to her, she likes leaving her family for a while. “In some foreign countries, some people pay money to watch two dogs fighting. The spectators sit and watch the competition. They laugh and become excited and their pains and worries are relieved. I see this as sport.
I leave problems and difficulites at home come here to enjoy myself. I sit here and watch some cheering personalities. I watch a lot of activities and forget about difficulities and headaches at home. My husband encourages me to come out otherwise I would not be attending the function, she admitted.
DISSENTING VIEW
Offering his opinion on this disturbing trend, a lawyer and human rights advocate, Barr. Inibehe Effiong, the participation of in political event as an exploitation of these women that has to be stopped.
Barr. Effiong, who spoke to this reporter on telephone, accused the government of cajoling the women into believing that it is carrying them along in the scheme of things by forcing them to participate in political functions.
“It is saddening seeing situations where women are moved around and given cheap customized cloths to wear, they are made to stand under the scorching sun in the name of taking part in political rallies and event.
“It is unfortunate to the point that even when the governor’s wife is going to a private conference or event, you see women being made to move around with her and at the end of the day, they are given peanuts; N1,000, N500 or even less. For the government, this is their own understanding of empowerment; it is their own definition of political participation which shouldn’t be the case. Human beings should not be exploited in this manner,” he submitted.
While alleging that the government is deliberately keeping the people poor in order to use their poverty to ride on them, Effiong charged women in the state not to use poverty as an excuse to to sell of their dignity.
“For me, personal dignity is important and we should not always use poverty as an excuse. I know that poverty is a deliberate policy of the government because that is the only way government can exploit them; use them for politics. Even the youths are also victims.
“These women need to understand that they are ruining their dignity. They need to stop following the governor’s wife, the governor, commissioners and so on and so forth around. You do not see this in any civilized clime.
“I know for certain that poverty is maximally responsible for this. The people are poor. These women are led to believe that they are part of the political system by following politicians around in the name of attending campaigns and rallies. We need to continue to sensitize our people; we need to continue with public enlightenment for the people to know what is wrong and what is right,” he noted.
Just as secret cultism has replaced thuggery in politics so has cheerleading dethroned societal exclusiveness among women. What the late Allison Attah, wife of ex-governor of Akwa Ibom, Obong Victor Attah could not do, Unoma, wife of an ex-governor Godwill Akpabio came, perfected and fine-tuned the art such that women used to boast their place is no longer in the kitchen but in the political field. Through the mobilization prowess of Dr. Glory Edet, commissioner for Women Affairs, Martha Udom Emmanuel, wife of Akwa Ibom governor, has maintained the staus quo of cheerleading.
While there is an ongoing global fight by women to be given equal oppprtunity to contribute their quota in nation building, Akwa Ibom women seem to have long handed themselves over to the powers-that-be to be reduced to mere political cheerleaders who only find fulfillment in praise-singing during political events.
These women do not care what they stand to lose abandoning their businesses and responsibilities as wives and mothers to bear the heat of the sun, endure the wetness of the rain, clap, scream and dance to every word spoken at a public function in exchange of stipends of as low as N200.
Many of them were dog-tired as they sat on the bare floor in the heat of the scorching sun as seats were not enough to go round. On their faces were written anguish and signs that they had totally lost interest in the event of the day. Some even begged for food and water just so they would not blackout. Some women walk under the scorching sun with babies on their backs.
The excuse, however, on the side of the government has always been that these women are not coerced into going out for political events but that they do it out of the love they have for the government of the day.
Rather than encouraging the women to be cheerleaders perhaps to display numerical prowess during political and social functions attended by dignitaries, government and decision makers in the state must create jobs that would gainfully engage them in contributing their quota to good governance and overall development of the society.