INTERVIEW WITH AMBASSADOR NKOYO TOYO
Intro:
Ambassador
Nkoyo Toyo is a torch bearer and an outstanding female politician in
Nigeria. Currently, the CEO of Green Money Initiative of Gov Ayade of
Cross River State, She is a former Nigerian Ambassador to Ethiopia and
Djibouti and also served as the Permanent Representative to the African
Union (AU), Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and Peace and Security
Council (PSC). She is also a former member, House of Representatives
and represented Calabar-Odukpani Federal Constituency and has served as
a Board member of several international and national organisations.
A
great campaigner for the advancement and empowerment of women and
girls, Ambassador Nkoyo Toyo stands out in numerous endeavors geared
towards enabling better livelihoods especially for the poor, women and
youths in the society.
In
this interview with GLOBAL ACHIEVERS in Nigeria, Ambassador Nkoyo Toyo
relives memories of her childhood years and shares stories of her
successes and some setbacks in the course of her career.
GAM: Can we meet you?
TOYO: I am the seventh child of Etubom Esu Bassey Duke and Evangelist Blessing Bassey Duke.
I
trained as a lawyer with an LLM as well as M.A in governance and
development. I started as a state counsel in the Cross River State
Ministry of Justice and became involved in issues of human rights,
gender and development. I later migrated into politics and became of a
politician. In my years in the gender and development work, I was the
founder of a national NGO known as the Gender and Development Action
(GADA).
GADA is
committed to the pursuit of gender equality and women's empowerment in
Nigeria and a vision to see a more socially equitable
A
former Nigerian Ambassador to Ethiopia and Djibouti, I also served as
the Permanent Representative to the African Union (AU), Economic
Commission for Africa (ECA) and Peace and Security Council (PSC).
Also,
a former member House of Representatives, I represented
Calabar-Odukpani Federal Constituency. I have also served aa a Board
member of several international and national organisations. Currently, I
support His Excellency with the implementation of G-Money, an
agriculture initiative of Governor Ben Ayade.
GAM: How was growing up like and what really influenced you as a child?
TOYO:
My very early childhood years were impacted by the civil war as my
family was trapped in Biafra. Not withstanding, we lived in relative
safety owing to the good will of the Oguta people of Imo State. My
maternal grandmother is Oguta and her family was extremely accommodating
of us
GAM: Can you share some of those childhood moments that formed unforgettable memories?
TOYO:
Though very young, the one that stayed with me was seeing the suffering
of the war and remembering how people were moving around within Eastern
Nigeria in search of safety. .It will be recall that they were not only
trekking long distances, they were also trying to avoid the invading
Nigerian forces and at the time because of a deliberate policy of
starvation of the Biafran enclave, children suffered from kwashokor and
malnutrition. These movement of persons as refugees and IDPs remain
ingrained in my very young and innocent mind. I had always known first
hand that conflicts are bad for the citizens of countries and just the
sheer sense of pain, suffering and deprivation would put things in
context for all to see.
GAM:
You have been involved in active politics and have held several elected
and appointive positions. What is your perception of politics in your
part of the world?
TOYO:
Politics all over the world results in exposure of participants to
competitive spaces which raises some expectations and becomes a reason
for people who are also competing to be less complimentary of each
other. Politics is about winning and using any strength or advantage
available to individuals to overshadow opponents. So politics can be
nasty, intense and bitter and it does not matter who is involved.
However, once you know that it is about winning, men and women with
interest in winning, become primed to absorb different experiences
including violence, oppression of processes of voting, absence of
justice fairness within the party structures, excessive use of money to
procure support and even the role of godfathers in politics. However,
nobody is ever prepared enough for what will be thrown by opponents on
them. For women who tend to be overtly sensitive about their reputation,
the effect of what is said and done can be devastating. Women react
differently to these pressures which in my experience is a throwback to
some of the discrimination that women suffer from the wider society,
particularly when they are in the job market. Notwithstanding, I am
aware that there are unique experiences of discrimination in politics
for women depending on whether she is married, divorced or unmarried.
In my case, being married to someone from Akwa Ibom was used against me.
The voters were fed with the fact that I cannot be trusted as I was not
married to someone from Cross River and that my loyalty will be to Akwa
Ibom.
GAM: Were there times in your political career you were treated unfairly because of your gender?
TOYO:
Clearly the space for inclusion of women is far narrower than those
available to men and the challenges for women who have some competence
is that they are seen as a threat, knowing fully well that they can
easily replace men in any position. In the end, there is need to
encourage more woman to contest so that the issue of women in politics
becomes more normalized. Normalization means that they will become more
able to withstand the rigours of politics and compete on the same terms
as men. One of the ways is to use affirmative action in the short term
to increase the numbers as this will ensure that women form strong bases
within the working committees of the party itself and are able to
influence the processes being used to discriminate against women and
seek ways to maintain qualified women in the race or ensure their
participation without much impediments.
A
case in point is when in one election, only two days to the primaries, I
was disqualified in ways orchestrated by the then party chairman Ekpo
Okon. I was told that I had not attached my certificate of indigeneship
to my application and so could not contest the election. This was after a
lot had been done to abuse the minds of my constituents by claiming
that being married to someone from Akwa Ibom i could be trusted. These
tricks are usually played on people who are not seen as 'insiders' in
the party politics or did not come into politics with the overt support
of a godfather or party leader. In this case, the election has nothing
to do with the popularity of the candidate.
