Women Are Enemies To Themselves In Politics….Bianca Ojukwu

By Benard Akoma, 20/03/25

Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu has heaped the blame for the poor representation of women in politics on women themselves.

Odumegwu-Ojukwu stated these at the Nigerian Women’s Day on the sidelines of the just held 69th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women at the United Nations headquarters in New York, United States of America.

 The minister acknowledged the fact that women go through a lot while seeking political opportunities but regretted that sometimes, the limitations that women have are caused by women themselves.

 According to her, women have relegated themselves in African societies to just being praise singers, they form musical groups and applause for men who are going into political office, but when women want to go into office, it is hard to get women to vote for them, She lamented.

According to a release by Magnus Eze, Special Assistant on Communication and New Media to the honourable minister, Mrs Ojukwu stated this during her contributions in a panel discussion on the topic: “30 Years of Progress, Resilience, Impact and Renewed Hope,” presented by the Minister of Women Affairs, Imaan Sulaiman-Ibrahim.”

 While commending the First Lady, Senator Oluremi Tinubu for making the historic event possible, the minister of state for foreign Affairs stated that women need to change their attitude if they must go far in politics.

Her words; “I think what we need to do is to start changing that mindset, we have to also appreciate the fact that in other societies, when you have political parties in other societies be it in the Consecutive Party, in the Labour Party, in the Republican Party, in the Democratic Party, you don’t have women leaders but in African political parties, you need to have women leaders yet you don’t have men leaders. And what that says is that we have accepted that we are a segment that needs always to be carried along and I think that mindset needs to change,” the minister affirmed.

While decrying the huddles faced by women when they seek elective political positions, Mrs Ojukwu pointed out that at such periods, they are either reminded of where they come from or where their spouses hail from.

Apart from the above challenges, the honourable minister observed that one of the biggest challenges women face in life was making money at young age, saying, this could lead to derailment and abandonment of their education.

Using herself as an example, Mrs. Ojukwu who was a one- time beauty queen disclosed that the pageants she had won came with fame and money then, creating the temptation, she said, of wanting to abandone her law programme at the University of Nigeria Enugu Campus.

Hear her; “but the point I’m making is this, one of the hardest things is when you start earning money quite early, the biggest temptation is to leave school.”

Explaining further she stated, “by the time I became a beauty queen, I was earning my own money, I was a law student living in the hostel with about six other students with no water, nothing, and then, going back to school to finish my education as a lawyer was quite challenging.”

Advising the younger ones, she stated, “but mustering the courage to eventually go back to finish my education was one of the best decisions I ever made in my life,” saying, “I think young women need to understand the power of education,” she advised.