I HAD never really taken her serious as a politician, let alone presidential candidate. Not even that first time in April, 1993 when she vied along with Chief Moshood Abiola, Ambassador Babagana Kingibe and Alhaji Atiku Abubakar for the presidential ticket of the defunct Social Democratic Party (SDP), where she incidentally came third behind Abiola and Atiku.

Since then, rather than increase, her electoral fortunes, especially at the presidential primaries of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) plunged from four votes in 2007 to just one on Friday, January 14, 2011 at the Eagle Square, Abuja.

Since her latest electoral odyssey, a number of commentators have written or spoken sympathetically about the single vote she cast for herself. I agree with the notion that her efforts were rich in symbolisms about the need for Nigerian women to get more involved in politics.

For me, Mrs Sarah Jibril is more of a Martin Luther King (Jr) of Nigerian politics, playing the role of a fore-runner for the eventual emergence of the first Nigerian female president (in the near future, I hope). It is a sensitisation campaign that one day a woman will be president of Nigeria. However, on none of the four occasions did she actually convince me that she was vying to win. Each time she failed she blamed it on lack of finance, especially as our politics is essentially a cash-and-carry affair.

That is simplistic because even if she is given Alhaji Atiku Abubakar’ fabled N10 billion  “war chest”, she might still not make much dent on the contest. The primary reason for Sarah Jibril’s perceived lack of seriousness is that she always jumps in to contest once the bell is rung. But after the contest, nothing more is heard of, or from, her. She simply melts into silence waiting for the next time the bell will ring.

Has anybody wondered why she has never been considered even for ministerial appointment after her contests or appointed into any serious organ of the ruling party where she would demonstrate her leadership abilities?

At the end of the Jos convention, journalists approached Alhaji Lamidi Adedibu, one of Major General Shehu Yar’ Adua’s men and a great friend of Abiola, to ask him whether Abiola should consider Sarah Jibril as his running mate. Adedibu, surrounded by his crowd of hangers-on, offered a snide remark:
“Sarah Jibril won’t be vice president. She won’t even be minister”.

In Nigeria, it is difficult enough for a man to win the presidency. Nobody who wanted to be president won it except he was already president. In the dim past, it was the so-called Northern political establishment that anointed leaders. Later on, the power shifted to the hands of the incumbent president or governor. Maybe some time in the future, the people will begin to determine who will be president of Nigeria.

When that time comes, anyone who aspires to be the president after the fashion that Sarah Jibril has perfected will not get far, whether it is a man or woman. The challenge will be much tougher for a woman, but not impossible.

For a woman to be taken serious as a presidential aspirant she has to do something extraordinary that will leave lasting impressions on the people. When Professor Dora Akunyili went into the National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC) and performed her exploits, she got many people setting her aside for bigger leadership roles.

However, she squandered her ton of goodwill as a politician and minister through her inability to manage her own image. Also, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala took up the finance portfolio during the Olusegun Obasanjo regime and was able to exit Nigeria from the Paris Club by pulling her international strings. When she quarrelled with Obasanjo on principle she quit honourably and was immediately offered her current job of Managing Director of the World Bank.

These are track records that, one day, will stand her in good stead if she wants to be president and plays the game with savvy and on the appropriate platform.

The first female president of an African country, Dr Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf of Liberia came into prominence through a track similar to Ngozi’s, and was well known among the circle of world leaders.

That was why she was supported to assume the presidency of her country ahead of others, including soccer star, George Weah. When she returned to her country, she served in dictator, Samuel Doe’s cabinet and when Doe was murdered she remained fully engaged in the political process until Charles Taylor was eased out of office.

The late Benazir Bhutto did not become two-time premier of Pakistan just because she was the daughter of ex-premier Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. When her father was toppled and later hanged for alleged murder by General Zia Ul Haq, Benazir began growing her own loyalists by her campaigns against Haq’s dictatorship.

She was imprisoned in a dungeon so horrible that her skin was peeling off. She later went into exile only to return to her country to be welcomed by millions of supporters who helped elect her prime minister.

The point I make here is that the woman who will be president of Nigeria will do well to ready herself for some tough challenges which if she overcomes will “sell” her electability to Nigerians. I am of the strong belief that if a woman who has not been corrupted by the current brand of politics should ever find herself at the helm of our affairs, she will likely emerge the best president Nigeria ever had.

Nigerian women should not be discouraged by Sarah Jibril’s performances. It had little to do with her gender, as such. It had much more to do with her lack of substance.

Women should realise that by the time a person qualifies to be the president of a country, she is no longer a “woman”. She is the president.