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00:01:27Now on BBC News, our in-depth weekly conversation focusing on a
00:01:30a particular topical issue in Africa
00:01:33Africa shaped by opinions that move
00:01:34move and challenge as well as African African experiences that connect
00:01:38connect us all. Focus on Africa.
00:01:40Africa. The conversation. Is. Nigeria
00:01:44Nigeria ready for female leaders?
00:01:47leaders? The majority of Nigerians Nigerians have not gotten to that
00:01:51that place where we vote on the basis
00:01:53basis of character, competence, capacity,
00:01:56capacity, credibility. If these women
00:01:59women are credible enough. Why can't
00:02:01can't they be the frontrunners? Even
00:02:04Even more daring now is that we don't
00:02:06don't even have female deputies any
00:02:09any more. Now we see a lot of man man a man man man man man man man
00:02:13man a man, you know, doing their their thing as governor and deputy
00:02:16deputy governor. The percentage of of women in this country I think
00:02:19think is almost a 5,050% situation,
00:02:21situation, right? So how do we have
00:02:24have half of the population not represented
00:02:27represented in policy conversations?
00:02:37conversations? In January 2027, Nigeria Nigeria will be heading to the polls.
00:02:39polls. But there's one thing still still largely missing from the ballot
00:02:43ballot women. Nigeria has one of
00:02:45of the lowest rates of women's political
00:02:48political representation in the world. world. In fact, women make up less
00:02:52less than 5% of the Members of Parliament.
00:02:55Parliament. So what's stopping women women from taking their place in
00:02:58in Nigeria's political leadership? leadership? And what can be done
00:03:01done to change that? I am Obinna.
00:03:05Obinna. Joining me in studio here
00:03:06here in Lagos is Ufuoma Namdi Udeh
00:03:11Udeh Executive director of Enough Enough is Enough, a civil society
00:03:14society organisation working to promote promote good governance, civic education
00:03:18education and public accountability.
00:03:21accountability. It's great to have have you with us. Thank you. It feels
00:03:24feels good, you know, to have this this conversation about women in
00:03:28in politics, especially now that that we are entering the election
00:03:32election season. We've seen campaigns campaigns have been declared and
00:03:35and we keep seeing women and we've we've seen women political leaders.
00:03:38leaders. You know, some of them say
00:03:41say they are party leaders, party party women leaders, organising women
00:03:44women canvassing for votes, but they they never make it to the ballot.
00:03:48ballot. Tell me what is preventing preventing them? If I would be honest
00:03:51honest with you, I think one of the
00:03:53the foundational barriers is societal
00:03:55societal barrier. Our idea of a leader
00:04:00leader is a man. And so to even break
00:04:04break that mental block in somebody's
00:04:06somebody's head to say that, oh,
00:04:08oh, I want to I want to become an
00:04:12an elected governor. People look look at you like. You know, because
00:04:15because of my line of work, I've I've had people ask me, oh, do you you want to oh, she's not going to
00:04:19to run for office. This one appointed appointed appointed appointments
00:04:22appointments office. And in my head
00:04:25head I'm like. Like, won't you even
00:04:28even ask me Jonathan? So there is is that. I have an opinion. I have
00:04:31have an opinion on it. Right. I can can decide whether or not I want
00:04:34want to run for office. But there's there's already that idea that, oh,
00:04:37oh, a woman will most likely what what makes sense for her is an appointed
00:04:41appointed office or what makes sense
00:04:42sense for her is to be in the background
00:04:46background doing all the political
00:04:48political work, the greets of canvassing, canvassing, organising and making
00:04:51making political rallies look great. great. But she shouldn't be on the
00:04:55the ballot. So there's that societal societal or cultural cultural barrier
00:04:58barrier rather that we have to deal deal with. Then if we take it further,
00:05:02further, then there's the economic economic barrier as well. It's very
00:05:05very expensive to run for elections elections in Nigeria. What do you
00:05:09you think an average cost would be be for a candidate who is probably
00:05:12probably running for the office of of governor? So you see that this
00:05:15this thing is very interesting because because for it's in two folds. First,
00:05:19First, there's the money you have have to spend to get the nomination
00:05:22nomination tickets so political parties parties can cap. So for example,
00:05:25example, ehm, Labour Party set its
