By Jemi EKUNKUNBOR

Mina

It’s been 16 years since the United Nations played host to women all over the world in Beijing, China. At that 4th World Conference on Women, several critical areas of concern were identified. Nigerian women came back from that event with fire in their bones and a determination to see that change is brought to bear in Nigeria, where culture and tradition seemed to hold many women by the jugular.

In two days, the world would, again, mark International Women Day. The question is, have Nigerian women succeeded in addressing those issues? With this year’s theme as “Equal Access to education, Training and Science and Technology: Pathway to Decent Work for Women”, is the education of the girl-child still a mirage?

Allure spoke to Mina Ogbanga, executice director, Centre for Development Support Initiative (CESDI) based in Abuja. As a development right activist, Mina has a vast experience working with various communities and helping to build capacity for the people. She is a multiple award winner and a product of the prestigious Cambridge University, United Kingdom, where she graduated with honours. She also took a post graduate course in Environment and Development at the London Open College Network.

Fiercely passionate about development issues, Mina’s great looks belie her status as a mother of five and a woman of impact and influence. When not consulting with the World Bank on development issues as a member of the Board of Trustees, she is in the studio singing. Her effort is a single soon to be released, Runway.

In this encounter, the very lovely dread-lock spotting beauty who says she is a work-in-progress, confessed that she used to be a tom-boy as she grew up amidst eight brothers. We began the interview by asking this native of Rivers State why CEDSI was set up.

