Senator Chris Anyanwu is a no-nonsense woman who suffers no fool gladly. Before granting this interview, she needed to be sure the interviewer was not a lightweight, who would waste her time with irrelevances like: “As a woman…” Although at some point, there was no avoiding it because after all, she is indeed a woman. Albeit, an assertive and attractive one all the same.

She is what you would describe as a blend of beauty and brains. Chris Anyanwu began her romance with the Nigerian public when she arrived Nigeria from the United States, armed with a degree in Journalism and a Masters Degree in Mass Communication from the University of Missouri and Florida State University respectively.

She worked for the NTA and the Imo Broadcasting Corporation as a reader and reporter. In 1987, she was appointed Imo State Commissioner for Information, Youth, Sports, Culture and Social Welfare. After her tenure, she established TSM (The Sunday Magazine), which focused on political issues as they affected the country.

In May 1995, after publishing a story about a failed coup detat, Anyanwu was arrested by the government of Sani Abacha and slammed with 15 years’ imprisonment for “accessory to facts of treason”. In June 1998, following the death of Sani Abacha, she was released on health grounds. Stories of her experience were captured in her book “Days of Terror”.

In 2005, her radio station, Hot 98.3 FM, commenced operations in Abuja. In 2003, she contested and was elected to the Senate on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party and was re-elected a second time in 2007. She is a recipient of several awards; amongst them, International Women’s Media Foundation Courage in Journalism Award. CPJ International Press Freedom Award and UNESCO’s Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize. In this interview, she looks at the country, journalism today and issues related with Senator Yerima’s recent troubles.

Enjoy!

Senator, lets begin with Nigeria at 50, would you say our score card as a nation warrants the spending of 10billion to mark the anniversary?

It’s not just about the score card. It’s the goal and the strategy for achieving goal that determines spending. Often, we embark on public projects without applying the rigor in conceptualizing them. We do not think them through thoroughly. We do not engage in the necessary research, discourse, arguments out of which emerge great ideas and plans of action that guarantee successful outcomes. We just remember there is an occasion or event and call together our “favored” persons to tinker out a plan whether or not they have something to offer. You cannot give what you do not have. Let me tell you this. What makes events unforgettable is the creative input that goes into them. And those crazy things, those original but uncommon ideas that come together to forge something spectacular, don’t come out of conventional minds, systems or establishment people. Creative people are here in abundance. We must use them in things like this.

What is killing Nigeria is favoritism. It is our insistence on using the wrong people for the wrong jobs. Why? Because of our growing insularity. We are gradually retreating to our villages. We are now seeing our universe through the prism of our tribes and states. So, everything that happens here must be handled to fit that orientation. And it is wrecking havoc on Nigeria .

We have to get more gutsy. Go for excellence wherever it may be found. Find Nigeria ’s children wherever they come from, no matter the package they come in. Take the best they have to offer. That’s what matters. Until we begin to do that, we will fail in everything be it football, governance or even the 50th anniversary. We will spend billions but it will be billion down the drain with sloppy execution and incoherence of the elements.

So to answer your question, my attitude is this. If we have the right team to work out something that is worthy of remembering, something to raise our national morale because I think Nigerians are hugely discouraged, demoralized at this time as the tone of your question depicts; if the event is structured to achieve worthy national goals, then we can spend. But if it is to create another opportunity for the boys; if it will be so poorly handled as to cause us another national embarrassment, then don’t waste our time and money.

In retrospect, what where the misconceptions that you had, while operating outside government?

One is speed. Coming from a background where things happen quickly, I had the feeling that governance also moves at “normal” speed. But not so. Things grind in government.

I think it is the orientation of the players and the civil service, the protocols worked into the system, the traditions, that cause that grind. The slowness of our law making process is giving me much angst. Things can be quicker. I think we have to look into our rule books. They are not cast on stone. They are made by a corps of lawmakers in the early days of democracy. It is time to take a second look at the rules and procedures for higher goal achievement. And the primary goal is to churn out good laws for the public good.

When you look at media today and when you were a practitioner, what goes through your mind? Specifically, how would you rate the media today?

The media today is different. You have advanced technology to aide you. You have internet to shoot stories across the world in a twinkle of an eye. You have cell phone with internet connected to it. With your cell phone, you can reach any interviewee even in his bedroom, on the road, in the most remote of villages, inside and outside the country. With your cell phone, you photograph, shoot video, record voices. You no longer have to be physically there to interview a person for print or broadcasting. You don’t need to go to the library to research your subject. Your library is at your finger tips. The world is truly a global village. There are incredible information resources everywhere. No borders can stop you now. So why will today’s journalist not be a super star. What is stopping you.