00:05:27its presidential forms at 50 million, million, 50 million naira, 50 million
00:05:31million naira. That's about 35 or
00:05:34or $40,000. Yes. Right. Just to secure secure the ticket, the nomination,
00:05:38nomination, the nomination form, form, the nomination form. And that's
00:05:42that's not a guarantee that you that that you're going to be the candidate candidate candidate on the ballot,
00:05:46ballot, right? Because there's then then the politicking that happens
00:05:49happens in internally, right? So So you have the chieftains that you
00:05:52you have to get on your side there there is so to get those chieftains chieftains on your side, and I'm
00:05:56I'm not going to talk about the intricacies intricacies of inter-party or intra intra party politics because I mean,
00:06:00mean, I haven't run for office before, before, right? But from the things things that we've read and we've
00:06:03we've seen, even if you're not paying
00:06:05paying or exchanging money to get
00:06:08get their support, you're going to to have to travel because it's not
00:06:11not just about I mean, if it was was within the states, within your
00:06:15your state, maybe, you know, even even though you will use for to move
00:06:18move from your house to different different meetings at different places,
00:06:20places, many times these meetings meetings happen after dark. And then
00:06:23then you have to think about what what that means for a woman, you
00:06:26you know, so there's all of that that hurdle you have to cross to
00:06:29to even get a nomination ticket. ticket. Then you've gotten the nomination
00:06:33nomination ticket and we would say say political parties would usually
00:06:35usually say that for women, they
00:06:38they do a 50% women and young people, people, they do a 50% waiver. So
00:06:42So instead of paying 40,000 USD,
00:06:44USD, you then pay 20,000, let's say
00:06:47say by some miracle. The woman gets
00:06:50gets the tickets. You know, after after getting the ticket. Then there's
00:06:53there's then the main campaign you
00:06:56you have. So for example, the 2026
00:06:592026 Electoral Act, it does not prescribe prescribe that candidates must spend
00:07:01spend X amount of money. However,
00:07:03However, it gives a ceiling. And
00:07:06And so for a presidential candidate candidate the limit is 10 billion
00:07:10billion naira, 10 billion naira. naira. And I'm saying that multiple multiple times because there's a
00:07:14a way we are desensitised to money
00:07:16money in Nigeria. And so for a woman
00:07:18woman who is already on a normal
00:07:21normal day, women face economic barriers.
00:07:24barriers. If we were earning if we we were in the same office, there's there's chances are excellent that
00:07:28that we're not on the same pay and
00:07:30and all of that. So if we have equal equal aspirations to become president,
00:07:33president, we already don't have have access to the same funds. And
00:07:37And then there's a limit of 10 billion. billion. And you can imagine how
00:07:40how much media spend is. And so I I have to say I don't have that.
00:07:44that. I'm your male counterpart has has it. It doesn't just have it.
00:07:47it. He has structural support, which which is another thing. When you
00:07:50you say structural. Support, what what does that mean? I mean that
00:07:52that people are always willing to to back men than they are to back
00:07:56back women by default by default. default. And I and I think it's also
00:07:59also because we don't think that
00:08:00that she will win. And so it's an
00:08:03an investment. You say it's an investment. investment. So how are those people
00:08:07people hoping to reap their investment? investment? If you are able to spend
00:08:10spend up to 10 billion to put a candidate candidate forward, you want to make
00:08:14make sure that the candidate can can win the election. And it's unfortunate
00:08:18unfortunate that in how we make decisions
00:08:21decisions for who we would, how we we make decisions for who would vote
00:08:25vote for Nigerians have not gotten gotten to that place. The majority
00:08:30majority of Nigerians have not gotten gotten to that place where we vote
00:08:33vote on the basis of character, competence,
00:08:37competence, capacity, credibility. credibility. We haven't gotten there.
00:08:39there. But you. Know, the thing is
00:08:41is you mentioned earlier in this
00:08:43this conversation that women are are always, you know, canvassing
00:08:46canvassing for votes. They do they
00:08:48they go through the grids of forming
00:08:52forming the organisations pushing
00:08:54pushing a primaries or campaigns
00:08:56campaigns and all of that. So if
00:08:59if these women are credible enough.
00:09:02enough. And competent enough to go
00:09:05go to the back end of the work, why
00:09:08why can't they be the front runners?
