Akwa Ibom needs more Ranking Senators – Eme Ekaette

The Senator representing Akwa Ibom South, Eme Ekaette spoke extensively with our Editor-in-Chief, Saviour Ekpe on issues of National interest and good governance. She advocated on what she refers to as professional lawmaking instead of the present practice of reward system. Excerpts:

Newsfront: Madam, please could you tell us how you have been able to represent the Senatorial District in the past three years?

Sen. Ekaette: (Laughs) June 5 will make me three years. Well I don’t know what aspect you are interested in. Is it for the state or for the country or… (laughs).

Newsfront: let’s talk of your committee first. You are in charge of Women Affairs and Youth Development. There has always been the problem of men victimizing women, especially those whose husbands have died. What has your committee done in order to tame the tide of victimization among women?

Sen. Ekaette: Well, I believe what you are trying to talk about the malpractices in widowhood. If that is the case, you know what the whole issue is. It is cultural issue, so all that’s need done is advocacy. So we have liaised with NGOs that deal with these particular issues. Especially those things that are only practiced in the Southern part of the Country, because in the North, the religion is very clear. The Koran makes provision for the wives and the children, so they don’t face this problem. They know that if their husband is dead, 10% of his wealth is for the wife and the girls will have at least 5% each, the rest are for the sons. So the Northerners don’t have that problem but it is common in the South. It becomes a cultural issue where either the woman is made to marry the younger brother of the late husband which to me is an abomination or the family comes in and takes everything. This man had a family nobody cares to talk about but all that they care for is first about the property of the deceased. And the key thing we notice is that when the woman dies, no one cares but if the man dies, the wife would be accused that she is the one that killed the man. So, it is a big problem. We’ve gone into a lot of advocacies in order to sensitize our people on this issue. You know when people talk about Committee; it has no funding in the senate. We only raise money to be able to do what we want as a Committee. We are not like the ministry, we don’t’ have money. If they are going for advocacy, I join them in going to talk to the people to say look, give these women a chance for them to be able to pick up their life after the loss of their loved ones, because when you loss your husband, it is a big part of you that is gone. The Committee has done a lot of advocacies. You will ask me about the law; you cannot legislate on traditional matters, so it is quite difficult for you to talk of legislation.  How are you going to apply it, if my grandfather was doing something and I as the son inherited it and you want me to leave what my grandfather did, that is the kind of argument we have gone into. Widowhood is an experience that is very painful. To me I don’t see why more pains could be meted on fellow humans even after the exit of her loved one.

Newsfront: There are so many NGOs that cater for these women but most of these donor agencies do not have access to them. How do you intend to create way for them to access information?

Sen. Ekaette: Well, I think I have spoken to a few of them, there are certain processes. One, they have to register with Corporate Affairs Commission, so they become legal then the relevant Ministry of Women Affairs here in the State and Abuja and Ministry of Labour. If the donor agencies are coming, they will go to these ministries to say, do you know these NGO? The reason is that they are going to fund it and you know if a donor gives you money, you must account for the last kobo and that is the crucial matter. This money is not a bonus; it is not a political matter, you must account to the last money that was given to you and accountability is very important. That is what the Westerners are doing. You know, every year, they have what they call the status of the woman in the UN. Most of those running the NGO will pay their way to the UN to register in the NGO section, because when the international body sees your record, if what you file for registration is good enough, they can call you even without talking to you when they have read your papers. What is crucial is accountability, proper record keeping and whatever you can do in terns of the activities that you will list as part of your profit.

Newsfront: As the first female Senator from Akwa Ibom State and the only one for now, what will you say are your contributions in the National Assembly?

Sen. Ekaette: You notice that even before people talk about bills, I was one of those who sponsored a bill that is synonymous with my name, even though the human right people fought it to a standstill but it is alive, talking about the nudity bill. Because I had a lot of concern having been given this Committee of Women Affairs that they had so many cases of rape in the country everywhere and to my mind, I felt that our mode of dressing contributes to it. That was one problem. Two, if you pick up some of the Newspapers, you will find out that our women walk naked and they call it fashion. Either their breasts or legs or other sensitive parts of a woman are exposed. This is not our tradition. I was born into a covered society where an African woman is covered. We are not the whites, so I went out with that bill, I knew that I will have problems but I pushed it through. I’m happy that I did what I did because today if you go to most of our Universities, you will find them with proper dressing. I accused University leadership and the banks, though they almost fought me to a standstill and it was true because if the girls are naked on the campuses, you know what can happen to them. I accused the banks, they were using them and almost turning them into prostitutes and they were wearing thing that normally they would not like to wear but in the cause of their job, they were wearing it and then I even accused the church because when I was growing up, if you wear something bad or you don’t cover your head as a woman, you can never be allowed into the church but today, people can wear anything and walk into the church. I believe in that bill and I am still talking about it that we need to go back to where we were before “civilization” came. Let me say a bit about my activities in the Senate, I have personally sponsored and co-sponsored some Bills. In the National Assembly, you can sponsor individual bills, you can also sponsor bills and motion and I can claim the health bill as one of those that I co-sponsored, environment bill, the electoral bill and I’m part of it, so I co-sponsored it. There are bills on tobacco, we are dealing on it now, the critical part of the legislation is being heard on the floor.I have been able to do that and I don’t know what else I would have done talking about proper representation. People have misunderstood what the legislation is all about. Allow me to explain that the legislature does not control a single kobo in terms of votes. We live on our allowances and salaries, eventhough we make the budget. Even my constituency budget that is given to me for constituency projects is administered by the executives. So, I don’t have the money, the contractor might not be my person but what is critical to me is that the exercise is carried out in my constituency. If we set things right, they will know we don’t have that level of money.