Well, it was discovered that women in most communities hardly had a voice to air their views; especially at a critical time when issues like gas flaring and routine environmental degradation was affecting their health, crops and livelihood especially in a community like Ekeregana in Okrika Local Government Area of Rivers State. They were not part of leadership, neither were they able to lobby or advocate for any change that will affect them.  So, we discovered we needed to give them a platform to air their views. At that critical stage, we were able to set up the women’s project that used radio and other media strategies to build capacities of these women and to enable them air their views so that they can speak out on their needs and recommendations.
Is your NGO targeted at the Niger Delta alone?
Our NGO is targeted at under-developed communities that need to have their capacities built. The idea of sustainable development is for you to be bale to empower people to be able to carry on their activities and be able to find solutions themselves.  So, my task is to identify vulnerable communities  not just in the Niger Delta.
In the community that you mentioned now, what has changed?
We were able to get their voice heard. We aired 13 episodes of different radio programmes to address these issues and the government got to hear; local government chairmen got to hear; partners got to hear and there was a steady but growing influx of support from stake holding bodies. In fact, different donors came in to do infrastructural development, some training, some advocacy, some lobbying, and of course, the rights activists have not stopped in their efforts at promoting this issue on the right platform.
NGOs like yours have been accused of having too many elitist programmes that don’t benefit the very people they claim to be fighting for. In what way is your NGO different?
Development cannot be sustained if the people are not part of the whole process.  They must be part of the process from conception to evaluation. Community development starts from understanding the needs of the community. Where that is not done, it is just called elitist development and that in any way possible is not sustained but is used for propaganda which does not benefit the community. We know their needs because we are on ground in the communities.
Many young people are migrating to the urban areas in spite of interventions like yours. Why is that so?
It is so because they feel opportunities exist more in the cities than in the villages. When you make a community free of conflicts and issues that will serve as threat to the lives of the people, they will be encouraged to stay back.  We need to provide opportunities for them. Enterprise development, mind set re-orientation, building capacity and you start by identifying their needs. For example, if the youths have opportunity of appropriate employment, they will stay. Some of these young people have skills but they don’t have resources to carry out their activities.
If young people know that even within their villages they can make so much money based on their skills, then, they would want to stay back and maximize opportunity. We also need to provide schools; things that will encourage the youths and give them reason to stay back.  And they will eventually form part of the building blocks for that community.
It’s been 16 years since the 4th World Conference on Women. Would you say we have done well?
What the 4th World Conference on Women served to do, as far as I am concerned, is just to create the awareness. But how many people went from debate to action is what we need to look at now. Some put to practice but not many were able to follow through.
Right now, we are still talking about empowerment at different levels. After Beijing, handling all the critical areas raised was like a mouthful and people didn’t know where to start from. Now, they are breaking it down to specifics and access to equal education and training in science and technology as this year’s theme suggests is a key part of the Millennium Development Goals.
But isn’t it true that women run away from the sciences?
Many run away because there is a mind set that science is very difficult. Why is it difficult? Your mathematics teacher from the beginning does not teach well. Your science teacher is not in the know of how to build your understanding in that area. It discourages you from the onset. Once you have seen something as difficult, you’d never find any reason to like that thing.
Of the 12 critical areas of concern, in what area would you say we have done well?
More women are involved in civic engagement and educational issues. It may not be in the sciences alone, but there is a conscious effort to aspire. More women are becoming entrepreneurs.  The community woman knows that if I do XYZ, I’ll make more money so, she is getting more professional about her activities.  We have national policies now that are affecting women especially in the areas of technical and enterprise development.  And, with a woman heading the Bank of Industry, it shows you clearly that women are moving up.
A lot of other cultural issues like female genital mutilation and all those rights issues are reducing compared to the days before Beijing, where you have widowhood rights being abused, women’s inheritance rights being abused etc.
Would you say we have a reason to celebrate this year?
We can say we have women who have cause to celebrate. There are women who have made Nigeria proud. For example, I am the first and only woman in the Nigerian Institute of Management that has ever won an international award for the young manager. Every other person since that project was instituted in 1975, have all been men. Till date, I am the only woman. Now, this is just one out of the many achievements women across the world are achieving. For you to encourage people, you need to celebrate those who have succeeded. And this also involves women in the community. Any woman in the Niger Delta for example, whose son is not a militant should be celebrated and any woman whose son was and is now rehabilitated, should be celebrated.
The theme talks about science and technology training but many of our schools don’t have science laboratories?
That is the responsibility of government. Our nation is looking at building support base for education. Look at what the president is doing with ‘Back to Book’, for example. It is good. If government does not build schools, how do they expect these women to be trained? It is never in the books that women’s responsibility is to build schools. But I have worked in communities where we have had to build schools, but you can’t do that without main-streaming government input because they are the ones to pay teachers’ salaries.
Is there a major challenge to women’s growth and development?
Yes, access to resources and access to knowledge. These are key or else you can’t move from debate to action or move your ideas to practical.
There is a major issue with women and that is the fact that the more women are succeeding with their struggles and career, the more children are losing values and a disconnect between parents and children.How do we repair this kind of damage?

I must encourage women and tell them here that the loss of family values is one of the worst forms of loss in your life that you’d ever record. No matter what we do as women, there must be a balance. That is why we don’t ask for work, we ask for decent work opportunity. In that case, we know that there is a time to start and a time to end. Women should recognize that and know where to draw the line. If you are single you know where to draw the line and if you are married, you know where to draw the line. If you use your skills to achieve at the detriment of your family, you are definitely going to be regarded as a failure.
No successful woman should come out with very poorly trained children, or unhappy husbands. Women need to spend as much time as they can manage with their family, especially for the growing child. People stretch themselves beyond basic requirement and that is what causes women to leave things in the hands of nannies and other hands.
If you find yourself, at the peak of your career, having to choose between work and home, what would you do?
My choice would be to put in for the family. The response is unmatched. You can’t afford to do otherwise at that critical crossroad. It’s very enticing to do the alternative but it’s very rewarding to do the appropriate.
When you are not working, what do you do?
I sing. I have a project that uses art to build the capacity of young people. And we have done all kinds of things in over 500 communities. So, when I’m not working, I’m in the studio. My single is out. It is called Runway.
What is your fashion sense?
I love anything that makes me comfortable. I’m learning to move from the tom-boy life to being feminine. If you are born into a family of 10 and you are the only girl, it’s an amazing