00:09:11runners? And that's for me is the the question that we. Have to answer
00:09:15answer in Nigeria. But it will interest interest you to know that there was
00:09:18was a research that came out earlier earlier this year. I think it was was the research done. So a lot of
00:09:22of civil society organisations have have done voter intention surveys. surveys. I mean, leading up to the
00:09:26the elections, right. So I'm not not sure if it was, but I think the
00:09:30the research done by the Cocoa Citizen, Citizen, this research, what they they did was they got young people
00:09:34people to get their perception of of the upcoming elections. And one one of the questions that they posed
00:09:38posed to them was, Will you elect
00:09:40elect a female aspirant? And people
00:09:44people said, yes. But in my head
00:09:48head I now said, OK, if young people,
00:09:51people, the majority of eligible
00:09:54eligible voters in Nigeria would would elect a female candidate. So
00:09:57So the data not tell political parties
00:10:01parties that it makes sense to put
00:10:03put forward a credible female candidate.
00:10:06candidate. And then I remembered
00:10:08remembered that what people say and and what people do are two different
00:10:11different two different things. Now Now I've been speaking to Zainab
00:10:15Zainab Buba Galadima. She's a politician
00:10:18politician and social change advocate advocate based in Abuja, Nigeria's
00:10:21Nigeria's capital. She's been telling telling me about her journey and
00:10:25and the challenges she has faced
00:10:27faced along the way. Well, my experience
00:10:31experience is a mix of both. I come
00:10:34come from a family of politics so
00:10:37so sometimes I'm being judged within
00:10:40within the space based on which family
00:10:43family I come from, like who's my
00:10:45my father? But being a woman, it's
00:10:47it's a bit difficult and a bit challenging
00:10:50challenging because it costs a lot. lot. That is the number one challenge
00:10:53challenge women are facing here in in Nigeria, so it's not easy to buy
00:10:56buy the form. It's not easy to do
00:10:59do the logistics, to do the consultations consultations and then to run for
00:11:02for office proper because you have have to pay some agents to guard
00:11:05guard your votes and protect your your votes and make sure that you
00:11:09you know everything is free and fair.
00:11:10fair. So there's a lot of things
00:11:13things financial wise. There is culture
00:11:16culture wise and religious wise because because not everybody would accept
00:11:20accept a woman being in a position
00:11:22position of power. So that is something
00:11:24something that a lot of women face, face, especially in the remote in,
00:11:28in, in the core north. Because if
00:11:30if a woman sometimes comes out, a a lot of scholars, religious scholars
00:11:34scholars go to mosques and, you know, know, preach against it, do not vote
00:11:37vote for a woman. She's she's a weakling
00:11:39weakling and stuff like that. And
00:11:42And there's this thing about like like lack of mentorship. So a lot
00:11:46lot of women and also young people people as well, they do not have
00:11:49have the right mentorship. People People mistake mentorship for godfatherism.
00:11:53godfatherism. So there's that difference. difference. Being mentored is, you
00:11:56you know, being guided and being being put on the way to be able to
00:11:58to achieve your dreams in politics.
00:12:01politics. But the godfatherism is is a bit more complicated as much
00:12:05much as they put you, they guide guide you. They also invest money
00:12:08money in you and they expect something something in return. So you find
00:12:12find out that anybody that wins election election through that means they
00:12:16they do not have a mind of their
00:12:18their own. Most of the time they're
00:12:20they're being controlled by another another person and they hardly make
00:12:23make a difference because they are
00:12:25are paying back. You know, royalties
00:12:29royalties to their godfathers. So
00:12:30So there are so many issues going
00:12:33going on and most women are being being called names being in politics,
00:12:36politics, you know, like the culture
00:12:39culture wise doesn't really support,
00:12:42support, you know, women like that that in that sense. So for example,
00:12:45example, if you are married with with children, it's a bit difficult
00:12:49difficult for you because you have have to you have to attend to the
00:12:52the home, you have to do some wifely wifely duties. Basically, they really
00:12:55really want you to be that stay at at home, you know, wife and, you
00:12:59you know, perform, you know, accidentally accidentally like a robot. So they
00:13:02they find it difficult sometimes sometimes to accept the fact that that you're going places, you're
00:13:06you're breaking ceilings. They really really find it difficult. But they
00:13:09they are. But people are beginning beginning to, you know, accept the
00:13:13the fact that women, if you find
00:13:15find women of value, women of capacity,
00:13:18capacity, they do perform better better than the men. But the issue
00:13:21issue is how do you get there? So So getting there requires financial
00:13:25financial muscle. It requires mentorship. mentorship. It requires so many things
00:13:28things that will enable you to be be able to achieve that. You know,
00:13:32know, speaking of the method of selecting selecting candidates for parties,
00:13:35parties, I remember clearly the then
00:13:38then leading leading party, which which was the People's Democratic
00:13:41Democratic Party, who is now in opposition.
