Right from the onset, during the time of creation as recorded in the Holy Bible, God saw that man would be incomplete without a woman and proceeded as a matter of urgent necessity to create a woman and certainly no sound mind would recommend that government of any society should jettison the involvement of the female gender and be expected to go scot-free. It is not my primary intention to exponentially dwell much on the relevance of women in our society but to narrow my thematic preoccupation to the essence of giving our women the sensitive chance of navigating the ship our government and how Ifeanyi Lawrence Ugwuanyi, the executive governor of ENUGU State has relentlessly continued to exhaust the options at his disposal to ensure that women are given ample opportunities in his administrative machinery.
As well known by those that are aware of the nitty gritty of Nigerian government, it has been recommended and endorsed that in order to encourage and empower our women to participate in driving our nascent democracy, that a minimum of thirty-five percent positions should be reserved for the women. This is due to the reality from the psychological perspective that most of our women are ordinarily scared of the field of politics which is the water from where our political leaders are drawn from due to the possibility of violence and scandals that characterize the game. Also identified as one of the major factors that put off our women from serious involvement is the prevalence of male chauvenism but to the person of Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi for resisting the temptation of downplaying on the importance of the roles of women in the government.
Right from the time AB INITIO, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi in setting out for the governorship race of ENUGU State, decided to select a woman of substance in the person Hon.Mrs. Cecilia Ezeilo as his running mate; a step that did not just go down well with the womenfolk but indicated how determined Gburu Gburu was to implement the thirty-five percent affirmative action on women inclusiveness . Of course, such decision in so many directions doused the tensions associated with gender discrimination with regards to government and simultaneously served as a pointer to the women of ENUGU State that they are welcome in the loop of governance of course without further prompting a lot of women across the seventeen local government councils of the state joined the race and faced the electioneering challenges and today most of them are yet to be disappointed or disappointing.
In keeping to his promise of including women in his government, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi ensured that women were randomly positioned in the three arms of the government; appointing the first female chief judge of ENUGU State in the person of Chief Justice Ngozi Presilia Emehelu while supporting the emergence of Hon. Mrs Jane Eneh as the chief whip of Enugu State House of Assembly with Hon. Mrs Ethel Ugwuanyi functioning as the assistant chief whip of the house. It is worthy of mention that Hon. Mrs. Jane Eneh representing Awgu South State Constituency selected about fifty-three Personal Assistants from both Awgu South and North and placed them in her payroll. What else do we call empowerment? At the executive arm, Gburu Gburu did not hesitate to appoint two female commissioners;Hon.Mrs. Adaonah-Kene- Uyanwune to be in charge of the Finance Ministry and Hon. Mrs. Mabel Agbo to man Special Duties and their performance is nothing less than sterling. For such predisposition, the governor and the good people of ENUGU State will remain grateful with the women inclusiveness in the government as they have disappointed those critics that are cynical and pessimistic about women participation in government. I stand to be corrected but I know that others might have promised but Ifeanyi Lawrence Ugwuanyi as a quick fix at our doorsteps is delivering.
CETERIS PARIBUS, in the words of the classic philosopher, Aristotle” we are what we repeatedly do. Excellence is therefore not an act but a habit.” So, it is my honour to encourage the governor not to back down but to continue his good work by appointing more resourceful and substantial women into sensitive positions as the experiment conducted has not resulted into any regrettable outputs. We say more power to your elbow.
ENUGU STATE IS IN THE HANDS OF GOD.
HON. MRS. BIBIAN ANEKWE.
ENUGU DI N’AKA CHUKWU MOVEMENT (DG.)