With technology, you have more time to yourself. If I were a journalist today, I would not have to leave my house to do my work. Your predecessors had none of these luxuries. Yet they left marks. Today’s people should be far better in every way. Yet I have noticed that while in terms of the quantum of news, you beat your predecessors, in the depth of news, today’s people are not doing so well. We have to get back to digging the news behind the news, following up breaking news and staying with it, enriching it each day with more findings till the full picture emerges. I find that the non-traditional media like web journalists are doing far better in this. News papers used to be the place of investigative journalism. This is no longer the case. I know the impediments here. The most serious is the insecurity especially assassinations. Of course No one wants to die. That is understandable. The other one is ethics. And that we can and must do something about.

You have been in the senate for two terms now, are you satisfied with the role of the senate so far, in the growth and development of this nation?

The Senate has done well. But it can do better. What hinders it are the rules and procedures of law making and a few internal practices which would have to be improved upon.

Do you find gender identification irritating? Or do you agree with the conception that it plays a significant role in how far women have risen in the polity?

I find it irritating when all you ask me is gender-centric. Example: “as a woman, how do you feel being in the national assembly”. Women are not handicaps. Women are full human with capabilities both innate and overt as the other human specie called men.

Women can do great things too if the upbringing, education, indoctrination, other forms of empowerment are right. In an age when gender is gradually receding in higher pursuits, women breaking all sorts of barriers, when the world is bridging the gaps and becoming more gender blind, we seem to want to dwell on it. Let me say this: Discrimination against women is rising in Nigeria today and everyone who wants a great future for Nigeria must fight against it. Little Liberia has a woman President. South America has almost five female heads of state. Still, Nigeria , the giant, is sitting on one spot, searching for people’s gender before giving them assignment. We are lagging behind Gambia in both elected and appointed women. The irony is that when you go to the private sector, you find our women superseding their peers even in the most advanced nations. Where else do you find women owning shipping companies, oil companies, pharmaceutical companies and so on. In the same country with such amazons, many cant even contemplate the idea of a female Governor. “Who will break the Kola”, they ask? Here lies the problem. We have to come out of that mindset.

Women in the senate and the house of rep have been accussed of not pulling their weight enough. This is because, so many issues affecting women have not been brought to the front burner? e.g. the issue of 30% representation across board, and discrimination against women, viz, salary disparity,, child and sexual abuse of the girl child

That is absolute poppey-cock. Women in the National Assembly are not dummies. We are not there to decorate the chambers. We are as smart, adroit and intellectual as you can have them. And we are no less concerned about the cause of women. I, for instance, have done far more in pushing affirmative action even before coming to the Senate than most of today’s advocates. If you did not hear me on those issues during the constitutional amendment period, it is because I was not nominated in the committee. But women were represented. Apart from my anti-discrimination bill which covers all Nigerians including women, physically challenged, my first bill was the sexual offenses bill which incorporated some of those abuses you are talking about. It had 100% support during its second reading in Senate. But when it went to the committee, some of those same people who are complaining now played into the hands of persons who secretly do not want an end to abuses. They went and lobbied against it. Till today, nothing has been heard of the bill. Now, they are pushing a more omnibus package. That one will start the journey of passage afresh. We must realize that Change does not happen in one fell swoop. One bill will not do it. It is a string of legislation that will come together to give us the change we want. At least if that one had sailed through, it would have began to address the rising cases of rape, animism, harassment and other emerging crimes. My problem with some of these advocates is their arrogance in thinking that things can be achieved only if they spearhead it. And if they are not in National Assembly, then every one there is an idiot. They should have more confidence in those on the inside and work with them. That’s the way to go.

As a woman and having contributed to the passing into law of the child rights bill, did you envisage that today, one of your own would be advocating setting aside this law on the basis of religion. And, how far do you think legislators should go in protecting the sanctity and enforcement of the laws they make?

There you go again. Listen to yourself. “As a woman”. The problem is that female journalists here have been indoctrinated to be sexist and even patronizing to female interviewees. Think about it: years ago, if you came to my office as chief executive of a broadcast outfit, would you ask me questions that dwell mostly on my womanhood.

I am sure you would expect me to have a good grip of what happens in the world across the sectors. You would not begin every question like that. When you ask me “as a woman”, what you do is sequester me in that little cubicle. You limit me to a woman’s perspective. I am not sure that works in the best interest of women or even the larger society. In my view, the more we have a larger view of things, the better.

On your questions, legislators are elected to protect the constitution. Nigeria is a multi-religious nation. It’s your religion against mine. But one thing by which we are all bound is the constitution. Where there is a conflict, the constitution takes precedence. I am sure you will agree that the matter in question was well handled by the Senate. The rest of the work is for the courts and ordinary Nigerians.

What is your style preference? And what does style mean to you?

My style is whatever brings out my unique personal attitude. My fashion must have an attitude. Unusual cuts. Smart. Uncluttered. I like what is free. I abhor entrapment of any sort and often, these long skirts we wear for the sake of propriety entrap us and I suffer in them. I have long strides. My dress must permit that. Frails are unnecessary noise. How the body matches the dress is what arrests the vision. No need for extra noise. Unfortunately, I don’t always have time to brief the dress makers and they do what they think is best.