00:13:45opposition. There was a primaries primaries where there was a female
00:13:48female presidential candidate called
00:13:51called Sarah Jibril, and during that
00:13:54that primaries, the selection to
00:13:56to be a candidate, she was the only
00:13:59only one. She got only one vote. And that was her own vote.
00:14:02vote. And it was her vote. And there
00:14:06there were women who were delegates, delegates, as you have explained,
00:14:09explained, using the delegates to to select who would be the candidates.
00:14:13candidates. So I sat down thinking thinking back and saying to myself,
00:14:16myself, does it mean even the women
00:14:19women who were in that political political party who were assigned
00:14:22assigned as delegates did not also
00:14:25also see the competence in another
00:14:27another woman being the presidential presidential candidate for the party? party? Well. Maybe they just didn't
00:14:31didn't find her credible enough.
00:14:32enough. All of them, which is interesting.
00:14:37interesting. Interestingly, many
00:14:38many of the agencies or the parastatals
00:14:41parastatals of government that have
00:14:43have done well have been headed by
00:14:46by women. Exactly. Because I remember
00:14:48remember a. Few a few of these. And
00:14:51And I remember the late Dora Akunyili, Akunyili, who was the head of the
00:14:54the Drug and Food and Administration Administration Control Agency. I
00:14:57I remember all bears who was a minister
00:15:00minister at some point and was nicknamed nicknamed Madam Due Process because
00:15:04because of how, you know, she follows follows due process basically as
00:15:07as her name says, and a few women
00:15:10women also have, you know, held very
00:15:13very high estimable offices, but
00:15:16but yet it baffles me that these
00:15:19these women do not now translate
00:15:22translate into properly, democratically
00:15:24democratically elected offices. You You know, from their constituents.
00:15:27constituents. And then I'm wondering wondering where's the disconnect?
00:15:30disconnect? I think that a lot of
00:15:32of it is beyond the internal party
00:15:34party structures. It's also where where we are citizens. And I don't
00:15:38don't think it's OK for us to put put all the blame on I mean, political
00:15:41political parties and all of that.
00:15:43that. I feel like I agree that they they have their issues, but I think
00:15:47think it's also where we are as citizens. citizens. So for example, there's
00:15:51there's currently a bill in the National National Assembly that's put forward
00:15:54forward for reserved seats for women.
00:15:56women. And I mean, there are different different perspectives to that bill.
00:16:00bill. I also have like my own perspectives
00:16:03perspectives around the bill, but but large and by and large, the goal
00:16:05goal of the bill is to get more women
00:16:09women into representative offices.
00:16:11offices. Right? How many Nigerians
00:16:14Nigerians I'm not talking about civil
00:16:16civil society. I'm not talking about
00:16:19about I'm not talking about policy policy politicians or I'm talking
00:16:22talking about how many Nigerians
00:16:24Nigerians in terms of private sector sector leaders, regular Nigerians
00:16:28Nigerians have put their weight behind
00:16:30behind that bill. How many Nigerians
00:16:33Nigerians have called their lawmakers lawmakers to say this is a good thing?
00:16:36thing? We need to get this done.
00:16:40done. That's how laws should be passed. passed. It's not just about some
00:16:42some people sitting down in the National National Assembly and deliberating.
00:16:45deliberating. They're deliberating deliberating on our behalf. And so
00:16:48so there must be the place where
00:16:51where you are my lawmaker. We put put pressure on you to say this thing thing is important. But the thing
00:16:55thing is, I've also heard especially especially young people. I've also
00:16:57also heard young people say, look, look, our lawmakers are very there's
00:17:01there's a disconnect right from our
00:17:04our lawmakers are not approachable. approachable. They are not reachable
00:17:07reachable because we only see them them when during elections. So what
00:17:10what do we do? So what do we do.
00:17:11do. Next? Elections should also be
00:17:15be consequences. Lawmakers are also also supposed to have constituency
00:17:19constituency offices meaning in their their own constituency, right? Meaning
00:17:22Meaning that we should be able to to walk up to our lawmakers office
00:17:25office to drop a complaint and follow
00:17:27follow up, advocate for representative
00:17:30representative bills like the reserved reserved seat bill because now that's
00:17:33that's when you need critical mass mass of people to flood the lawmakers
00:17:37lawmakers emails, phone numbers everywhere. everywhere. His office, everywhere
00:17:40everywhere you see him, his legislative legislative aide to say this is important
00:17:44important to us. This is important important to us. You we need to get
00:17:48get more women into office. And why
00:17:49why do we need more women into office?
