By Eben Enasco Kingsley from Benin City.
As women all over the world celebrate this year’s International Women’s Day, Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State has called on more women to join the state’s gubernatorial race before the primaries in June, saying women must be bold to vie for political offices as men are unwilling to yield the ground to them on a platter of gold.
Speaking at a ceremony put together by his wife, Iara Oshiomhole, to celebrate the 2016 International Women’s Day, Oshiomhole said women have the numbers to win political offices and should leverage on the numbers.
He said: “I am happy that a woman has stepped out for the Governorship primaries and has printed forms. It is important that we don’t think that men will get to a point where they will be tired of domination and they will say, ‘you know, we have dominated you enough, you women, come and take power.’ It is never going to happen. The only way women will take power is not to wait for men to beg them to come, they have to stand their ground because in Edo State, two out of every three votes are cast by women.
“It therefore means that women have the numbers, they have the patience and what it takes to contest and win elections. It is not about money. If it were about money, I wouldn’t have been able to contest and win. The first thing is your heart, your conviction and then your brain and God has given everything to women.
“The former Head of Service, now the Chairman Civil Service Commission asked me who I will vote for in the forthcoming primaries in my party, now that we have, if I can quote her correctly, ‘the only female gubernatorial aspirant in the person of Lady Tina. And I said it is too early to stop counting, because the primaries will take place in the first week of June, so we still have some time. So I imagine that more women will join the race.
“So, I want to urge you to take to heart the central message that you have listened to today, and also the central truth in that drama that in everything, women can do even better. Let’s make some investments in ensuring that our daughters go to school.
“It is better that we don’t celebrate our birthdays so that we can celebrate the graduation of our daughters. I don’t have money is not an excuse. If you make up your mind that your children will go to school, God will help and empower you to make it a reality. We must train our children because that is the only insurance for the future.
In today’s world, that is knowledge driven, it is not about ones strength that matters but the brain.”
He said, “We will continue to support women who need help to set up small scale industry, we have been doing that and we will do more before the end of my tenure and my successor will continue. We will continue our support for market women
“The message in the drama I watched, and watching Yemi Alade clearly portrays the message that whatever a man can do, a woman can do, even better. I am so happy that we are celebrating women day and I am sure that the essence of all the messages, speeches, drama and even the performance by Yemi Alade shows that there is nothing that any human being can do, that a woman cannot possibly do much better and that is why in my own party, we have a slogan that ‘no woman, no nation,’ that when you train a woman, yon have trained a nation.
So, I congratulate you. I think we have done couple of things to prepare our young ones for the future leadership of our country. The drama by the Uniben students clearly shows that we need to make investment in the education of our children as the only way to securetomorrow which is why in Edo State, we are happy when we look at the statistics.”
He continued, “At one forum in Abuja, when people where sermonizing on the girl child, on the need to send the girl child to school, I had cause to say with pride that in Edo State, we don’t need to sermonize to our mothers and to our fathers that the girl child’s proper place is in the classroom. It will also interest you to know that 65% of our teachers in primary schools are women. We have under my watch here, two women as Heads of Service. So you can see that in Edo State, women have headed our bureaucracy and I believe that about 40% of our Permanent Secretaries are women and they are very efficient.
“In order to ensure that nobody has excuse not to send the child to school, we have extended free education to senior school level which means that the first 12 years of a child education is free in Edo State.”
