OVER  a decade and one half of our democracy, and about 13 years after the  Beijing Conference on Women, we are yet to produce a female governor or vice president in Nigeria.

Even the number of elected women politicians to either the National Assembly or State Houses of Assembly is miniscale compared to a country like Malawi where about half of their elected politicians are women with a woman president. Candidly, the lack of empowerment of women in politics in Nigeria is, in fact, inhibited by the women folks themselves.

Cultural strongholds that resist women empowerment and promoted gender inequality are sponsored by female. It was Eleanor Roosevelt who stated that: “No one can make us feel inferior without our permission.” Women liberation revolution in Nigeria was mere sham.

However, there seems a silver lining in the horizon. A change is now bound to happen as 2015 seems a year of destiny for female politicians in this country. Though no politician (male or female) has declared so far or indicated irreversible interest but the rumour mill is at work. One of such unwinding is the purported entry into the governorship race in Delta State of Dr. (Mrs) Ngozi Olejeme, based in Abuja, a political amazon renowned for her independent thinking and achievement who had set the pace in many ways.

Mrs Olejeme is a woman who could be described as having paid her dues many times over. She was instrumental to the commission of resources, tireless effort, time and talent in putting appropriate draft (bill) in place to ensure compensation for workers (whether in private or public sectors) in case of poor health, injury or death. With utmost zeal and passion, Dr. Olejeme saw the Nigerian Employee Compensation Bill into law. The Bill was assented to by President Goodluck Jonathan in 2011.

She is a woman of passion. Her guiding principle propelling her into politics is: “If you cannot help others, at least, don’t hurt them.”

To her, charity is more than just giving money to the poor; it is the giving of our hearts, time, and energy to lighten the pains of others. With this kind of vision to public office, much must be expected to even the popular aphorism that “the passion of man is to enrich self, but the passion of women is to reach out.”

Definitely this kind of assumption is still subject to critical analysis but suffice to say that she has been exemplary in meeting people at their points of need, feeling very comfortable carrying others burden. Recently, in her desires to share in the plight of the less privileged in society, Mrs Olejeme, through her foundation, embarked on the empowerment of widows in the three Senatorial Districts of Delta State singlehandedly.

During the floods of last year, she undertook a personal trip of many areas across the country, distributing relief materials to victims. What many governments could not do until funds came from the centre.

Mahatma Ghandi succinctly put it thus: “Strength does not come from physical capacity, it comes from an indomitable will”. The significance of a female governor cannot be over-emphasized, particularly in a complex state like Delta State with several ethnic diversities, a macrocosm of Nigeria.

Managing one’s resources to give comfort and satisfaction is a pointer that given a volume like a state fund, transparency and accountability could be guaranteed or is assured.

We should see a female governor as a lasting solution to societal ills especially crimes like armed robbery, kidnapping and militancy. This allusion is being made because some of these crimes are vengeance against society. A female governor is a mother.

The youth could be closer to a female governor than her male opposite number because of their motherliness to bear the burden and face the pressure of children (youth) which is the major problem of the society today.

In 2003, Dr. Olejeme contested the Delta State governorship election with the duo of former governor, Chief James Ibori and Chief Great Ogboru.

In spite of her obvious quality and general acceptability that she enjoyed in the state, the unspoken reason she lost was that Delta State then was not ready for a woman governor in Nigeria. Since then much water has passed under the bridge.

Anambra State had had a woman governor who though was not elected but as a deputy governor, she succeeded her boss who had some political challenges.

At the beginning of this article the assumption was made that many of the inhibitions on the way of women to elected offices are in fact created by them. This may seem rather clumsy to explain. But a clear understanding of the political cleavages in Nigeria will show this. First, many women are less excited in political participation. Second, many need to be prodded. Three, they are never enthusiastic over the candidacy of fellow women.

They vote more than men but always reject their fellow women. This was made manifest during the PDP presidential primaries, Abuja where the only female candidate, Sarah Jubril, received only her vote. She was completely rejected by all the women present.

Men have dominated the scene for too long. There’s need for a change. Egunjobi argues that the gender notions about male and female as “traditional stereotypes” which characterize the woman as submissive passive, talkative and emotional, while men, on the other hand, are seen as competent and independent.

These stereotypes tend to group men and women as belonging to opposite end of bipolar adjectives in which men have desirable qualities while women have undesirable ones…”. The world had witnessed the debilitating effects of this kind of stereotyping in South Africa under apartheid, in the racial division of America, et al.

The falsehood it created opened the eyes of the world. If these are allowed to continue, then the millennium development objectives in our country is, therefore, likely to hit the rock. Let us recall the saying of Martin Luther King (Jr) advice: “Let people be judged by the contents of their brains.” For now a change is bound to come. And a female governor is it, in Delta State.

Mr.  BEN ATU, a political analyst, wrote from Asaba, Delta State.