00:17:52office? Nigeria is not just we. The The percentage of women in this country,
00:17:55country, I think is almost a 5,050%
00:17:575,050% situation. Right? Right. So
00:17:59So how do we have half of the population
00:18:03population not represented in policy policy conversations? And so when
00:18:05when we are talking about how maternal maternal health crisis is increasing,
00:18:08increasing, we're talking about the the state of our education. We're
00:18:11We're talking about our the state state of our economy. It would be
00:18:14be interesting to note that in pre-colonial
00:18:18pre-colonial societies, the economy economy was usually controlled by
00:18:22by women. Till today we still have
00:18:23have what we call your alogia. Yeah.
00:18:26Yeah. The head of the head of the the market women. Why don't we have
00:18:29have Baba Alogia and that's Yoruba,
00:18:34Yoruba, right? Other tribes have have that and that's even the same
00:18:37same if you even go across other other like African countries, you
00:18:40you see that there is that thing thing where when it comes to markets,
00:18:44markets, commerce, women usually usually would control that. It was
00:18:47was not a situation where we thought thought that, oh, a man cannot do
00:18:49do it. But I think that it was a
00:18:52a situation where we said, oh, this
00:18:54this is what men do. This is what
00:18:57what women do. It's not you, you
00:18:59you can't do this. I can't do this.
00:19:01this. It's understanding that what
00:19:03what happened to it. What happened
00:19:06happened to it? But I have also heard heard political analysts say, you
00:19:10you know what? This younger generation
00:19:12generation of women are not audacious
00:19:15audacious enough to run for office office like the Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti
00:19:19Ransome-Kuti of that time, the Margaret Margaret echoes of that time. What
00:19:22What does the data say? It's not
00:19:25not about audacity. It's about models models that we've given. The younger
00:19:29younger generation. It's about what
00:19:31what young women grow up seeing that,
00:19:33that, oh, a woman can aspire to be
00:19:36be deputy governor, but she must must never aspire to be the main
00:19:40main ticket holder. Even more daring
00:19:42daring now is that we don't even
00:19:44even have female deputies any more,
00:19:47more, as we used to when I was growing
00:19:49growing up. Right now we see a lot lot of man a man, man a man, man
00:19:53man man man, a man, you know, doing doing their thing as governor and
00:19:57and deputy governor. Are you saying
00:20:00saying that in your political party party there is no credible woman
00:20:04woman that can deputise you or there there is no credible woman that can
00:20:07can even be the main ticket holder? holder? Is that thing from where
00:20:11where we are small where if you wanted
00:20:14wanted to be a class captain, they they will say that the guy is the
00:20:17the class captain and the girl is is the assistant class captain. When
00:20:21When you go to church, the head of of the department is a man and the
00:20:24the assistant is a woman because
00:20:25because a woman is good at managing
00:20:28managing things and doing the administrative administrative side of things. But
00:20:31But a man is good in leadership.
00:20:37leadership. And then when they you you have women that even dare to
00:20:40to dream. What does society do to to them? Right? OK. At this point
00:20:44point of time, I have to ask you
00:20:47you plain and simple is Nigeria ready
00:20:52ready for female leaders at the helm
00:20:55helm of affairs? What is what you
00:20:57you see? Many young people say many.
00:21:00many. Sensible well-meaning young young people is I mean, the point
00:21:04point is not about a personality.
00:21:07personality. So and if you strip strip out personality, it means you
00:21:10you also strip out gender, right? I understand what you're saying.
00:21:13saying. What are you looking. Out Out for? Is the person credible, credible, a person competent? What's
00:21:17What's the person's track record? record? You know, what is the person's
00:21:20person's plan, aspiration for the the country and what is how prepared
00:21:24prepared are they to even carry it it out? You know, those are the things
00:21:27things that young people say that that they look out for in a leader.
00:21:30leader. OK. But you see, the thing
00:21:33thing is you've given us a perspective
00:21:36perspective as to the traditional traditional society, you know, expectations
00:21:40expectations of women, men's roles, roles, women's roles, women should
00:21:43should always be subordinate to men.