GAM: How much have you done to improve women participation in politics?
TOYO:
I have been at the forefront of many activities starting in 1986 with
the first political summit for Nigerian women which produced the
political agenda for Nigerian women. I also was one of the national
conveners of a group that tried to influence both the 1999 Constitution
of the FRN. Under Obasanjo, I participated in many efforts at
engendering the Constitution of the Peoples' Democratic Party and this
is why we have provision within it for 35% affirmative Action. Beyond
having the provisions in the PDP constitution, in 2014, I led the
struggle for the inclusion of women in the organs of the Party
particularly the National Working Committee of Peoples Democratic Party
(PDP) by mobilizing women to contest for many positions in the party and
demanding the implementation of the 35% affirmative action as provided
by its constitution. That did not happen in 2014 but the pressure
mounted was formidable and in 2020 February, the PDP adopted at its NEC a
resolution to domesticate the 35% affirmative action for women in all
the organs of the party, starting from the wards.
GAM:
What is your take on the security situation in the country? Do you
think the government is doing enough to combat killings and kidnappings
in the country?
TOYO: Not
only is the government not doing enough, I think institutionally the
police and military officials are overstretched. There is a lot of
internal disservice to the security forces and without internal cohesion
and support, the country is at a loss. We are told that poor equipping
and training including intelligence gathering is undermining the work of
the security forces in many ways. Other dimensions are the role of
ethnicity and religious bias which are deeply rooted in these organs.
Apart from these, there is the lack of proper background checks on most
of those recruited and their general poor educational and technical
exposure which makes them victims in the hands of sophisticated and
violent criminals and insurgents.
GAM: What is your take on granting full autonomy to the local government?
TOYO:
It is two sided. If it is allowed to work, it would help development
at the grassroots but it has been undermined for so long that the
skills and competences needed to run the LGAs are lacking. Consequently,
it will take time before we start seeing and feeling the advantages of
granting full autonomy to the LG system. For a long time, it has served
to provide patronage for the boys and this defeats the actual purpose
for the creation of LGAs which was development for the people. In all,
while autonomy is needed, it has to be made to work for the people.
GAM: Where do you see Nigeria in the next ten years?
TOYO:
If something drastic does not happen to reverse the mistrust of those
who govern us, I fear like former President Olusegun Obasanjo has said,
there may be calls for self determination and not just the restructuring
of the country. The echoes of war and disintegration are everywhere and
this may become difficult to contain in due season. The clock of
unbundling Nigeria is ticking very quickly and fast too.
GAM: If you were to change anything in your life. What would that be?
TOYO:
I would say that I would think more deliberately about how to maintain
the right balance between my national work and what I do in the state.
Until 2003, I had very little interaction with the state politically. I
also did not make the connection between political leadership and the
work I did as a development activist. This meant that i helped to
advance what could be described as an academic distancing of service to
the people whether in politics or in development.
GAM: You are the Co-ordinator of N-power in your state. How impactful do you think the programme has been so far?
TOYO:
Let me start by commending any form of Social investment programme
because it bridges the gap between the provisions of government to the
general population and the ability of the state to make up for the
circumstances of the vulnerable. I believe Npower which was under the
National Social Investment Programme (NSIP) was one project that has
been overshadowed by the 2019 elections as the youth in many states were
seen as agents of the ruling party. This impression is not entirely
true and hopefully now that the new Ministry of Humanitarian affairs and
Social Welfare is reviewing the NSIP, it will do divorce of politics
and better positioned to assess its achievements from the perspective of
its vision and purpose rather than in terms of monies spent which was
phenomenal. Nigeria with its size of extreme poverty population needs a
social investment programme and this was an ambitious attempt to shift
the country towards some redistribution of wealth through creating
employability among Nigerian youth.
GAM: How do you combine your busy schedules with family life?
TOYO: I do much of my work from home and this gives me access to what is going on around me and I can intervene at will.
GAM: What are your hobbies?
TOYO: I love dancing and engagement in Efik cultural activities
GAM: What advice do you have for the youths?
TOYO:
Take one thing at a time and work on it until you dominate it and
became a champion or expert at doing that thing. Skills are important.
You cannot talk your way through a competitive world, you will be
required to demonstrate your capabilities at some point. I will tell
youth that we are all talented but many young people prefer to be jacks
of all trade and master of none. They can only go so far as generalist
but even further as experts in something. This has implications for
their employability.
GAM: Do you have any regret in life?
TOYO:
Seeing my children leaving Nigeria in search of greener pastures
elsewhere because of the state of Nigeria's economy and the country.
They increasingly are building a life for themselves in other countries
and are not likely to return to share in my life long vision for a
better country.
GAM: What really do you want to be remembered for?
TOYO:
I believe in my time in Politics I will like to be remembered for the
future I made wtithin the state, particularly my campaign for the issues
of Bakassi, the attraction of a large Shongai type farm in less than 4
years to my constituency and my many other programmes within Cross River
State. I will be keen to see that the work of getting our youth to
access opportunities to better themselves will be appreciated and my
over three decades of work on women's rights, which resulted in several
national efforts will be stamped in the annals of the history of Nigeria
as was the case with Mrs Margaret Ekpo.
GAM: Thank you for granting us this interview.
TOYO: You are welcome.