Newsfront: The second term thing is fast gathering momentum and you are equally aspiring to re-contest. What is in the second term and why are you going back?

Sen. Ekaette: Well, you are only talking about second term, if you look at the history of the greatest democracy in this world, which is America, the legislation is a profession. Kelly, 36 years, Kenedy, 42 years, because it is a profession. Here, we see it as a reward and not a profession and this is for the interest of the state not necessarily for Sen. Eme Ekaette because I am a Senator today. For you to be any think in the National Assembly, you must be what they call a ranking Senator. You cannot be ranked until you are there. Look at all the principal offices, those people you see in front, those are the administrators. It is what they decide that they bring to us. Some of us are at the back because we just came into the Senate. As you repeat you keep going up. All those people you see, except maybe Cross River, are third timers. My Senate President is a third timer so the longer you stay in the administration of the senate, the better for the state, maybe for an individual but that is not the issue. This Eket Senatorial District or Akwa Ibom South as it is called and known by the constitution, people before me had done two terms starting from the Late Sen. Victor Akan, Oron Federal Constituency, Ikot Abasi Federal Constituency, Udoma, completed his two terms, Eket Federal Constituency, why should I be the exception? So that is why I put myself and l am going back. Apart from that, for the state, you need ranking Senators. These are the people who can have the sensitive committees that will impact back on the people, not that when you come as a fresher, they give you vice chairman on labour, because that is what you deserve as a state, when you keep changing your legislators. So the sooner we take legislation as profession and not a reward system, the better for the senatorial district or federal constituency or even the state. If you sit with an American Senator, you will understand the merit of allowing them to stay. They speak better in terms of knowledge than even their president. If you notice, when the American president has tough problems, he does not go himself, he sends senators. A senator comes out like this, you have been hearing his name all these years, you must listen no matter whether you are the president of not even Africa, Europe, Asia because they go there and do the work for the country but here we have somebody after four years, the person returns home with all the trainings, all the contributions, I think we have to look back at what we are doing. I have offered myself and I believe that I should be there not because I am Sen. Ekaette, I think I have done what the constitution says I should do in terms of representation on the floor to my people, to my state and to my country.

Newsfront: What about this idealogy, adia akemo ama, yak aka ndien?

Sen. Ekaette: (Cuts in) that is why I am telling you that is a reward system.

Newsfront: How do you resolve it?

Sen. Ekaette: I think it is the people who should decide whether they want the reward system or they want proper representation. I cannot decide that: adia akemo ama, yak aka ndien is not a phrase (laughs).

Newsfront: How do you see the development in the state vis-à-vis the activities of the state Governor, Chief Godswill Akpabio?

Sen. Ekaette: I am one of his strongest supporters. I give you a story; some time about six years ago, I visited this state with the wife of the president and some women from Abuja. We went through Uyo, Ini and we came back. When we entered the plane, do you know what I heard? “Oh, it looks as if we were coming from Onitsha”, because the place was dirty. Today, whether you like it or not Akwa Ibom is a construction site and it is developing and there is nothing else. People who visit this state of recent are surprise and some of them remark that Akwa Ibom state can be compared with any other states of the federation and so it is what you bring out is what people will see. I know that most of the meetings today in Abuja, people talk of coming to Akwa Ibom. We have good hotels, we have good roads, we have light better than Abuja. For me, the best thing is continuity so that the man can finish what he has started because it is his brainchild, he started it, so he knows what he is looking up to, if he finishes and the state still finds him worthy he can go back. As far as I am concerned, it should be mandatory for every Akwa Ibomite to vote for him.

Newsfront: Do you see any ethnic problem in this administration?

Sen. Ekaette: You know some of these things are so superficial.  I am an Ibibio person, I don’t know the way we are seeing the ethnic thing? I don’t believe that governance should be based on ethnicity. I don’t believe in it. Governance should be based in performance. I don’t even want to be part of people that say it is ethnicity that is ruling the state, people who shifted it must have taught about it before they had the power shift so why are we now knocking the walls on a decision that was taken generally. I don’t know.

Newsfront: As 2011 election gather momentum, what will be your advice to the people of Akwa Ibom State?

Sen. Ekaette: Thank you very much. Even when I went on television the other day and I said to them, cast your vote properly, and make your vote to be useful. I do not encourage violence. I have never played politics of violence, I have never played politics of blackmail, I always play politics of substance. ?

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