ExpdonaLoaded.blogspot.com (+2348097205188): Expdonaloaded News; Women in politics must have lion’s heart

SHE is the Minority Leader of Ebonyi State House of Assembly, representing Afikpo North East at the Assembly. Before venturing into politics, Hon. Maria Ude Nwachi was a US-based entrepreneur. She was elected on the platform of the Progressives People’s Alliance (PPA) due to her popularity as a philanthropist. In this interview, Mrs. Nwachi said that she derived joy from helping humanity, even at her own expense. She also spoke on various issues.

Coming from your background as a politician, what do you consider to be the greatest hindrance against Nigerian women?
The greatest hindrance to women in Africa in general is that the continent is not gender-friendly. Having told you, what I do, in my heart, I pretend or make myself think I’m a man, in my heart not outwardly. I’ve realised that in this life, if you make yourself relevant, whether anybody likes it or not, you will be relevant.
So, I do things that make me very relevant. So, what I will tell women, especially when it comes to politics, it’s not a pity-party; it’s not about crying. Men would not, because you are a woman deny themselves and not build mansions, date beautiful girls, keep excess money in their bank accounts; they would not deny themselves of that; so, you’d better act like men and start marking them.
Don’t go and cry, that’s what I tell them because this in country, there is nothing legal preventing women and most of the time there is no legal protection for the women like America or the civilised world. So, whatever it is that hinders us, a woman has to please get over it. People like me, I’m going to do my best to encourage women and to help women but there is only so much anybody can do. Women must emulate excellence, women must have the heart of men. If you see something wrong in your community, you help and do it.
Once you do it, people will appreciate you and before you know it, they start automatically putting you in the same position as the men. With my current position, I’m going to mentor a lot of women, I’m going to teach a lot of women how to survive in a culture like Nigeria.
The number of women in the Assembly is small and even so, you are from a minority party and you are the Minority Leader; do you feel intimidated in the House?
No, absolutely not. I never feel intimidated in this life no matter where I am. I never ever feel intimidated. I tend to have the heart of men, I copy you men, I don’t know whether it is pretence. I just make myself in my heart, think that I’m a man, and then I forget that I should be intimidated. That’s actually what it is. I’m trying to copy you men or something and it helps me not being intimidated.
Being a minority leader in a House with PDP lawmakers as majority, you don’t feel any sense of insecurity?
Not at all, I don’t even know that I’m a minority leader there. I’m getting along with them because I’m a friend of humanity, I’m a humanist. So, you would never know, when you see me with my colleagues, you will think I’m PDP. I don’t know the difference between them and I. I’m there to represent my people; I’m not interested in the politics of the House. I’m not interested in it at all; I’ve nothing in it for me. I’m not there to share money; I’m not there to argue over things that are not significant. I’m thinking of the best way to prove a point to the world, to prove to the world that if elected officials do what they are supposed to do, Nigeria will be getting closer to being a civilized world. That’s what I’m there for.
What do you think motivated your people to vote for you and your minority party, PPA?
It is just my life, my character; they know me very welL. I cannot eat if they don’t eat, if I’ve been saving all the money I made in this life, there is hardly anybody in this town that will be richer than me, but I don’t. I spend about 50 percent of the money I make on my people, anyone around me. It just happened that Afikpo people are more around me because I love my town so deadly much that I can die for my town. Even if I’m not in Afikpo, any one around me will benefit because that’s just my life, that’s just my character that is inborn.
About one month after your inauguration, you are embarking on projects even when you have not received salary or any allowance, what is the magic?
Well, money has not been approved for us please and it is very, very important that this is mentioned because most people are now attacking some of their legislators saying Maria is working and you guys are not working. I sourced my own fund because I normally carry out projects in my town as little as I can. Government has helped me, being in government now has aided me in even making life easier for my people because I can easily acquire things easier for the fact that I’m in government. I sourced funds on my own and I was able to start work immediately because there was a lot of damage done especially in my town. It’s not as if there are no elected officials, I don’t know why a legislator would not lift a hand to help. I’m not even talking about chairmen who all they do is spend money doing office, doing direct labour, spend billions and you can’t see what they did. I’m not even talking about them. What about the legislator that makes some good money, build house, build plazas, buys a lot of cars and yet nothing at all, no legacy. This is because to me in this life, there is nothing more important than legacy. For example, I built this house years ago when Igbo men were building houses in Lagos, Abuja and all that and Afikpo men anytime they make money, they will go and build in Lagos, Abuja. When I was building it, people were mocking me, how can you put something this beautiful in this place; you won’t make any money and I told them this is a legacy and its worth more than money to me. It’s my piece of mind, it’s my life; I need my town to have that thing they have abroad. But today, look around you, you see the buildings being put up by Afikpo boys, it’s partly because of me. Now, if they make any money in this town, straight to Afikpo, they are now building industries, this (her palatial building) is the inspiration. That’s what legacy is about; you trust legacy and a lot of things follow. So, that is the reason I had to source money right away because I’m building a legacy, I want the whole world to see that Nigerians are not all about grab, grab, grab; that there are some that do work and want to work.
What are the projects you have done or embarked upon within your first 30 days as a lawmaker?
At the moment, there is an emergency road in Mater. Mater is a very popular hospital and people from a town as far as Okigwe (Imo state) and other towns in Ebonyi South zone patronise. But there is an erosion gully which has broken the road into half literally and constitute a death trap. Once I saw it, it had to be done and I gave away the contract immediately. It was worth N5million. I gave out the contract to a young civil engineer to do the job, and the man is from Ikwo local government area.
Again, there is a toilet project. We have a market, Eke Market, which again is the largest market around this area where other people from other constituencies come to do buying and selling. The toilet in that market is completely dilapidated. I took some journalists there and they saw it; it looked like 13 century toilet and I looked at it and something came into my head. I want to give Afikpo people a sample of America, a sample of civilized world. So, I’m putting up a N45million state-of-the-art world class toilet within Eke market.
I also learnt you brought light to Afikpo, how did you do that?
Well, during the December period, normally whenever there was black out in Afikpo, I would do whatever I could, pay in some money and restore whatever damage that is there. But there was one I fixed in December because the outage was a bit too long, the blackout lasted almost four months, so my people were just dying. They became hopeless thinking that they would not enjoy light during the December period. So, I couldn’t take it and I was broke because it was during election, and you know this election I had no God father, I had no anything; you know, I’m an orphan. And I don’t have sugar daddy, no rich husband that will give me money. So, I was broke throughout the election but I had small money that December and I looked at the situation and I was like damn this election, I just took the money I had, went to PHCN and asked what will it take to give Afikpo people light and this light goes to Edda and Okposi in Ohaozara, literally the whole Southern part of the state. And I thought about it and I said Maria, election or no election, go and take that money and pay for the light. I went and took all the money I had and when they mentioned how much it was, I happened to have just something like that, even N50,000 extra. I was broke while people were eating rice; I was smiling because I didn’t have any money on me. That’s what happened, people were very happy, they made a great deal of it, you would think I invented electricity the way people were acting.