00:21:46men. But we have seen that in climes
00:21:48climes like Rwanda, for instance,
00:21:51instance, that has the highest female
00:21:54female participation representation representation in, in parliament,
00:21:57parliament, Rwanda is also a traditional traditional African society. And
00:22:01And yet Nigeria that is one of the
00:22:03the biggest democracies in on the
00:22:06the continent, has 5% of women to
00:22:08to the. Affirmative action that they
00:22:11they had. Right. And it was a it
00:22:14it was more of a like a top down
00:22:16down approach as well. So it wasn't wasn't just people. So there's the
00:22:19the place of the demand for it where
00:22:22where citizens are saying that we we want this. So if there is a bill
00:22:26bill on the table, citizens are aware aware of it. They are pushing for
00:22:29for it as well. But then there was was also the place of we see the
00:22:32the benefit of having more women
00:22:34women in power. You know, and so
00:22:37so because of that, we're not just
00:22:39just having he forces for media fraternity
00:22:44fraternity or having he forces because because I think it's great for their
00:22:47their campaign, right? Because they they know that, oh, women will come come out to vote and women will canvass
00:22:51canvass for them to win. Now that that it's in a position to do something,
00:22:55something, the process has stalled.
00:22:57stalled. You see, I say elect me. me. Now when I get back into office,
00:23:00office, I'll make sure it happens. happens. Really? Do you see what what I mean? What I'm trying to say
00:23:04say is that for my understanding understanding with the Rwanda situation,
00:23:07situation, it's not just that they
00:23:09they did an affirmative action. There
00:23:12There was commitment from critical critical stakeholders. So not just
00:23:15just men. Now I'm talking about people
00:23:18people in the executive, people in in Parliament to make this happen.
00:23:21happen. So in this case. Now, do
00:23:22do you think there is no commitment
00:23:25commitment from Nigeria's stakeholders stakeholders to make the 35% affirmative
00:23:28affirmative action happen? I think
00:23:32think that there is no the commitment. commitment. Is it hasn't translated.
00:23:36translated. That's what I think. think. So we the thing. Is, we sent
00:23:40sent out word to our our audience
00:23:43audience to say we're going to have have this conversation about women
00:23:46women getting active in politics politics and and ending up on the
00:23:50the ballot for real. And we had quite
00:23:55quite a few responses. Right. OK. OK. So our first question here says,
00:23:58says, could the decline of third
00:24:00third spaces also be a reason why
00:24:03why women are not encouraged to participate
00:24:06participate in and become candidates? candidates? Well, I mean, that's
00:24:08that's very tied to the financial financial situation barrier that that we talked about or the economic
00:24:12economic barrier we talked about about earlier. But I think that there there are other there, there there
00:24:16there are other ways to mitigate mitigate that. You know, you don't
00:24:19don't have to always do a physical physical and physical engagements.
00:24:22engagements. And that's why that's that's the power of digital organising. organising. What digital organising
00:24:26organising helps you do. It helps helps you amplify. You could be doing
00:24:29doing so you could have done a very very small outreach, but it did. did. But digital organising would
00:24:33would help you amplify it and make make it larger than life. I also
00:24:37also think that for every opportunity
00:24:39opportunity where young women have have to engage with their constituents
00:24:43constituents for every opportunity, opportunity, they have to engage
00:24:45engage with them, they should show show them an alternative to politics,
00:24:49politics, right? An alternative whereby
00:24:51whereby we are leading by it's about
00:24:53about 70 to humanity and to that
00:24:55that I think is is best in the long long run. I don't think that the
00:24:59the absence or the cost of it is is I think it's a barrier. I agree,
00:25:02agree, but I think that there are are ways that the innovative ways
00:25:05ways to move around it as well. Yeah.
00:25:07Yeah. Before I let you go, are. You
00:25:09You going to run for political office?
00:25:13office? Maybe it's not it's. Not Not an aspiration that I currently
00:25:16currently have. Thank you so much
00:25:19much for joining me today on The The Conversation. It's been a great
00:25:23great chat talking about women getting
00:25:25getting into politics and being candidates,
00:25:27candidates, ending up on the ballot ballot and instead of just being
00:25:31being back end organisers. And that's that's it on focus on Africa. The
00:25:34The conversation today coming to to you from Lagos, Nigeria. Now you
00:25:38you can find more episodes of our our podcast on our YouTube channel.
00:25:42channel. And don't forget to subscribe
00:25:44subscribe to BBC Africa to get the the latest content and above all,
00:25:48all, be a member of the family. Also
00:25:50Also leave a comment on our socials socials at BBC Africa on my handle
00:25:54handle at. I am on Chi Chi Izundu Izundu and that's with double N and
00:25:58and I'm yours truly. I'll catch you.
00:26:00you. I'll see you next time.
00:29:40MUSIC
00:30:13Live from London. This is BBC
00:30:16News. President Zelensky welcomes
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00:30:53distress. Manchester City win 3-0
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